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Exploring the U.S. Healthcare System

Contributor: Valaitis

Publisher: University of West Florida Pressbooks

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Welcome to Exploring the U.S. Healthcare System. This open educational resource (OER) introduces students to foundational characteristics of the U.S. healthcare system. It begins with an overview of the healthcare system that includes a brief history and a description of the current state of health in the U.S. The second chapter describes health delivery systems, including inpatient, outpatient, post-acute, longterm, palliative, and hospice care. An introduction to health insurance in the third chapter will include an overview of basic concepts, private insurance, public insurance, and recent trends. The fourth chapter presents issues related to the triple aim of improving access to care, increasing the quality of care, and lowering the cost of care. The fifth chapter reviews how the government intervenes in healthcare and presents current policy issues related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and value-based contracting. The final chapter on the topic of technology in healthcare provides an overview of health information technology, health information legislation, emerging technologies, and the future of health information technology. Chapter content is supplemented with additional material such as reports, briefs, figures, infographics, definitions, and key terms. Chapters two through six end with a “knowledge check” exercise to actively engage students with the content. While this OER book was curated and created for undergraduate students in the field of healthcare, it is my hope that it will continue to be customized to other programs and shared again.

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Web Writing - First Edition

Contributor: Pfannenstiel

Publisher: The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT)

License: CC BY-SA

Web Writing (2023) by Dr. A Nicole Pfannenstiel is designed to provide a practical, rhetorical approach to web writing and content strategy analysis for students completing advanced writing courses. The eTextbook uses the rhetorical situation and key concepts to help readers/students understand how to write within specific web spaces for specific audiences drawing on appropriate discourse community conventions. It includes a chapter devoted to the rhetorical situation and key concepts to help students analyze and build their understanding of existing communication. It also includes a chapter outlining approaches to content strategy analysis, using the rhetorical situation and key concepts to understand the rich public data provided through social media accounts to support learners understanding effective web writing. The content analysis overview helps students build skills for analyzing writing, for collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative social media data, and for drawing conclusions about content strategy best practices.

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Introduction to Women’s & Gender Studies - First Edition

Contributor: Clemens

Publisher: The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT)

License: CC BY-SA

Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies (2023) is an eTextbook designed to provide an introduction to the fields of Women’s Studies and Gender Studies for students taking introductory courses. The textbook touches on a variety of subjects including gender theories, feminisms, intersectionality, equity, and activism. Chapters contain questions to consider and list of suggested readings by theorists and activists. This multimedia eTextbook incorporates videos and podcasts to create a rich introductory experience for students.

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Chemistry Techniques and Explorations: An Introductory Chemistry Laboratory Manual - First Edition

Contributor: Albert

Publisher: The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT)

License: CC BY-SA

Chemistry Techniques and Explorations (2023) by Dr. Daniel R. Albert is an eTextbook laboratory manual for first semester introductory chemistry courses. The manual includes two different types of experiments (Technique and Exploration) designed to engage students in chemistry laboratory practices. Technique laboratories are designed for students to learn and practice chemistry laboratory skills that are utilized in a wide variety of disciplines. Exploration laboratories provide freedom and time for students to use previously acquired skills toward answering a new application focused question. Exploration laboratories help build the scientific thinking skills necessary to approach novel problems. The goal of this lab manual is to build both fundamental techniques and problem-solving skills that aid students in becoming practicing scientists.

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Laboratory Manual: General Chemistry I Honors - First Edition

Contributor: Adeyiga

Publisher: The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT)

License: CC BY-NC-SA

General Chemistry I Honors Laboratory Manual (2023) is an eTextbook designed to provide a practical, hands-on approach to learning chemistry for students taking General Chemistry I Honors courses. The manual covers fundamental principles of chemistry, including atomic structure, chemical bonding, stoichiometry, gas laws, and thermodynamics. The book is divided into chapters, each focusing on a specific topic. Each experiment in the manual is accompanied by step-by-step instructions, pre-lab questions, and post-lab questions, helping students to develop their analytical and problem-solving skills.

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Theory Fundamentals Workbook

Contributor: Yang

Publisher: Montana State University

License: CC BY

This workbook is a practical method for learning the rudiments of music, which are essential to a thorough understanding of music in general. Designed as a supplement to professional instruction rather than a manual for self instruction, the text is intentionally brief. The emphasis is on using practical exercises to develop fluency. Aural, vocal, and keyboard skills must be integrated into the study of music theory from the very beginning. I encourage all students, regardless of their principal instrument, to learn to hear, sing, and play on the piano everything that they do in theory. All exercises in this book should be completed thoroughly. Usually a sample will be completed in brackets for each exercise, as a demonstration. Fluency with these basic materials of music will be a great asset to any further musical endeavors. For students who need additional exercises, suggestions for further study will be given.

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Methods of Teaching Early Literacy

Contributors: Gurjar, Meacham, and Beecher

Publisher: Iowa State University Digital Press

License: CC BY

This textbook covers theories, teaching strategies, and instructional materials pertinent to teaching reading and writing in grades PK-3, with an emphasis on integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as well as integration across content areas while addressing diversity and inclusion.

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Foundations of Aural Skills

Contributor: Chenette

Publisher: Utah Education Network Digital Press with Pressbooks

License: CC BY-SA

Foundations of Aural Skills is a research-based, accessible, relevant, creative, inclusive, empowering textbook for teaching introductory aural skills. The first seven chapters provide thorough instruction in aural fundamentals, allowing students to build their foundations from a variety of starting points. The following chapters address the traditional tasks of sight-reading and dictation, but also improvisation, mimicking music you hear (“playback”), transcription, and ensemble skills. The final two chapters add some basic form- and chord-listening skills. Every section includes creative activities that learners can try out on their own or do in class. Embedded playlists for practicing listening skills include a diverse range of music that will connect with students’ preferences and allow them to experience music they haven’t worked with before. While the text is primarily designed for a first semester or year of instruction, it also includes some instruction on modulation, chromaticism, and mixed meter, and future additions/development will make these advanced applications more robust.

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Introducing Mathematical Biology

Contributor: Best

Publisher: The University of Sheffield

License: CC BY

Mathematical modelling plays an increasingly important role in almost any area of life sciences, and this interactive textbook focuses on the areas of population ecology, infectious diseases, immunology and cell dynamics, gene networks and pharmacokinetics. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning about how to model biological systems, including undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics students who have not studied mathematical biology before, life-sciences students with an interest in modelling, and post-16 mathematics students interested in university-level material. Some mathematical knowledge is assumed, and the mathematical models used are all in the form of ordinary differential equations.

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The Tragedy of the Self

Contributor: Sangiacomo

Publisher: University of Groningen Open Textbooks

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines. Exploring the cross-cultural spectrum of possible ways of conceiving of the self invites the more existential question of whether any of these possibilities might offer resources for dealing with the tragedies of today’s world, or maybe even saving it from some of them.

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