Reviewed by Michael Russell, Professor of Chemistry, Mt. Hood Community College on 11/9/18
Comprehensiveness
rating: 4 see less
The book covers the essentials of a first year chemistry course, but it lacks depth and "readability". Indeed, this text could not be used as a standalone teaching option. The first part of the book, “Introduction to Chemistry” does a fair job discussion the scientific method, the basic precepts of chemistry, and history of chemistry; however, I found the discussion of significant figures (a topic critical in my opinion to the first year chemistry curricula) insufficient in detail or scope. Also, the text book would benefit from additional pictures and tables, anything to break up the eternal monotony of the words used in the text. I deeply appreciate the time that went into creating a book like this; however, small details would benefit the reader (and student of chemistry) greatly.
Accuracy
rating: 5
I did not encounter any mistakes or inaccuracies while reviewing the text.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 5
The textbook was written in 2011, so up to this date, the book seems very relevant. An update would, as always, be appreciated!
Clarity
rating: 5
The text uses a readable prose style. Although not super exciting, it is quite clear and consistent…. the determined reader will be able to finish and find the experience satisfying.
Consistency
rating: 5
The text is very consistent in its terminology and framework. I did not see overlapping definitions, or exceptions to previous sections, etc.
Modularity
rating: 4
With the exception of the first chapter, I found the text readily divisible into smaller segments. This would be quite useful in a seminar course, or perhaps a course over a specific segment of chemistry…. very cool. However, the first chapter - and arguably the most important - seems to blend together in an undividable cluster…. and this is a shame: if I wished to talk about, say, significant figures, it would be nice to "copy and paste" those section(s) into a new document to share with the class, etc. Instead the introduction topics mesh and overlap each other, and I'd probably need a second textbook to augment this book were I to adopt it for my classes. I realize the option to make a text divisible is the prerogative of the authors, but it would be nice to have such a feature available.
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 5
The text is organized in a logical and very clear fashion. The format follows established progressions as set by other chemistry textbook authors…. there should be no major obstacles for teachers adopting this book for their classes.
Interface
rating: 3
I was quite surprised that the beginning of the textbook did not have a table of contents in the PDF version. The website and online version had a table of contents…. the PDF version would benefit greatly from a list of the different chapters, etc. Also, to increase the readability of the material, adding in colorful pictures, diagrams, tables and examples would be wonderful: the text is rather dry at the moment, which I find disenchanting since the material is so fraught with wonder and awe.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 5
I saw no obvious or glaring errors in the text.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 5
The text did not rely on "he" or "she" and remained mostly gender neutral. I saw nothing in the text which would exclude specific races, ethnicities or backgrounds.
Comments
I appreciate the considerable efforts by the authors to create this text, and I wish to thank them for sharing their work with the public in this arena - thank you! If you ever decide to write a new version (or if you are considering adopting this book for your own classes), it would be nice to have some post-2011 information included; also, PLEASE include a table of contents in the PDF version of the textbook!!! The addition of additional pictures, diagrams, tables, etc. would brighten the reader's experience greatly.... just an idea. Overall I like this book, and given a few additions and changes, it would be great as well.
Reviewed by Gabriele Backes, Chemistry Instructor, Portland Community College on 9/12/18
Comprehensiveness
rating: 4 see less
The online text is comprehensive and addresses all topics needed in a one-year science major’s general chemistry curriculum. It is well organized and is laid out in the traditional approach. Each chapter contains graphics and illustrations, though many images are missing - labeled as permanently unavailable. This is especially evident in chapter 14 (Kinetics), with minor omissions in just about every chapter. Minor formatting issues in chapter 16.2 distract from the otherwise very nicely written section (or text in general). / Each chapter also includes a set of end-of-the chapter exercises. I think the text certainly could benefit from additional exercises, as well as perhaps adding a section of challenging exercises. / The text includes a very comprehensive appendix with all necessary tables and data. / I liked the fact that each section opens with a ‘learning objective’ and ends with a ‘key takeaway’. / The text definitely compares well with other texts designed for a major’s chemistry course. Customization of the text for use in any general chemistry course is certainly possible.
Accuracy
rating: 5
As far as I can judge, the content is accurate and I did not come across any major flaws or misconceptions.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 5
The text is laid out such that it would be very easy to add to each section as necessary. At this point, applications within the text are current and will be able to be used for quite some time (figure 2.22 should certainly be updated). I would like to see a few more current events, figures, tables, or links to current events, woven into the text. / Any updates that will have to occur over time could be easily integrated and should not affect the flow of the text.
Clarity
rating: 5
The book is well-written, it is concise and its content is easy to follow.
Consistency
rating: 5
The text is very consistent throughout in its layout, formatting and writing style.
Modularity
rating: 4
Adequate. Each chapter could very easily be adopted as a stand-alone chapter
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 5
The chemistry book has been written to reflect the traditional order of topics. I feel that the layout along with the nature of the book allows for any changes if a different arrangement of topics is what is desired by the curriculum.
Interface
rating: 3
I opted to review the online version (rather than downloading the pdf). Navigation of the text was easy using my PC and I did not come across any issues of loading of images. Some of the images seem to be relatively small and I was wondering how these would look on a smaller tablet or IPad (which is what many of my students use). Also, all chapters have links that refer back to previous chapters but none of the links opened on my PC.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 5
I found no grammatical or spelling errors.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 5
This is a chemistry text. I have not found any issues.
Comments
This book is very nicely written and easy to follow. The content is accurate, the text comprehensive and could easily be used in a general chemistry curriculum. It is a great online chemistry book and I would certainly think about adopting it for our general chemistry courses in the future. However, at this point, it is not quite ready to be used as there are formatting issues and many missing images which distract from the otherwise very well written text.
Reviewed by Alvin Holder, Associate Professor in Chemistry, Old Dominion University on 6/21/17
Comprehensiveness
rating: 3 see less
The text is designed to serve biological and biomedical students, engineering students, general education students, health sciences students, pre-medical science students, and science majors requiring at least one year course in general chemistry and the text contains all of the required material and topics to accomplish this task. This textbook is a precursor to students who will be studying organic I chemistry and those students who may have to study advanced inorganic chemistry after the freshman and sophomore years, even the former section is too short in nature. There are many stimulus materials in the form of cartoons/figures, but some of their quality is not up to standard.
The text lacks a table of contents, index or a glossary and the lack of these entities is a serious deficiency. There are some very serious formatting issues which may have been the result of converting from a .doc or .docx format to a .pdf format and these the errors make sections of this text illegible. The online version has a warning in some places, i.e., “Sorry! The image is permanently unavailable.”
The instructor will have to spend significant time correcting these format errors and very little time would be left for teaching the material. There are also formatting problems with subscripts in chemical formulas NOT appearing as subscripts, again a formatting issue. This issue is more predominant in the pdf version, where fractions are not shown. It would have been wise for the authors to use Equation Editor to write mathematical equations and use ChemDraw for the structures and major equations (followed by saving the files in the .tiff format).
The pdf version is way too long (2.365 pages in total). This is very expensive ($$$) for printing and very difficult for reading.
Accuracy
rating: 3
The textbook has some errors in conjunction with the formatting mentioned in question 1 from above. One case is where the electronic configurations of Cr and Cu are not correct. In another case, the magnitude and the units are not separated by a space, e.g., 25°C should be written as 25 °C.
The history of chemistry is NOT accurate as this began in Africa/Egypt, where khemica is an ancient Egyptian word for chemistry. The history of chemistry should have been researched as the history of chemistry is very biased towards Europeans versus other races who really have been practicing chemistry for many years.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 5
The text and its examples are both relevant and timeless; the classic Haber-Bosch Process for the production of ammonia is an example. Topics such as thermochemistry, electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry are some of the topics that I learned as a high school student at The Lodge School in Barbados in the 1980s. Such topics will be around for many years to come.
One thing to note, If instructors adopting this textbook had access to the original document as a MS Word document; then required updates would be simple and straightforward; as editing the textbook in converting a .pdf file to a MS Word document would create many problems, all due to the points made in question 1 above.
Clarity
rating: 2
The textbook is more than adequate in terms of clarity, however some of the example calculations would benefit from additional formatting as soon as possible. It is best to use Equation Editor to write the answers, and show the answers and equations, line by line, where dimensional analysis would be easier to understand. A good example is in the use of this problem:
Ethanol has an enthalpy of vaporization of 42.3 kJ/mol. The compound has a vapor pressure of 1.00 atm at 78.3 °C. At what temperature is the vapor pressure equal to 0.500 atm? (R = 8.314 J/K mol). Also, the calculations involving percentage abundances should be rewritten. Note that calculations involving moles, molar masses, the use of Avogadro’s constant should have been organized in a better fashion. The oxidation number of a proton and a hydride wasn’t clear. The textbook needs some overhaul in some areas, especially the topic involving transition metal chemistry.
Consistency
rating: 5
The textbook is very consistent in terminology and presentation, even with all of the errors and formatting within.
Modularity
rating: 2
The lack of a table of contents prevents the textbook from being easily reorganized and/or realigned. All of the typical topics for a year-long general chemistry course are present, but having a table of contents the textbook would be very modular. Personally, chapter 8 should have been merged with chapter 2. All thermochemical topics and problems should have been in one chapter.
A chapter with covalent and ionic bonds should have presented along with Lewis dot structures. A more definitive chapter on mathematical concepts should have been the first chapter, inclusive of logarithms, indices, standard notation, and significant figures, and some brief statistical analysis.
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 2
It seems as if the authors have preferred their own organization/structure/flow preferences for the general chemistry course they have taught in the past! This text should have been written in such a manner that it would be fairly easy to customize the content to fit a particular instructor’s preferences. See my answer for question 6. Some of the topics could have been reorganized and be combined as some appear to be segregated. The last chapter involving organic chemistry was tacked on and appeared to be rushed to make a comprehensive textbook.
Interface
rating: 1
Simply put; there are just too many errors in equation (both chemical and mathematical) formatting to make this text useable. See my answer to question 1.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 2
The textbook contains one grammatical error, where consistently, the authors began sentences with the word “because”. It would be wise for the authors to have an English proof reader read this online textbook and correct this and all grammatical errors. We need to have future STEM scientists write manuscripts and textbooks that are free of grammatical errors.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 5
This is a chemistry textbook that will be very useful for all races as chemistry is a universal science.
Comments
As an instructor at an extensive research and teaching institution with a significant minority population (34%) and a large number of first generation students and military veterans, the costs of a college education is a significant issue. As such, we at ODU, are always looking for ways to lower the cost of their education without a compromise in quality. I am very excited to learn of the Open Textbook Library as a method of reducing textbook costs, and was hopeful that this textbook would have met the needs of such students. Unfortunately, at this moment in time, because of the significant formatting issues and the way the content is presented, I am unable to recommend this text to the instructors who teach at the freshman level. If in the future the problems I have highlighted in this review are corrected, I would be willing to recommend this textbook to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Old Dominion University.
Reviewed by Krista Nishida, Clinical Assistant Professor, Washington State University on 6/21/17
Comprehensiveness
rating: 3 see less
There are two versions of this text, an online version and a pdf version, with a significant difference in quality between them. The pdf version does not have a table of contents, glossary, appendix or index, making it extremely difficult to navigate, and leaving out the reference aspect of a textbook. The online version, on the other hand, contains all of these things, and follows the table of contents accordingly. The online controls allow you to click to the previous chapter/section, the next chapter/section or back to the table of contents, making it quite easy to navigate.
Accuracy
rating: 3
Again, there is a difference between the online version and the pdf one. The online version is formatted correctly, so that mathematical equations and calculations line up appropriately and all symbols, superscripts, etc. are displayed correctly. This formatting is lost in the pdf version, making it difficult to follow the examples even as a professor in the subject. These accuracy issues apply only due to formatting in the pdf version. I found no inaccurate information, calculations or equations when reading through the online version.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 4
As general chemistry concepts are not changing, I find no longevity issues. The examples given are relevant to the real world, and tie in nicely with things that the students are better able to understand. The only issue would be those formatting ones that would be necessary updates for the pdf version.
Clarity
rating: 3
The text itself is clear and well written, but again, the formatting within the pdf version makes it hard to understand and follow. Again, the online version is much better, but I cannot expect all of my students to remain online to read their textbook.
Consistency
rating: 5
Terminology and framework is consistent. I did not find any significant changes in how the material was presented or the terms used.
Modularity
rating: 3
The online version is easy to parse into small sections or pieces, enabling you to assign different sections at different points in time. The pdf version would be impossible, as there is no table of contents, and it is trial and error with a lot of scrolling to find out where you are. There are no additional indicators or labels of section numbers or chapters except at the beginning of each chapter or section. If the examples or exercises in the sections and chapters were numbered with the chapter and section, that'd make it a lot easier.
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 5
The topics are presented in a logical order for a typical science major oriented curriculum. The flow is good.
Interface
rating: 2
Navigation and the interface on the online version is good. It allows the reader to click to skip back to the previous chapter/section or ahead to the next, as well as back to the table of contents, all in one click from a menu that stays at the top of the window. Occasionally, when you are scrolling through worked examples with equations or calculations, that top navigation menu is visible, but you cannot click on it. This issue stops when you scroll away from those areas. There are also images and figures within the online version that show up as "permanently unavailable".
The pdf version is very difficult to navigate, and the lack of formatting makes the text blend together and is difficult and monotonous to read. The images that are "permanently unavailable" in the online version do show up in the pdf version, but all of the equation and calculation formatting make them show up in a long string of characters, with the loss of any LaTeX or html formatting.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 5
I did not find any significant grammatical errors.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 3
While I did not find anything that was culturally insensitive or offensive, I also did not find much that showed human culture at all.
Comments
While the overall text and content of the textbook are the same in both versions, the online version is a much better textbook than the pdf version. The online version has a few issues, such as the missing images/figures, but the formatting and ease of navigation make up for those few instances. The pdf version's lack of formatting, table of contents, glossary, index and appendices make it an unusable textbook. Not everyone is connected to the internet 24/7, so until the pdf version catches up to the online one, I would not use this with my students.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Bodwin, Professor of Chemistry, Minnesota State University Moorhead on 8/22/16
Comprehensiveness
rating: 3 see less
There does not appear to be an index or glossary in the .pdf version of the textbook. The textbook does cover all the major topics typical of a first year General Chemistry course, as well as some of the more popular additional topics that are sometimes covered if there is sufficient time. Although the text can be searched for keywords quite easily, the lack of an index or glossary would make it difficult for a student to use this textbook if they were not familiar enough with the subject to be able to choose appropriate keywords to search.
Accuracy
rating: 4
The content appears to be accurate in its intent; however, the errors and omissions in the .pdf version of the textbook lead to things being wrong (or very difficult for an entry-level student to interpret) in a number of chapters.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 4
The examples in the textbook are both timeless and current, providing a good mixture of “How was this discovered?” and “How do we use this now?” application for the student. Implementing updates could be a challenge given the static nature of the .pdf format, but should be manageable.
Clarity
rating: 5
The text of this textbook is clearly written and should be quite accessible to entry-level students.
Consistency
rating: 4
The terminology and voice of the textbook is consistent, although many of the formatting and technical errors can cause problems in this consistency. See for example cases where “delta” is used or subscripts and superscripts are used.
Modularity
rating: 3
The textbook should be reliably modular, although the errors make it difficult to use in any manner. In addition to the page numbers, the authors and/or publisher should consider putting headers on each page denoting the specific chapter (and topic) of the material.
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 3
The organization is appropriate. Structure and flow are significantly disrupted by the formatting and technical errors.
Interface
rating: 2
This is a disappointing example of an online open textbook. The formatting is quite simply horrible with many missing figures, repeated sections of the text, poorly or incorrectly formatted figures or equations and other (presumably technical) problems that make the text essentially unusable. Any even cursory review of the text by the authors and/or the publisher would have caught many of these problems before publication.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 4
There are occasional grammatical and typographical errors throughout, but they do not significantly impact the readability of the text.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 4
The figures used in the .pdf version of this textbook are virtually devoid of any humans. While this prevents over- or under-representation on any group, it is disappointing that the authors do not choose to feature the human side of chemistry more prominently, as would be consistent with their stated objectives to make chemistry more relatable to the student. This would also be an opportunity to proactively feature chemists and other scientists from traditionally under-represented groups to serve as aspirational role models for the students using the textbook.
Comments
This open textbook is disappointing. Averil has authored some quality texts in the past, so I am unsure if the problems lie with the author, or the publisher, or just the randomness of software interpretation when uploading and downloading large files. I suspect that all parties involved in the publication of this open textbook bear responsibility for the poor quality product they have provided. Contributions of this poor quality do an extreme disservice to the open textbook community by giving naysayers an example of what appears to be shoddily pieced together content.
I downloaded the .pdf file of this textbook and opened it offline. (This is the only format available directly from the University of Minnesota open textbook webpage.) If that mode of access is the root of some of the technical problems/errors I observe, then I suspect the same problems will be ubiquitous with students attempting to use this open textbook. I went to the publisher’s website and found the .html version of the book to be better (it has a table of contents/index, and many of the problems with figures are resolved), but it only took until the middle of Chapter 1 to find the message “Sorry this image is permanently unavailable” in place of what should have been Figure 1.6 through 1.9. The .docx version is consistent with the .pdf version with many (perhaps all) of the same errors.
The stated philosophy of the textbook is sound, and I appreciate its intent. My approach to general chemistry is similar and I would welcome a reliable textbook (especially an open textbook) that aligns well with my preferences. The technical errors in this textbook are glaring and should be unacceptable. I would not consider using this open textbook for my classes, and furthermore, I would encourage the authors, the publisher, and the University of Minnesota to remove this content from the web unless and until it can be presented in a more responsible fashion
Reviewed by D.K. Philbin, Professor, Allan Hancock College on 7/16/14
Comprehensiveness
rating: 4 see less
The text is designed to serve science and engineering majors requiring a one year course in general chemistry and the text contains all of the required material and topics to accomplish this task. In the preface, the authors list eight specific objectives they wish to accomplish with this text and I feel that they do indeed accomplish their goal. The text contains numerous interesting "real world" examples of applied chemistry (fireworks and their composition being one of my favorite) which will act as effective "hooks" to capture student interest. These examples coupled with classroom demonstrations (various salts dissolved in methanol and ignited, to explore the colors of fireworks) have proven effective in capturing student interest. The text lacks a table of contents, index or a glossary and the lack of these is a serious impediment to students. There are some very serious formatting issues which may have been the result of converting from a .doc or .docx format to a .PDF and these the errors make sections of this text unusable. This is strikingly apparent in chapter 14, Chemical Kinetics where many operators (e, superscript, etc) have been replaced with blank squares. The instructor would need to spend significant time correcting these format errors and very little time would be left for teaching! There are also formatting problems with subscripts in chemical formulas NOT appearing as subscripts, again a formatting issue.
Accuracy
rating: 4
If one were to ignore all of the formatting errors present in the text (see question #1 above) then the accuracy would be more than adequate. In assigning the accuracy score I am NOT including the formatting issues.
Relevance/Longevity
rating: 4
The text and it's examples are both relevant and timeless; the classic Haber-Bosch Process for the production of ammonia is but one example. I appreciated the example of the existence high levels of iridium in 66 million year old sediments being major evidence for the asteroid impact that may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, something my students can appreciate and relate to. The author uses the above iridium example in a very nice discussion of the scientific method. If instructor's adopting this text had access to the original document (.doc or .docx) then required updates would be easy and straightforward; editing the text as a .pdf file would be to burdensome.
Clarity
rating: 2
The text has more than adequate clarity, however some of the example calculations would benefit from additional formatting. An example is determining the empirical formula of Penicillin; the calculations are written in a linear fashion such that the average general chemistry student would be lost trying to follow the example given. Also the formatting problems discussed in question #1 make many equations so confusing as to be incomprehensible to a general chemistry student
Consistency
rating: 4
The text is quite consistent in terminology and presentation.
Modularity
rating: 4
The lack of a table of contents prevents the text from being easily reorganized and/or realigned. / / All of the typical topics for a year long general chemistry course are present and with an adequate table of contents the text would be very modular.
Organization/Structure/Flow
rating: 4
It seems like every instructor has their preferred organization/structure/flow preferences for the general chemistry course they teach! This text is written in such a manner that it would be fairly easy to customize the content to fit the particular instructors preferences.
Interface
rating: 1
Simply put; there are just to many errors in equation (both chemical and mathematical) formatting to make this text useable.
Grammatical Errors
rating: 4
I see no grammatical issues.
Cultural Relevance
rating: 5
Not applicable. This is a chemistry text.
Comments
Teaching at a community college with a significant minority population and a large number of first generation students where the costs of a college education is a significant issue, I am always looking for ways to lower the cost of their education without compromising quality. I was excited to learn of the Open Textbook Library as a method of reducing textbook costs and since a major part of my teaching load is teaching the year long general chemistry sequence I was hopeful that this text would meet my needs. Unfortunately, because of the significant formatting issues present I will be unable to utilize this text. If in the future the problems I have highlighted in this review are corrected, I would be willing to adopt this text and I would be eager to hear my students reaction to an Open Textbook Library product.
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