Faculty Showcase — Humanities
Michael Henderson, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Marcos
eTextbook:
The American Yawp
California State University, San Marcos
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 140 - United States History from 1865
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Quote
“Quite a few students complimented the online textbook for being clear and easy to read. Some explicitly said that it was easier to understand than a regular textbook, and students were also happy to have the text accessible at any time from computers and other electronic devices, without having to carry around a heavy book.”
Christina Villegas, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
Congressional Research Service
Campus Course
PSCI 320 – The Legislative Process
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Quote
“I chose to use 'Congressional Research Service' reports instead of the previously used textbook 'Congress and Its Members' to save students money and to familiarize students with a valuable resource that they can continue to use throughout their education and career.”
Chloe de Los Reyes, M.A.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
A Variety of OERs (Open Education Resources)
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Courses
ENG 105B – Accelerated Stretch Composition I for Multilingual Students
ENG 106B – Accelerated Stretch Composition II for Multilingual Students
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“I chose to put together my own material, in lieu of a traditional textbook, because it not only saves students money, it also gives students the opportunity to engage with a variety of authentic, 'real-world' texts/text sets at appropriate/various levels of difficulty.”
Jason Magabo Perez, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
Fiction Writer's Workshop
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
ENG 318 – Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction
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Quote
“While this book is not the ideal text, I decided to use it because it assumes and develops further basic skills competencies in creative writing for all students. Also, the book was/is available electronically at our campus library. I discovered this particular text by browsing our campus library digital collections.”
Miriam Lizette Fernandez, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
California State University, San Bernardino
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
ENGL 100 - College Composition
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“I adopted this resource because I wanted to help students save money. I was a first-generation student and I remember it was always a struggle to buy all my textbooks at the same time. I feel good knowing that my students don’t have to worry about that for my course. Additionally, I wanted to assign readings that matched what I was doing in class with more flexibility.”
Oraib Mango, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
A Variety of OERs (Open Education Resources) including Bint Arab
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
ARAB 381 – Cultures and Writings of Arab-American Women
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“The main motivations to adopt OERs were to save students money, provide them with a variety of teaching resources of different modalities, increase student engagement, and find more relevant materials.”
Joseph Suk-Hwan Dowd, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
PHIL 193 – Introduction to Eastern Philosophy
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Quote
“I did not perform a survey, but I have observed many students using the electronic version of the textbook. After a class meeting, I asked a small group of students who had not left yet how they felt about the electronic version. They all said that they appreciated the electronic version.”
Beverly K. Grindstaff, Ph.D.
from San Jose State University
eTextbook:
Smart History
from Khan Academy
Campus Course
ARTH–DSGD 176A – History and Theory of Graphic Design
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“The main motivation in participating in this study and partially adopting an open textbook is to help ensure that any adaptation of OER materials is pedagogically sound and in the best overall interest of students (i.e., advantages must include more than the fact that materials are free).”
Leslie Collins, M.A.
from Modesto Junior College
eTextbook:
A Primer on Communication Studies
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
COMM 180 - Introduction to Communication Studies or Introduction to
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“I have transitioned to free OER textbooks for two of my other courses, and students report (in end-of-semester course review surveys) being thoroughly pleased with the value of those books.”
Scott T. Paynton, Ph.D.
from Humboldt State University
eTextbook:
Survey of Communication Study
by L. Hahn and S. Payton in Wikibooks
Humboldt State University
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
COMM 180 - Introduction to Communication Studies or Introduction to
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“My co-authors and I wrote our own and decided to make it open source and free for students. Our motivation was to provide students with free materials that can be updated on a regular basis by a broad range of people in our discipline, thus making the text constantly current.”
Stephen W. Campbell, Ph.D.
from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
eTextbook:
U.S. History
from OpenStax College
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 140 - United States History from 1865
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Quote
“I also wanted to save money for my students, which is important since, as a whole, they are highly indebted upon finishing their degrees.”
P. Scott Corbett
from California State University, Channel Islands and Ventura College
eTextbook:
U.S. History
from OpenStax College
California State University, Channel Islands and Ventura College
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 130 - United States History to 1877
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“My main motivation was to save students money and to give them a quality textbook that they could access electronically.”
Brent Riffel
from College of the Canyons
eTextbook:
History in the Making: U.S History through 1877
by University Press of Northern Georgia
College of the Canyons
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 130 - United States History to 1877
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Quote
“Open-source textbooks are vitally important to History courses, as they can provide effective ways of engaging students across many different ability levels. Not only are they affordable, but most significantly OER textbooks can be an integral part of open pedagogy, allowing students to take an active role in their readings, assignment, and assessments.”
Margaret (Meg) Phelps
from Ventura College
eTextbook:
Khan Academy (formerly SmartHistory)
Ventura College
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
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“In the age of the information revolution, it is regressive not to embrace and employ the democratizing effect of free, quality, online content.”
Miriam Raub Vivian, Ph.D.
from California State University, Bakersfield
eTextbook:
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by E. Gibbon
California State University, Bakersfield
Campus Course
History 303 – The Roman Empire
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“My main motivation was to save students money. Not only is the cost of books continually rising, but CSUB has many students who are barely able to make it financially.”
Elizabeth Harris, Ph.D.
from San Jose State University
eTextbook:
Chapters from Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
by B. Attias, A. Goding, J. Wrench, and D. Johnson
San Jose State University
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
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“The reasons I am interested in adopting this text are two-fold. The first reason, it is free. The students don't have to carry any financial burden for this text. Secondly I can deliver the two chapters to all of the students at the same time. I chose to embed the chapters in the course management shell making them available at a specified time in the semester.”
Armeda C. Retizel, Ph.D.
from Humboldt State University
eTextbook:
Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
from Saylor.org
Humboldt State University
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
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“MI wanted a textbook that was easily accessible to students in an online public speaking course. I wanted a textbook that students would actually read and use in the course. Too many of my students are avoiding buying textbooks because they are so expensive. I wanted a textbook that I could customize and supplement easily. I could do that with Stand Up, Speak Out.”
Kimberly Vincent-Layton, M.B.A.
from Humboldt State University
eTextbook:
Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking
from Saylor.org
Go to Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking.
More Introduction to Communications Free and Open eTextbooks
Humboldt State University
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
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“One of the main motivations to use an open textbook was to reduce the cost of education for students. I have been involved in open educational opportunities for several years and believe wholeheartedly in making education available to everyone.”
Mark Stoner
from Sacramento State University
eTextbook:
Public Speaking
by The Public Speaking Project
Sacramento State University
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
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“I make use of textbooks as the basic source of content and use class time for activities that apply the content and practice skills. Therefore, I felt it was imperative that students had no excuse for not reading the course text." "Further, I appreciated the fact that I didn't feel compelled to use every chapter to justify the high cost of a typical textbook. While I did end up using all the chapters, uses came organically from the course design, not a sense of compulsion. I value OERs for the freedom of choice, usability, adaptability, accessibility and convenience they provide.”
Nancy Armstrong, M.A.
from California State University, Dominguez Hills
eTextbook:
Rhetoric and Composition
by Multiple Authors in Wikibooks
California State University, Dominguez Hills
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
ENGL 110 - Argumentative Writing and Critical Thinking Through
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“My main motivation for adopting the open textbook was to save students money while exploring better opportunities to customize materials for my students.”
Sabrina L. Nelson
from Berkeley City College
eTextbook:
Rhetoric and Composition
from Wikibooks
Berkeley City College
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
ENGL 105 - Argumentative Writing and Critical Thinking
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“The major reason for adopting this textbook was to save students money, and to have the ability to customize a rhetoric text to meet the needs of my students.”
Dean Ramser, M.A.
from California State University, Dominguez Hills
eTextbook:
Rhetoric and Composition
from Wikibooks
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Campus Course
ENG 108 – Freshman Composition I: Stretch 1
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“The main two motivations were to save students money and to increase flexibility in the way to teach microeconomics principles to incoming freshmen.”
Teresa Fernández-Ulloa, Ph.D.
from California State University, Bakersfield
eTextbook:
Acceso
by Amy Rossomondo
California State University, Bakersfield
Campus Course
SPAN 490 – Senior Seminar in Spanish
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“A major motivation for adopting the open textbook has been to save students money, but also to make it easy to access.”
J. David Jerez-Gómez, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
The Maqámát , The Decameron, Lazarillo de Tormés, Exemplary Novels, and Don Quixote
from MERLOT.org
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
Humanities 340 – Mediterranean Identities from the Margins
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“Since many of the students are first-generation college students from working class families, and the nature of the course requires access to a variety of texts, canonical and marginal, they are often either too expensive or very difficult to find. We determined that the OER textbooks option was the most appropriate for this innovative course.”
J. David Jerez-Gómez, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
The Maqámát , The Decameron, Lazarillo de Tormés, Exemplary Novels, and Don Quixote
from MERLOT.org
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
Humanities 340 – Mediterranean Identities from the Margins
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Quote
“Since many of the students are first-generation college students from working class families, and the nature of the course requires access to a variety of texts, canonical and marginal, they are often either too expensive or very difficult to find. We determined that the OER textbooks option was the most appropriate for this innovative course. We found some of the texts available through MERLOT, and added other materials online as the reading materials in order to create an online reader.”
Rebecca Bryant Hewett, M.A.
from California State University, Bakersfield
eTextbook:
Community Tool Box by Work Group for Community Health and Development
California State University, Bakersfield
Campus Course
English 305 – Modes of Writing
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“I began this in my online class because it was so easy and convenient to vary course materials and stop using the textbook.”
Alice Taylor, Ph.D.
from West Los Angeles College
eTextbook:
Smarthistory
from Khan Academy
West Los Angeles College
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 170 - Western Civilization I
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Quote
“Students often seem to struggle to understand architecture through the written word. One challenge is that readers need to refer to images; students have been taught to value text and often ignore the images that are integral to a presentation of architecture. Videos in Smarthistory help them experience movement through space and highlight visual features.”
Carmen Jany, Ph.D.
from California State University, San Bernardino
eTextbook:
Antologías de textos de didáctica del español
California State University, San Bernardino
Campus Course
Span 615 – Second Language Acquisition
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“The main motivation for adopting the open textbook was saving students money and having more materials available. I knew that the Centro Virtual Cervantes site had high quality research posted as open source materials, so I searched the site for readings that aligned with the topics from the class.”
Sarah Mergel
from Dalton State College, GA
eTextbook:
History in the Making: U.S History through 1877
by University Press of Northern Georgia
Dalton State College, GA
C-ID Course Identification Numbering System
HIST 130 - United States History to 1877
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Quote
“I adopted History in the Making for two reasons. As a co-author on this text, I had a hand in outlining the chapters and organizing the content. Therefore, I knew the information in the book worked well with what I tend to focus on in the survey course. Moreover, my students have access to a full textbook either for free if they use the digital version or for less money than they would pay for a concise textbook. I no longer have to worry about the student who halfway into the semester does not have the book because they could not afford it or because the bookstore ran out of copies.”