Newest Open Textbooks
Arguing Using Critical Thinking
Contributor: Marteney
Publisher: Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
There is a quote that has been passed down many years and is most recently accounted to P.T. Barnum, “There is a sucker born every minute.” Are you that sucker? If you were, would you like to be “reborn?” The goal of this book is to help you through that “birthing” process. Critical thinking and standing up for your ideas and making decisions are important in both your personal and professional life. How good are we at making the decision to marry? According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is one divorce in America every 36 seconds. That is nearly 2,400 every day. And professionally, the Wall Street Journal predicts the average person will have 7 careers in their lifetime. Critical thinking skills are crucial.
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Introductory Chemistry - 1st Canadian Edition
Contributors: Ball and Key
Publisher: BCcampus
The goal of this textbook is not to make you an expert. True expertise in any field is a years-long endeavor. Here I will survey some of the basic topics of chemistry. This survey should give you enough knowledge to appreciate the impact of chemistry in everyday life and, if necessary, prepare you for additional instruction in chemistry.
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The Western World: Daily Readings on Geography
Contributors: Quam and Campbell
Publisher: College of DuPage
In essay format, this textbook considers examples of various sub-categories of Geography in combination with five regions of the Western World.
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Attenuated Democracy: A Critical Introduction to U.S. Government and Politics
Contributor: Hubert
Publisher: Salt Lake Community College
The U.S. political system suffers from endemic design flaws and is notable for the way that a small subset of Americans—whose interests often don’t align with those of the vast majority of the population—wields disproportionate power. Absent organized and persistent action on the part of ordinary Americans, the system tends to serve the already powerful. That’s why this text is called Attenuated Democracy. To attenuate something is to make it weak or thin. Democracy in America has been thin from the beginning and continues to be so despite some notable progress in voting rights. As political scientists Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens wrote, “The essence of democracy is not just having reasonably satisfactory policies; the essence of democracy is popular control of government, with each citizen having an equal voice.” (1) Since this is likely to be your only college-level course on the American political system, it is important to point out the structural weaknesses of our system and the thin nature of our democracy. Whenever you get the chance—in the voting booth, in your job, perhaps if you hold elected office—I encourage you to do something about America’s attenuated democracy.
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The Crystal Ball Instruction Manual Volume One: Introduction to Data Science
Contributor: Davies
Publisher: University of Mary Washington
A perfect introduction to the exploding field of Data Science for the curious, first-time student. The author brings his trademark conversational tone to the important pillars of the discipline: exploratory data analysis, choices for structuring data, causality, machine learning principles, and introductory Python programming using open-source Jupyter Notebooks. This engaging read will allow any dedicated learner to build the skills necessary to contribute to the Data Science revolution, regardless of background.
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Parenting and Family Diversity Issues
Contributor: Lang
Publisher: Iowa State University
This book has been created for students and all individuals who work with children and families (e.g., educators, parents, caregivers, direct support workers, etc.) in diverse contexts. It is imperative to understand how and what factors may influence child outcomes across the lifespan. Therefore, key concepts related to parenting, child-rearing, care-giving, and parenting education are outlined in this textbook to provide historical, theoretical, and practical perspectives across vast settings and developmental domains.
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The Discipline of Organizing: 4th Professional Edition
Contributor: Glushko
Publisher: University of California, Berkeley
We organize things, we organize information, we organize information about things, and we organize information about information. But even though “organizing” is a fundamental and ubiquitous challenge, when we compare these activities their contrasts are more apparent than their commonalities. We propose to unify many perspectives about organizing with the concept of an Organizing System, defined as an intentionally arranged collection of resources and the interactions they support. Every Organizing System involves a collection of resources, a choice of properties or principles used to describe and arrange resources, and ways of supporting interactions with resources. By comparing and contrasting how these activities take place in different contexts and domains, we can identify patterns of organizing. We can create a discipline of organizing in a disciplined way.
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Advanced Community College ESL Composition: An Integrated Skills Approach
Contributors: Perez, Behseta, and Rae
Publisher: Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
This book has been created to provide a framework for building your skills in writing and critical thinking. It provides access to published samples from professional authors along with essay drafts from ESL students who have polished their skills in their respective writing courses.
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Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs for the Biosciences
Contributor: O'Grady
Publisher: Austin Community College
This 125-page course textbook, entitled Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs for the Biosciences, was created by Jack O'Grady, M.S., professor at Austin Community College. This textbook accompanies the course BITC 1340: Quality Assurance for the Biosciences.
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Transitions to Professional Nursing Practice - 2nd Edition
Contributor: Murphy
Publisher: Open SUNY
Transitions to Professional Nursing Practice provides a pivotal learning experience for students transitioning from an associate degree education to a baccalaureate degree. Content includes a broad overview of the nursing profession, the role of accrediting and professional organizations with a strong focus on the American Nurses Association’s foundational documents. The competencies of the Standards of Professional Practice and the Code of Ethics are weaved throughout the text.
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