New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s monthly roundup of emerging 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

• Zombie Apocalypse: Holy Land, Haiti, Hollywood, by Terry Rey, North Broad Press/Temple University (2024). License: CC BY
  “Zombie Apocalypse: Holy Land, Haiti, Hollywood explores the intellectual and cultural histories of two highly influential and essentially religious ideas, that of the zombie and that of the apocalypse. The former is a modern idea rooted in Haitian Vodou and its popular African and European religious antecedents, while the latter is an ancient one rooted in Zoroastrianism and the Bible and widely expanded in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is arguably one of the most influential ideas in world history. Today the merger of the zombie and the apocalypse has pervaded popular culture, with the zombie surpassing the vampire and Frankenstein as the most prolific monster in popular American consciousness.”

Career and Technology Teacher Education

• Assessment Strategies for Online Learning: Engagement and Authenticity, by Dianne Conrad and Jason Openo, AU Press (2018). License: CC BY-NC-ND
  “In their investigation of assessment methods and learning approaches, Conrad and Openo aim to explore assessment that engages learners and authentically evaluates education. They insist that moving to new learning environments, specifically those online and at a distance, afford educators opportunities to embrace only the most effective face-to-face assessment methods and to realize the potential of delivering education in the digital age. In this volume practitioners will find not only an indispensable introduction to new forms of assessment but also a number of best practices as described by experienced educators.”
  
• Critical Digital Pedagogy in Higher Education, edited by Suzan Köseoğlu, George Veletsianos, and Chris Rowell, AU Press (2023). License: CC BY-NC-ND
  “Recent efforts to solve the problems of education—created by neoliberalism in and out of higher education—have centred on the use of technology that promises efficiency, progress tracking, and automation. The editors of this volume argue that using technology in this way reduces learning to a transaction. They ask administrators, instructors, and learning designers to reflect on our relationship with these tools and explore how to cultivate a pedagogy of care in an online environment. With an eye towards identifying different and better possibilities, this collection investigates previously under-examined concepts in the field of digital pedagogy such as shared learning and trust, critical consciousness, change, and hope.”

Communication Design

• Data Visualization Insights – Hands-on Book, by Sharath Kumar Jagannathan, Saint Peter’s University (2023). License: CC BY-NC-SA
  “This book is an insightful guide on the art and science of data visualization. It delves into the various types and dimensions of data, exploring the most effective chart types for visualization. The book emphasizes practical application, including exercises and case studies, with a focus on tools like Python and R programming. It is designed to transform complex data into comprehensible and actionable insights, catering to both beginners and advanced users in the field of data visualization.”

Computer Systems Technology

• Digital Skills: Artificial Intelligence, by Charles Sturt University Library (2024). License: CC BY-NC
  “Artificial intelligence” is book 5 of 5 in Charles Sturt University’s Digital Skills series. The series has been developed to assist undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students with navigating the digital world at university. “Artificial intelligence” contains 2 modules focused on assisting students in developing skills around using AI tools in their studies. Including guidance on responsible use of AI tools, encompassing information on benefits, risks, and ethical considerations for students.”

Health Sciences & Health Services Administration

• Integrating Science and Politics for Public Health, edited by Patrick Fafard, Adèle Cassola, and Evelyne de Leeuw, Palgrave (2022). License: CC BY
  “…bridges the divide between political science and public health, whilst simultaneously embracing the complexities and differences of both. Although public health is inherently political, the tools and insights of political science are often ignored in public health scholarship. Bringing together academics and researchers working at the intersection of both, the book demonstrates how integrating these fields can help reconcile the roles of politics and scientific evidence in policymaking. It also highlights the key conceptual, methodological and substantive implications for bridging this divide, and charts a path forward for a movement towards political science with public health.”
• Narrative Ethics in Public Health: The Value of Stories, edited by Drue H. Barrett, Leonard W. Ortmann, and Stephanie A. Larson, Springer (2022). License: CC BY
  We view this book as a complement to our other public health ethics training resources and as an alternative to use of case studies. The primary audiences are instructors in schools of public health and other academic settings, public health students, and ethicists interested in the fields of public health and public health narrative ethics. This book may also be useful to other public health practitioners, including front-line workers, field epidemiology trainers and trainees, managers, planners, and decision-makers for raising awareness about ethical issues in public health practice and research.”

Mechanical Engineering Technology

• Introduction to Mechanical Design and Manufacturing, by David Jensen, University of Arkansas. License: CC BY-NC
  “This book is an introduction to product design and manufacturing, with a focus on the mechanical engineering aspects. It covers the principles, methods, tools and techniques that are used to create, analyze, optimize and manufacture products that meet the needs and wants of customers. The book is intended for students, educators, practitioners and researchers who are interested in learning about the theory and practice of product design and manufacturing. The book is open access, which means that it is freely available online for anyone to read, download, share and reuse. The book aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the current state of the art in product design and manufacturing, as well as to inspire new ideas and innovations.” 

Nursing

• Nursing Management and Professional Concepts, edited by Kimberly Ernstmeyer and Elizabeth Christman, Chippewa Valley Technical College (2022). License: CC BY
  “This book introduces concepts related to nursing leadership and management, prioritization strategies, delegation and supervision, legal implications of nursing practice, ethical nursing practice, collaboration within the interprofessional team, health care economics, quality and evidence-based practice, advocacy, preparation for the RN role, and the avoidance of burnout with self-care. Several online, interactive learning activities are included in each chapter that encourage application of content to patient-care situations. Additionally, the Appendix includes a “suite of patients” with suggested prompts for classroom discussion to assist students in applying concepts from the book to real patient-care situations.”
• OpenRN Simulations, Chippewa Valley Technical College (2022). License: CC BY-NC-SA
  “The H5P activities in this collection are included in the Open RN textbooks as formative assessments. The activities include a variety of assessment types such as flashcards, multiple choice, drag and drop, fill in the blank, and branching scenarios. Branching scenarios are used to create virtual simulations that include videos, images, and sounds to encourage the development of clinical judgment as students apply content to patient care.”

Physics

• Physical Geology: A Lab Manual, by Natalie Flynn, North Broad Press/Temple University (2024). License: CC BY
  “Physical Geology: A Lab Manual is designed to support the laboratory portion of Temple University’s EES 2001 Physical Geology course. The manual contains individual units relating to essential topics covered in the lecture portion of the course. It is designed to provide the active exploratory portion of earth science learning. A hands-on approach is the focus, while providing sufficient background and support information to make the content meaningful.”

World Languages: French

• Français inclusif: An Interactive Textbook for French 101, by Amber Hoye; Dr. Mariah Devereux Herbeck; Brittney Gehrig; Sharon Westbrook; Madelynn Ruhter; Emily Blackburn; Dr. Jason Herbeck; and Hortense Saget, Boise State University (2022). License: CC BY-NC-SA
  “This textbook provides a remixed version of Français interactif, adding interactivity and new exercises. It offers an easy way for students to study the vocabulary and grammar for each module, while providing exercises to practice and apply what they’ve learned.Modules also contain an introduction page with learning objectives, a cultural reflection assignment, a presentational speaking and/or writing assessment, and Allez plus loin (Go further) page which contains additional content.”

World Languages: Spanish

• LACLI (Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian Free Online Resources), by Latin America Northeast Libraries Network (2024). License: CC BY-NC-SA
  “Welcome to LACLI, an international collaboration to create a repository of free online resources for Latin American, Caribbean, Latinx, and Iberian studies! LACLI is an essential tool to find websites that provide access to a great variety of resources such as audiovisual materials, books, data, ephemera, government documents, oral histories, periodicals, reference works, visual materials, web archives and more!”

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