College Algebra

Reviewed by Nora Franzova, Assistant Chair for Math and Stats Department, Langara College on 10/9/13

Comprehensiveness rating: 5

The text definitely covers all topics that are covered in a usual College Algebra class, and actually it covers much more. The extensive coverage of Systems of Equations and Matrices can not be really squeezed into a one semester College Algebra class, but a 1st Linear Algebra class could definitely take that chapter and spend almost a month on it. Similar comment would describe the Sequences and Binomial Theorem chapter. Since according to the Open Textbook project, one can use any parts of the book, according to their needs, then I believe the book provides more than enough to choose from and covers ideas of the subject exactly as needed for our College Algebra class. Index and Glossary are detailed and the links worked well for me.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Content is accurate to such a point where even the most likely trouble spots for the students are picked out and presented and explained. The authors do not try to avoid the trouble spots, while many other books do. Exercises are abundant, and full solutions follow each group of exercises. That is of course great, but at the time of adoption of this book, we would have to remove the solutions to the even number problems and then collect those in some "Instructor's Supplement". Also the fact that full solutions immediately follow the exercises would be something we would have to change. Even though authors claim that they cut down on endless "drill and kill" questions, I feel there is really a lovely group of exercises (I'd even called some of them "cute".) and students will get good level of practice once they tackle these. All the graphs are clean and clear, for some reason in the later chapters I noticed that there are 2 different "font types" under figures. I guess one is from the graphics itself and one from LaTeX. (see Example 6.4.2 or Example 8.1.1 and others) It is not a problem, just my observation. There are only very few colored images and those are not exactly spectacular, but I know that stuff is hard to make.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

Since College Algebra is not likely to change in the near future, this should not become an issue for the text. One thing that can be mentioned is the endless issue of graphing calculator use in a College Algebra class. The book can be definitely followed without using graphing calculators, but . . . there is enough exercises to make one feel that students will feel shortchanged if graphing calculators are not allowed. (That is the case at our college.) These are usually the more challenging exercises and they often come from Calculus with the promise that in Calculus, students will be able to solve them without a graphing utility. If we adopt the text, we might need to address this.

Clarity rating: 4

This is an interesting point. The text is clear, well written, technical terminology is used and explained. The text contains an endless line of "foot notes" in which the authors tease each other and comment on each others opinions. (For example we learn: "According to Carl, Jeff thinks symmetry is overrated." (btw, I agree).) In any case there is a bit too many of these and when I started the reading of the book, this surprised me. The humorous foot notes, are taking away the possibility of me adding humorous comments in class. Students now might think, I just read them from the book. If the book just has facts, the instructor can make them more personal, or funny, or more digestible. When the book has the facts and the jokes, it will make it harder for me (the instructor) to add something more. I still like the book. I like the jokes/comments too, I just worry about my role. Although "Hooked on Conics" as a chapter title was quite brave.

Consistency rating: 5

I found no problems here.

Modularity rating: 4

Some times the "paragraphs get to be too long" and thus more likely to be skipped by the students. These are all well written and correct, they just trail of to lengthy explanations. To be exact, the length is no more then 10-15 lines, but in a math text, that is usually a lot. I was already reading the text and looking which sections we can skip and which to include and it seemed to be fairly easy to do, since there are many separate sections that one can choose from. Since the book is typed in LaTeX the self-referencing issues will be automatically dealt with during the typesetting.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The flow is exactly as I would follow. Maybe the composition of functions being left only for Chapter5 (just in time for inverse functions) feels a bit late. Although it was not missing in the flow of the previous chapters. Sometimes the authors venture into more detail that is needed in a basic College Algebra class. (for example the discussion about minima and maxima). But that does not harm the clarity of the text.

Interface rating: 3

There were no navigation or distortion issues. The only problem I had that when I downloaded the .pdf file to my Mac it was not complete. Just the first 9 chapters.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not observe any grammatical errors, but I do not consider myself an appropriate judge of this.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text uses in its examples "imaginary" characters and places. Chewbacca and Sasquatch (like Sasquatch Tonic or Sasquatch Berry Pies ) are frequently mentioned as well as dOpis media players. This is a dilemma all instructors have to address. Using real names and real places or imaginary ones? We all make our choice. Some feel that students will relate to reality better, I believe that imaginary places and names are well within the spirit of the book. The book does have real time data too – lets say from Federal Bureau of Transportation. All such data is from US of course, since the authors are from there.

The book uses imperial units, while Canada is on a metric system. This would take some effort to change. But textbooks that we normally use also mainly use imperial units.
This review originated in the BC Open Textbook Collection and is licensed under CC BY-ND.