College Success
This book is comprehensive in most ways. It covers a wide-range of topics which I think would be useful to most beginning college students including staying organized, preparing for exams, interacting with instructors, etc. I felt the style of writing could retain student interest, and included many practical tips which would be helpful. I felt most of this text was thorough, maybe so much that this reading would be difficult to incorporate into a 1-credit hour seminar or course. This text would likely be more appropriate for a 2 or 3-credit course.
In addition, I think the section on the financial aspects of higher education could have been expanded. In my experience, students are very concerned about how higher education will impact their financial future, but are unsure of the complex financial aid system. The book addresses things like loans vs. scholarships, but I felt could have done more to explain the current system of loan-repayment. For example, I was hoping for a chart indicating how certain levels of debt may require certain amounts of monthly repayment. I understand this could be complicated to address, however, could be done more thoroughly.
Content appeared to be accurate error-free, and unbiased.
The content seemed up-to-date. Again I understand financial aid and particularly student loan repayment is an evolving topic/ system, but including current statistics and information about student debt would have been useful.
The book was clear. Some sections could have been more concise.
The book was internally consistent.
The modules within the book were useful, and this type of modularity would likely be crucial for students taking this course (who would not yet be used to collegiate readings or who might be at-risk academically).
There was a clear and easy-to-follow flow throughout.
Most of the interface seemed to be useful. I only ran into a couple issues, which I think would be difficult to avoid.
I did not notice grammatical issues.
The book appeared culturally sensitive. Nothing struck me as offensive in any way.
The interactive style of the textbook (charts, take-aways, chapter reviews) could be useful for the majority of the audience taking a student success course, however could also alienate readers by making them feel patronized. I think within a college success course this is always a dilemma: students will enter the course with such different needs and preferences. Another challenge with this type of general textbook on student success is that it cannot describe resources or aspects of college life which are university/ college specific.
Overall the textbook is informative,clear, and well-written.