Open Educational Resources

OER at City Tech

New and Noteworthy OER 03/28

New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s monthly roundup of new and noteworthy open educational resources. We try to include at least one OER relevant to each school at City Tech in every post. At the end of the month, these resources will be compiled and distributed by the library liaison for your department. Please contact us if you know of new or particularly interesting OER to share with our colleagues or would like more information about open educational resources initiatives at City Tech.

Anthropology

  • Shared Voices: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, by Demetrios Brellas and Vanessa Martinez, ROTEL Project (2023). License: CC BY-NC
    “Shared Voices is a student-centered cultural anthropology mini textbook built with an equity lens. This text aims to be accessible, interesting, accurate, and centered on marginalized voices. This text is a starting point for any introductory anthropology course recognizing that cultural change is constant and the familiar is cousin to the weird and unusual.”

Business

  • Business Calculus with Excel, by Mike May, Saint Louis University (2024). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “This text is intended for a one semester calculus course for business students with the equivalent of a college algebra prerequisite. Rather than being a three-semester engineering calculus course that has been watered down to fit into one semester it is designed for business students.”
  • Indigenous Perspectives on Business Ethics and Business Law in British Columbia, by Annette Sorensen and Scott van Dyk, Coast Mountain College (2022). License: CC BY
    “This book explores business ethics and business law through the lens of Indigenous-settler relations in Canada (with a focus on British Columbia in particular). It aims to fill a gap in business curriculum and support instructors who want to bring Indigenous content into their classes.”

Career and Technology Teacher Education

Civil Engineering Technology

  • Risk and Reliability for Engineers, by Robert Lanzafame, Delft University of Technology (2024). License: CC BY
    “This book covers a wide range of topics that involve the use of probability to solve problems in engineering design and research. Although it is relevant for a wide range of disciplines, it draws heavily on the fields of civil engineering, environmental engineering and the geosciences. Specific topics include risk analysis, probabilistic design, reliability-based design (component and system reliability).”
  • Structural Analysis, by Felix Udoeyo (2024). License: CC BY-NC-ND
    “Structural Analysis […] is intended to teach students the methods and techniques for the analysis of structures. A sound knowledge of structures is a prerequisite for their proper design and ensures the structural integrity of civil engineering infrastructural systems. […] The first part consists of an overview of structural analysis and introduces several structural loadings that may be considered during the analysis and subsequent design of structures. The second part covers classic methods of the analysis of determinate structures. The final section discusses classic methods for the analysis of indeterminate structures as well as methods for the analysis and construction of influence lines for indeterminate structures.”

Communication Design

  • Writing for Digital Media, by Cara Miller, Anderson University (2024). License: CC BY
    “This textbook focuses on writing and digital media. Increasingly, writing is published on digital platforms like social media, websites, and blogs, and this online writing performs a variety of personal, professional, academic, and civic functions. The textbook discusses these functions from a critical and rhetorical perspective and provides practical skills and strategies that students can put into practice in their own digital writing.”

Computer Systems 

  • An Open Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, by Paul W. Bible and Lucas Moser (2024). License: CC BY
    “This textbook serves as a gentle introduction for undergraduates to theoretical concepts in data structures and algorithms in computer science while providing coverage of practical implementation (coding) issues.”

English

  • Writing for Digital Media, by Cara Miller, Anderson University (2024). License: CC BY
    “This textbook focuses on writing and digital media. Increasingly, writing is published on digital platforms like social media, websites, and blogs, and this online writing performs a variety of personal, professional, academic, and civic functions. The textbook discusses these functions from a critical and rhetorical perspective and provides practical skills and strategies that students can put into practice in their own digital writing.”

Health Sciences & Health Services Administration

  • Building Bridges: Establishing a Foundation for Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare, by Andrea Nelson, Katherine Greene, and Katie Cavnar, University of West Florida (2024). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “…focuses on teaching interprofessional collaboration in healthcare to students entering their respective health profession’s program. This book will help students achieve success not only in their educational program, but as they experience various healthcare settings through internships and employment. This resource is targeted for students in healthcare professions.”

Human Services

  • A Developmental Systems Guide for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Practitioners, by Sean E. Snyder, Temple University (2023). License: CC BY
    The text “…provides clinicians with actionable evidence-based practices for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of child and adolescent mental and behavioral health. This approach combines developmental psychology and ecological systems in recognition of the fact that children’s developmental challenges, tasks, and capacities intersect with the risks and protective factors of their environment. Chapters feature detailed case studies and conclude with conversations with clinicians in which they share targeted recommendations for patient evaluation, treatment approaches, and family engagement and support.”
  • Social Work Practice and Disability Communities: An Intersectional Anti-Oppressive Approach, by Elspeth Slayter and Lisa Johnson, Salem State University (2023). License:  CC BY-NC-SA
    “Designed as a main textbook for social work courses at the bachelor’s and master’s level or for social work practitioners in the field, this work moves beyond a traditional medicalized and segregated approach (i.e., chapters organized around impairments) to the exploration of disability-specific populations, instead taking a more intersectional approach in discussing specific service areas and practice issues while weaving in stories about the lived experiences of disabled people with a range of social identities.”

Mathematics

  • Carnegie Math Pathways, by Carnegie Math Pathways/WestEd (2024). License: CC BY-NC
    “For more than a decade, Carnegie Math Pathways has been guided by a mission to improve outcomes and close equity gaps in gateway college mathematics. Now, Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd has taken its commitment to equity a step further by releasing its Quantway and Statway materials as Open Educational Resources (OER).”
  • Quantway Core, by Carnegie Math Pathways (2024). License: CC BY-NC
    “provides a one-term introductory quantitative reasoning course solution that builds algebraic and quantitative skills and reasoning. It is designed to replace the developmental sequence and can also be used to fulfill high school and technical college program math requirements.”
  • Statway Pathway, by Carnegie Math Pathways (2024). License: CC BY-NC
    “is a two-term college course solution with integrated developmental math supports built in throughout the course designed to help students fulfill their developmental math requirements and succeed in college-level statistics in a single year.”

Psychology

  • Foundations of Psychological Data Science I, by Lawrence Cormack and Franco Pestilli, University of Texas at Austin (2023). License: MIT License
    “This course lays the foundation for data science education targeting psychological and brain science students. No previous coding experience is required. The students will be introduced to basic concepts and tools for data analysis. The focus is on hands-on practice and enjoyable learning. The course will use python as the programming language, and Jupyter Notebooks as the development environment (our “home base”) for the examples, tutorials, and assignments. We use Jupyterlab Notebooks because they are both the industry standard and a nice way to load, visualize, and analyze data as well as describe our findings in one environment. We will also learn GitHub to document changes and backup our work and, eventually, for use as a collaboration tool.”

OER Team
Cailean Cooney, Associate Professor, OER Librarian: ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu
Joshua Peach, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jpeach@citytech.cuny.edu
Jo Thompson, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jthompson@citytech.cuny.edu

New and Noteworthy OER 02/22

New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s monthly roundup of new and noteworthy open educational resources. We try to include at least one OER relevant to each school at City Tech in every post. At the end of the month, these resources will be compiled and distributed by the library liaison for your department. Please contact us if you know of new or particularly interesting OER to share with our colleagues or would like more information about open educational resources initiatives at City Tech.

Biology

  • Experiences in Biodiversity Research: A Field Course, by Thea B. Gessler, Iowa State University Digital Press (2024). License: CC BY-NC
    “This handbook was developed to support the course, Experiences in Biodiversity Research. This course is intended to provide early undergraduates with experience in the practice of biodiversity research and to demystify the path to careers in this field.”

Business

  • Introduction to Financial Analysis  by Kenneth S. Bigel, Touro College (2022). License: CC BY
    “…a dynamic guide incorporating the essential skills needed to build a foundation in Financial Analysis. Students and readers will learn how to insightfully read a Financial Statement, utilize key financial ratios in order to derive forward-looking investment-related inferences from the accounting data, engage in elementary forecasting and modeling, master the theory of the Time Value of Money, and learn to price stocks and bonds in an environment in which interest rates constantly change. Ample problems and solutions, and review questions are provided to the student so that s/he can gauge his/her progress.”

Computer Systems

  • Workplace Software and Skills (2023). License: CC BY
    “Workplace Software and Skills is designed to flexibly support a range of courses covering computer literacy, Microsoft Office, and Google Suite applications. The textbook covers both hard and soft skills that are applicable to a broad range of academic majors and careers. Chapters combine studio learning and guided practice with scaffolded activities designed to reinforce a student’s ability to perform higher-order tasks independently.” 

Health Sciences & Health Services Administration

  • Legal Fundamentals of Healthcare Law, by Tiffany Jackman, University of West Florida (2024). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “Healthcare, a field dedicated to the well-being of individuals and communities, operates within an intricate web of legal principles. Understanding these laws is not simply a professional necessity for doctors, nurses, administrators, and researchers; it’s also an ethical imperative for anyone who interacts with the healthcare system. This book is your compass, guiding you through the labyrinth of legal fundamentals that shape the landscape of healthcare.”

History

  • American Government, 3rd edition (audiobook), by Brian Barrick and Sarah Arya, Open Audio (2024). License: CC-BY-SA
    Audiobook productions of popular OpenStax textbooks, produced by Open Audio, are available on multiple streaming platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. These audiobook resources may be especially helpful for students with disabilities, auditory learners, working students, and students who speak English as a second language.
  • World History, Volume 1 (to 1500) (audiobook), by Brian Barrick and Sarah Arya, Open Audio (2024). License: CC-BY-SA
    Audiobook productions of popular OpenStax textbooks, produced by Open Audio, are available on multiple streaming platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. These audiobook resources may be especially helpful for students with disabilities, auditory learners, working students, and students who speak English as a second language.

Human Services

  • Treatment of Addictions, Individual and Group by Whatcom Community College. License: CC BY
    “This course covers evidenced based approaches and systems of care in individual and group addiction treatment. Systems of care, historical models, healthy system recovery, and new peer supports are explored. Case studies, and information about documentation, counseling approaches, and case management are offered.”

Mechanical Engineering Technology

  • Essential Fluids with MATLAB and Octave – Part 1 (theory) by P. Venkataraman (2024). License: CC BY
    “This book covers the requisite theory for the basic study of fluid mechanics at low speeds. This book is unique in that it integrates engineering computation using the popular technical software MATLAB, and the free counterpart Octave.  Programming is by example throughout the book.  Prior knowledge of programming is not necessary.  This book reviews prerequisite topics prior to teaching the subject matter.  This book introduces the physics of fluid mechanics based on first principles. It develops the mathematical relations and model of fluid flow so that problems can be defined and solved. […] The topics in this book are illustrated with examples, with most solved by computation. The premise of this book is that science and mathematical concepts are best understood through graphics; therefore, software illustrates solutions through graphical programming.  Students are taught and encouraged to explore solutions through graphics.”
  • Introductory Dynamics: 2D Kinematics and Kinetics of Point Masses and Rigid Bodies, by Peter G. Steeneken, Delft University of Technology (2024). License: CC BY 
    “Motion is all around us, the universe is full of moving matter and this motion is surprisingly predictable. The field of science and engineering that studies time-dependent motion in the presence of forces is called Dynamics. In this book we will introduce the core concepts in dynamics and provide a comprehensive toolset to predict and analyse planar 2D motion of point masses and rigid bodies. The material includes kinematic analysis, Newton’s laws, Euler’s laws, the equations of motion, work, energy, impulse and momentum. Vector-based methods are discussed for systematically solving essentially any problem in 2D dynamics. The book provides a bachelor level introduction for any science and engineering student that can serve as a basis for more advanced courses in dynamics.

Sociology

  • Introduction to Sociology, 3rd edition (audiobook), by Brian Barrick and Sarah Arya, Open Audio (2024). License: CC-BY-SA
    Audiobook productions of popular OpenStax textbooks, produced by Open Audio, are available on multiple streaming platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. These audiobook resources may be especially helpful for students with disabilities, auditory learners, working students, and students who speak English as a second language.

OER Team:
Cailean Cooney, Associate Professor, OER Librarian: ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu
Joshua Peach, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jpeach@citytech.cuny.edu
Jo Thompson, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jthompson@citytech.cuny.edu

Accessibility 101: Open Edition

“For accessibility to become embedded in our everyday thinking and world, we all need to realize the role we all can play in accessibility.  We need to incorporate accessibility into workflows and considerations.  Try to step back and think “is X accessible? Is there a way I can make Y accessible?” Ensuring accessibility does not need to be part of a person’s job description or a person’s personal experience and life to become something all people can participate in.“ (Amy Wolfe, OER Accessibility Toolkit) 

Accessibility is a core part of OER programming at City Tech. Developing course materials with accessibility in mind can help with course delivery across modalities and remove barriers to engaging with course subjects. Rather than making course materials accessible after accommodation requests have been made, we can make our courses accessible to everyone from the start by building accessibility into our instructional design process. If you aren’t sure where to start with making your courses accessible, below you’ll find openly licensed materials about digital accessibility, including document, image, and video accessibility. 

  • Accessibility Toolkit for OER by CUNY Office of Library Services’ Accessibility Librarian, Amy Wolfe (Updated 2023). License: CC BY-NC-SA
    “This guide was created to assist CUNY Librarians, faculty, staff & OER developers create accessible content and accessible Open Educational Resources (OER). On this guide you will find information on:
    • Creating Accessible Content: Tips on how to create accessible content including, word docs, pdfs, Images, videos, social media posts and other multimedia
    • Platforms: What OER platforms are accessible? What are the pros and cons of using each platform?
    • Evaluating your OER site: Determine if your site is accessible and see how to fix issues on your site
    • VPATs: Voluntary Product Accessibility Template: Collection of VPATs from various vendors to see relevant information on how a vendor’s product or service claims to conform to the Section 508 Standards.”

  • Digital Accessibility as a Business Practice by Greg Gay, Frank Miller, and Christopher West, The Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University (2019). License: CC BY-SA
    “This resource provides business leaders with the tools and knowledge needed to effectively enable digital accessibility in an organization through cultural change, raising awareness of its importance, and equipping employees with the specific tools and knowledge they need to address digital accessibility as part of their everyday work.”

  • Flexible Learning for Open Education (FLOE) Project by The Inclusive Design Research Centre and OCAD University. License: CC BY
    “Learning happens best when the experience is personalized to individual needs. Open Educational Resources (OER) that are open to use and adapt, provide an opportunity to meet the diverse needs of learners, including those with disabilities. The FLOE Project supports the OER community in providing a sustainable, integrated approach to accessible learning, addressing the needs of learners who currently face barriers.” The FLOE project materials include a variety of open guides and toolkits as well as other open education efforts such the Coding Educator’s Toolkit, Ecocultural Mapping Project, and more.  

  • Improving the Digital Accessibility of OER by Amy Hofer (2020). License: CC BY
    This post provides an overview of accessibility and evaluating inaccessible OER as well as a detailed account of the author’s accessibility workflow. 

  • OER Accessibilty Tookit by BCcampus, Camosun College, and CAPER-BC (2018). License: CC BY
    “The goal of the OER Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the needed resources to each content creator, instructor, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open and accessible educational resource — one that is accessible for all students.” The OER Accessibility Toolkit is available on one site page here.

  • Professional Web Accessibility Auditing Made Easy by The Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University (2019). License: CC BY-SA
    “Digital accessibility skills are in high demand, as the world becomes more aware of barriers in digital content that prevent some people from participating in a digital society. These are essential skills for web developers, and essential knowledge for organizations that want to ensure their web content is reaching the broadest audience possible.”

  • Understanding Document Accessibility by The Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University (2020). License: CC BY-SA
    “With much of the world gone digital, learning to create documents that are accessible to everyone is becoming a necessary skill. Intended for a general audience, this free resource reviews a wide range of document authoring applications, including the tools they contain for creating accessible documents, and tests them to ensure they do not contain potential barriers. Learn how to create accessible word processed documents, spreadsheets, presentation slides, and PDF documents, among others, so they are accessible to everyone.”

For more information about OER and OER programming at City Tech, email OER Librarian Cailean Cooney at ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu.

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