Open Education: Grantee & Projects Showcase

 Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition 

Using a systems framework, Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the performance, analysis, and design of radio systems for students and practicing engineers. Presented within a consistent framework, the first part of the book describes the fundamentals of the subject: propagation, noise, antennas, and modulation. The analysis and design of radios including RF circuit design and signal processing is covered in the second half of the book.

This book is lightly updated from the version published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press (ISBN 9781107068285). While Cambridge retains rights to continue to sell and license their print and electronic versions, Cambridge has granted the author enough rights to update and release the book freely under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial International License (CC BY NC 4.0). 

View this book in PDF. Order a softcover print version here.

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/interest_radiosystemsengineering_revised1st.

License: CC BY NC 4.0

IN THE NEWS 

January 8, 2024  Announcing: Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition

 The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning is a 240-page methods-of-teaching book. Specifically, it is a collection of thoughts, best practices, strategies, and techniques for planning, delivering, and assessing teaching and learning. This resource is assembled from among the best teaching professors in agricultural communication, education, and leadership in America. The authors offer the opportunity to build confidence in planning, delivering, and assessing the depths of the variables inherent in learning for secondary and postsecondary educators in both formal and nonformal educational environments. Readers will quickly grasp the four fundamental keys of solid, basic, time-tested formal and nonformal teaching. These keys are shared with you through the unique voices of the authors to provide a multiperspective approach to teaching:

KEY #1: Laying the Foundation | KEY#2: Connecting with Students | KEY #3: Designing Instruction | KEY #4: Applying Learning

View this book in PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. Order a softcover print version here.

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/teachagriculture_interest.

License: CC BY NC 4.0

IN THE NEWS 

January 4, 2024  Introducing: The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning

 Epidemiology is a 156-page openly-licensed text by Charlotte Baker DrPH, MPH, CPH designed for medical degree–seeking clinical students without a prior background in public health. Using sports medicine and injury prevention examples and applications, it aims to provide students with the basics of epidemiology terms and concepts and is intended to guide medical school students as they prepare for the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) Step 1 Exam and to transition from student to clinician. 

• It includes an introduction to general concepts and terminology of epidemiology, study designs and their relationship to clinical questions, and the use of epidemiology in clinical diagnosis and screening of disease. 
• Concluding sections of the book present sources of errors in epidemiologic studies, including bias, confounding, and effect modification. 
• The book is notable for its use of accessible, inclusive figures and examples, and end-of-chapter study guides that summarize the chapter visually. 

View this book in PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. Order a softcover print version here.

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/interest_epidemiology.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS 

January 10, 2024  Announcing: Open textbook "Epidemiology" 

 Fish, Fishing, and Conservation is a 389-page, peer-reviewed open textbook intended for undergraduate students who are exploring majors in Fish & Wildlife. It is also relevant to a general audience or for use in courses which explore social and ethical aspects of fish, fishing and conservation. Fish, Fishing, and Conservation asserts that all peoples must play a role in conservation. Through case studies, engaging narrative and graphics, and exercises, text explores major motivations for fishing and non-fishing related values, responsible fisheries practices, the rights of all people to decide how to manage and conserve fish, their habitats, and how they are utilized in the context of overfishing as a pressing global problem for which appropriate solutions are not easily found nor implemented. Introductory chapters examine fish, fishing, and why fish matter and examine the role of values in driving conservation initiatives. Fish and their unique sensory capabilities are described along with a review of recent studies to examine issues of pain, sentience, and learning in fishes living in a foreign, underwater world. The text incorporates these new findings in conservation and management leading readers to evaluate and adopt suitable approaches to ethical reasoning which consider the welfare needs of wild and cultured fishes. Later chapters focus on the role of gender in fishing, conservation organizations, recreational fishing, and a focus on specific fisheries that reveal the principles of conservation and management as they play out in major controversies. Additionally, the textbook contains audio recordings of professional profiles by Virginia Tech students. These are linked at the beginning of each end-of-chapter Professional Profile. Audio recordings are also available on Spotify.

View this book in PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. Order a softcover print version here.

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/fishandconservation_interest

License: CC BY 4.0

IN THE NEWS 

July 11, 2023  Announcing a New Open Textbook: Fish, Fishing, and Conservation

June 20, 2023 The Soul of a Department

August 4, 2023 New Open Textbook About Fish Makes Waves

BOOK REVIEW 

Rypel, A.L. A thoughtful guide to fisheries ecology and conservation for the next generation. Environ Biol Fish (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-024-01522-5. Open Access link: https://rdcu.be/dy2bi 

  Sustainable Property Management is a 150-page, peer-reviewed open textbook intended for students majoring in property management and real estate at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It can be incorporated into an existing property management operations course or used for a stand-alone course focused on sustainable property management. Although sustainability, as used in the real estate context, is about preserving the environment, it is about more than that. In sustainable property management, sustainability encompasses three spheres—environmental, social, and economic. Sustainable property management is about reconciling these three spheres throughout the operations and maintenance phases of the building lifecycle in such a way that a balance is achieved between economic development and the protection of environmental and social resources.

View this book in PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. Softcover print also available.

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/interest_sustainable_property_management

License: CC BY NC-SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS 

June 12, 2023 Announcing a New Open Textbook: Sustainable Property Management

April 5, 2024 in FacilitiesNet  New Textbook Covers Sustainable Property Management Practices

  Original Études for the Developing Conductor is a collection of supplemental études designed to enhance contemporary conducting pedagogy by amplifying the voices of composers from historically excluded groups. Each étude was commissioned from and composed by a living composer, the majority of whom are woman-identifying composers and/or composers of color. Each étude also addresses multiple specific pedagogical goals common to all conducting classrooms. Conducting textbooks commonly include musical examples to expose student conductors to various musical challenges and situations. However, due to the relative ease of using only music from the public domain, most examples found in commercially published books are excerpts of larger works composed by deceased cisgender white men of European descent. Often, this music bears little relation to a significant portion of the music contemporary students engage with and perform. These excerpts also tend to be quite short (i.e., less than a minute) and do not create cohesive, self-contained musical arcs.

View the scores only and scores and parts in PDF. Listen/view audio realizations on YouTube, or order a spiral-bound print copy. 

Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/original-etudes-interest

License: CC BY NC-SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS:

 May 8, 2023 Announcing Original Études for the Developing Conductor

June 13, 2023 ALPSP Impact and Innovation Awards 2023: Shortlists announced

July 2023 5-minute award ALPSP shortlist video

July 25, 2023 ALPSP Spotlight on: Original Études for the Developing Conductor

August 28, 2023 Collaboration on music textbook connects students to historically excluded composers

January 25, 2024 Open textbook project wins prestigious international award

BOOK REVIEW

Book review from the Open Textbook Library

  Virginia Cooperative Extension Gardener Handbook is a guide for all gardeners in Virginia. It covers a variety of topics important for beginning and experienced gardeners, including soil health, native plants, and integrated pest management. This manual provides an understanding of the basics of gardening in Virginia and helps to build a strong foundation of gardening knowledge. Resources for additional reading can be found at the end of each chapter. We encourage readers to take a deeper dive into the topics that interest them and continue their learning journey.

Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) is the outreach and engagement branch of Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, Virginia’s land-grant universities. Through VCE, Extension agents, specialists, and volunteers work to share knowledge and advance the wellbeing of all Virginians. This handbook serves as the main training text for new Extension Master Gardener volunteers. Published by Virginia Cooperative Extension. 

Are you using this for a course? Let us know here: https://bit.ly/interest-vcegardener

View this book in PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. Order a full-color softcover version here.

License: CC BY NC-SA 4.0

 Fundamentals of Business, 4th Edition is an open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty-customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, personal finances, and technology in business. The textbook was designed for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business and is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 license.

Published by the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech in association with Virginia Tech Publishing.

View this book in PDF and Pressbooks. Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at http://bit.ly/business-interest. Print-on-demand versions are now available in color, and in black & white.

License: CC BY NC-SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS: August 14, 2023 Introducing Fundamentals of Business, 4th edition + ancillaries

   Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice.

View this book in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), or order a Print on Demand copy. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS: (30 March 2023) Read about this book and its adaptation process here

  Construction Contracting: Business and Legal Principles, Second Edition is an introduction to construction contracting as it applies to typical, every-day situations. It explains “theoretical” ideas in terms of what really happens in practice. The text emphasizes the more common case law holdings and industry customs that help avoid troublesome legal issues during the completion of a project.

Published in 2002 by Pearson Education, Inc. as ISBN 1-13-091055-4 | Rights reverted to estate 2022 | Published with under CC BY NC SA 4.0 with permission of the estate by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech 2022 as ISBN 978-1-957213-20-0.

View this book in PDF and Pressbooks. Instructors reviewing or adopting this book are encouraged to register at https://bit.ly/interest_construction_contracting

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0.

IN THE NEWS: (30 August 2022) Read about this book and rights reversion here! 

Pulmonary Physiology for Pre-Clinical Students  is an undergraduate medical-level resource for foundational knowledge of pulmonary physiology. This text is designed for a pre-clinical medical curriculum and is aligned to USMLE(r) (United States Medical Licensing Examination) content guidelines. The text is meant to provide the essential information in a concise format that would allow learner preparation to engage in an active classroom. Clinical correlates and additional application of content is intended to be provided in the classroom experience. This resource should be assistive to the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation given the material is presented in a succinct manner, with a focus on high-yield concepts. The 101-page text was created specifically for use by pre-clinical students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was based on faculty experience and peer review to guide development and hone important topics.

View this book in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), LibreTexts or order a Print on Demand copy. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(VTX 4 March 2022) Open Medical Textbook series offer curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students

Pulmonary Pathophysiology for Pre-Clinical Students is an undergraduate medical-level resource for foundational knowledge of pulmonary pathophysiology. This text is designed for a pre-clinical undergraduate medical curriculum and is aligned to USMLE(r) (United States Medical Licensing Examination) content guidelines. The text is meant to provide the essential information in a concise format that would allow learner preparation to engage in an active classroom. Clinical correlates and additional application of content is intended to be provided in the classroom experience. The text assumes that the students will have an understanding of basic pulmonary physiology that will be helpful to understand the content presented here. This resource should be assistive to the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation given the material is presented in a succinct manner, with a focus on high-yield concepts. The 82-page text was created specifically for use by pre-clinical students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was based on faculty experience and peer review to guide development and hone important topics.

View this book in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), LibreTexts or order a Print on Demand copy. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(VTX 4 March 2022) Open Medical Textbook series offer curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students

 Cardiovascular Pathophysiology for Pre-Clinical Students is an undergraduate medical-level resource for foundational knowledge of common cardiovascular diseases, disorders and pathologies. This text is designed for a course pre-clinical undergraduate medical curriculum and it is aligned to USMLE(r) (United States Medical Licensing Examination) content guidelines. The text is meant to provide the essential information from these content areas in a concise format that would allow learner preparation to engage in an active classroom. Clinical correlates and additional application of content is intended to be provided in the classroom experience. The text assumes that the students will have an understanding of basic cardiovascular physiology that will be helpful to understand the content presented here. This resource should be assistive to the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation given the material is presented in a succinct manner, with a focus on high-yield concepts.

View this book in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), LibreTexts or order a Print on Demand copy. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(VTX 4 March 2022) Open Medical Textbook series offer curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students

(Open@VT 7 April 2022) New Open Textbook: Cardiovascular Pathophysiology for Pre-Clinical Students by Andrew Binks

   Aerospace Structures by Eric Raymond Johnson is a 600+ page text and reference book for junior, senior, and graduate-level aerospace engineering students. The text begins with a discussion of the aerodynamic and inertia loads acting on aircraft in symmetric flight and presents a linear theory for the statics and dynamic response of thin-walled straight bars with closed and open cross-sections. Isotropic and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials including temperature effects are modeled with Hooke’s law. Methods of analyses are by differential equations, Castigliano’s theorems, the direct stiffness method, the finite element method, and Lagrange’s equations. There are numerous examples for the response of axial bars, beams, coplanar trusses, coplanar frames, and coplanar curved bars. Failure initiation by the von Mises yield criterion, buckling, wing divergence, fracture, and by Puck’s criterion for FRP composites are presented in the examples.

View this book in PDF, ePub, LaTeX sourcefiles, or order in print. |  Interactive problem sets to accompany the book are available here. Professors, if you are reviewing this book for adoption in your course, please let us know here. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are especially encouraged to sign up.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

New Open Textbook: Aerospace Structures by Eric Raymond Johnson - blog post (31 March 2022)

  Teaching in the University: Learning from Graduate Students and Early Career Faculty provides insight and strategies for successful teaching, advising, and mentoring postsecondary students. In particular, the authors offer support and encouragement for implementing student-centered teaching practices relevant to college classrooms. This book is designed for new university teaching faculty and graduate teaching assistants looking for innovative teaching resources.

As an Open Educational Resource (OER), this textbook provides university instructors free access to high-quality teaching materials based on the experiences of fellow new instructors. Twenty contributors and two co-editors from the current students and alumni of university teaching scholars programs offer this resource for fellow faculty and graduate students to improve instruction and engagement. Each chapter comes from the experiences and expertise of these talented individuals who speak directly to their peers. 

View this book in PDF and ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), and order a softcover print version. Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook for a course, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/teaching-interest.

License: CC BY NC 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(Open@VT March 1, 2022) New open textbook: Teaching in the University: Learning from Graduate Students and Early Career Faculty.

(VTX March 2, 2022) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Virginia Tech Publishing announce a new open textbook

 Neuroscience for Pre-Clinical Students covers neuroenergetics, neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and selected amino acid metabolism and degradation. This USMLE-aligned text is designed for a first-year undergraduate medical course and is meant to provide the essential biochemical information from these content areas in a concise format to enable students to engage in an active classroom. Hence, it does not cover neurophysiology and neuroanatomy; and clinical correlates and additional application of content are intended to be provided in the classroom experience. The text assumes that the students will have completed medical school prerequisites (including the MCAT) in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of biology and chemistry that are essential to understand the content presented here. With its focus on high-yield concepts, this resource will assist the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation. The 49-page text was created specifically for use by pre-clinical students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was based on faculty experience and peer review to guide development and hone important topics.

View this book in PDF and ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), LibreTexts, or order a print copy. | Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(Open@VT February 2, 2022) Announcing New Open Textbook: Neuroscience for Pre-Clinical Students by Renee LeClair 

(VTX 4 March 2022) Open Medical Textbook series offer curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students

  Cell Biology, Genetics, and Biochemistry for Pre-Clinical Students is an undergraduate medical-level resource for foundational knowledge across the disciplines of genetics, cell biology and biochemistry. This USMLE-aligned text is designed for a course in first-year undergraduate medical course that is delivered typically before students start to explore systems physiology and pathophysiology. The text is meant to provide the essential information from these content areas in a concise format that would allow learner preparation to engage in an active classroom. Clinical correlates and additional application of content is intended to be provided in the classroom experience. The text assumes that the students will have completed medical school prerequisites (including the MCAT) in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of biology and chemistry that are essential to understand the content presented here. This resource should be assistive to the learner later in medical school and for exam preparation given the material is presented in a succinct manner, with a focus on high-yield concepts. The 276-page text was created specifically for use by pre-clinical students at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and was based on faculty experience and peer review to guide development and hone important topics.

View this book in PDF and ePub, Pressbooks (HTML), LibreTexts, or order a print copy | Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/interest-preclinical.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

(Open@VT December 6, 2021) Announcing New Open Textbook: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Biochemistry for Pre-Clinical Students by Renee LeClair

(VTX 4 March 2022) Open Medical Textbook series offer curriculum flexibility for faculty and cost savings for students

Playback Theatre is a form of community-centered storytelling theater where the audience tells stories, which are then reflected by a company of actors and musicians. Storytelling on Screen: An Online Playback Theatre Archive and Guidebook by Jordan Rosin and Heidi Winters Vogel with Sammy Lebron is an open education resource consisting of a collection of full-length recordings of online Playback Theatre performances, and a 55-page explanatory guidebook. The guidebook, featuring a foreword by Playback Theatre co-founder, Jo Salas, explains the adaptation to online performances and some of the key concepts, roles, and forms involved in online Playback Theatre. The resource as a whole is suitable for a wide range of theatre students in courses such as applied theatre, theatre for social justice, improvisation, theatre appreciation, or acting. The guidebook contains hyperlinks to specific sections of the archive where students can see a given form or concept in action, allowing for a comparison of how different companies approach a given form. The following performances included in The Archive are linked within The Guidebook and are also available in VTechWorks and YouTube.

View this work in PDF. | If you are an artist, educator, or theatre-maker using this resource, please help us understand your use by filling out this form https://bit.ly/playback_interest

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

• The Archive and Guidebook (PDF) and transcripts
• Performance #1 World Playback Theatre: "New Beginnings" 
• Performance #2 The Ume Group: “Voices in the Stone” at Virginia Tech
• Performance #3 Pangea Playback Theatre: “What Now?”

IN THE NEWS

Open@VT (October 9, 2021) Announcing Storytelling on Screen: An Online Theatre Archive and Guidebook 

 Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance, 3rd edition (c) 2004, 2021, is a 236-page college undergraduate-level introduction to aircraft aerodynamics and performance. This text is designed for a course in Aircraft Performance that is taught before the students have had any course in fluid mechanics, fluid dynamics, or aerodynamics. The text is meant to provide the essential information from these types of courses that is needed for teaching basic subsonic aircraft performance, and it is assumed that the students will learn the full story of aerodynamics in other, later courses. The text assumes that the students will have had a university level Physics sequence in which they will have been introduced to the most fundamental concepts of statics, dynamics, fluid mechanics, and basic conservation laws that are needed to understand the coverage that follows. It is also assumed that students will have completed first year university level calculus sequence plus a course in multi-variable calculus. Separate courses in engineering statics and dynamics are helpful but not necessary. Any student who takes a course using this text after completing courses in aerodynamics or fluid dynamics should find the chapters of this book covering those subjects an interesting review of the material.

View the WebPDF and ePub versions  |  View the accessible Pressbooks version | Instructors reviewing, adopting, or adapting parts or the whole of the text are requested to register their interest at: https://bit.ly/aerodynamics_interest.  Instructors and subject matter experts interested in collaborating to update, supplement, and share adapted version(s) of the book are requested to join the project update conversation on the Rebus Foundation website at https://www.rebus.community/c/open-textbooks-in-development/update-aerodynamics-aircraft-performance.

License: CC BY 4.0

IN THE NEWS

Open@VT (August 9, 2021) Announcing Open Textbook: Aerodynamics and Aircraft Performance

 Introduction to Biosystems Engineering (2021) is published jointly by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and Virginia Tech Publishing. It is edited by Nicolas M. Holden, Mary Leigh Wolfe, Jactone A. Ogejo, and End J. Cummins of Virginia Tech and University College Dublin (Ireland) and has an international authorship. It is the first Virginia Tech publication of the Open Education Network Publishing Cooperative. The book is a 23-chapter, 570-page open textbook targeted at 1st and 2nd year university-level students with an interest in biosystems engineering but who are not yet familiar with the breadth and depth of the subject. It is designed as a coherent educational resource, also available for download as individual digital chapters. The book can be used as a localized, customizable text for introductory courses in Biosystems Engineering globally. It is written as a series of stand-alone chapters organized under six major topics: Food and Bioprocessing; Environment; Buildings and Infrastructure; Information and Communications Technology and Data; Machinery Systems; and Energy. Each chapter is organized around stated learning outcomes and describes key concepts, applications of the concepts, and worked examples. The discipline of Biosystems Engineering emerged in the 1990s from the traditional strongholds of agricultural engineering and food engineering. Biosystems engineering integrates engineering science and design with applied biological, environmental, and agricultural sciences. 

Ancillaries: The Biosystems Engineering Digital Library (BEDL)— will provide more teaching and learning materials for instructors to use in the classroom.

View the Chapter-level and WebPDFs  | Order a print copy | | If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting or adapting this book, or if you have comments or suggestions please complete the form at https://bit.ly/IBSE_feedback to submit feedback. 

License: CC BY 4.0

IN THE NEWS

Virginia Tech Daily News (February 8, 2021) Virginia Tech Publishing partners with international association to publish engineering open textbook

 Significant Statistics: An Introduction to Statistics (BETA VERSION) is intended for the one-semester college level introduction to statistics course for students who are not mathematics or engineering majors. The text was deeply adapted from content published in three other open textbooks published by OpenStax: Introductory Statistics, and OpenIntro:OpenIntro Statistics, and Introductory Statistics for the Life and Biomedical Sciences. Original content was added by John Morgan Russell. The open textbook focuses on the interpretation of statistical results, especially in real world settings, and assumes that students have an understanding of intermediate algebra. Examples of each topic are explained step-by-step throughout the text and followed by a 'Your Turn' problem that is designed as extra practice for students. Each chapter also includes end of section practice and homework sets and glossary terms.

View the online version on Pressbooks |  NOTE: This is a BETA VERSION. This book is changing! It is currently under internal and departmental peer review. It is also undergoing its third round of classroom field testing. 

Ancillaries: Significant Statistics website  |  Significant Statistics YouTube Channel  |  Significant Statistics Podcast Channel

Interested? Sign up here https://bit.ly/stat-interest to be notified of a more final / formal release of this book in summer 2021.

License: CC BY SA 4.0

 Fundamentals of Business, third edition (2020) is adapted by Ron Poff from Stephen Skripak's 1st and 2nd edition adaptations of an existing open textbook. The third edition is an 370-page open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, and personal finances. The textbook was adapted for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business. A detailed list of changes made between the 2nd and 3rd edition are available at the end of the book.

View the Pressbooks version  |  access the PDF, ePub, ODT | and view print on demand options in color and black & white. Other resources such as slides and a testbank are also available in the resource sharing portal / user group. If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/business-interest.

License: CC BY NC SA 4.0

IN THE NEWS

Press release at Open@VA (January 6, 2021): Announcing open textbook Fundamentals of Business, third edition

 Strategic Management (2020) adapted by Reed Kennedy, with Eli Jamison, Joseph Simpson, Pankaj Kumar, Ayenda Kemp, Kiran Awate, and Kathleen Manning is a 325-page open educational resource designed as an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The open textbook is intended for a senior capstone course in an undergraduate business program and suitable for a wide range of undergraduate business students including those majoring in marketing, management, business administration, accounting, finance, real estate, business information technology, and hospitality and tourism. The text presents examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today’s firms and how they go about implementing those strategies. It includes case studies, end of section key takeaways, exercises, and links to external videos, and an end-of-book glossary. The text is ideal for courses which focus on how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. Students will learn how to conduct case analyses, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses.

View the Pressbooks version | access the PDF, ePub, ODT | and view print on demand options in color and black & white. Slides and an instructor-only test bank are also available. If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/strategy-interest

License: CC BY NC SA 3.0 

IN THE NEWS

Press release at Open@VA (Sept 15, 2020): Announcing open textbook Strategic Management 

Pamplin College of Business (October 19, 2020) Open-sourcing learning resources in Management and Virginia Tech Daily (October 27, 2020) Open-sourcing learning resources in Management Department

Voices of Virginia: An Auditory Primary Source Reader  by Jessica Taylor with Emily Stewart

Voices of Virginia pulls together oral histories from across decades and archives in an all-audio source companion for Virginia’s high school and college students. The complete "album" contains dozens of short oral histories from eyewitnesses to key moments in American history from the Civil War to the present. Excerpts are downloadable, accessible by smartphone, and accompanied by a transcript. You’ll also find brief historical context adapted from experts at Encyclopedia Virginia and American Yawp, and classroom tools like discussion questions, activities, and lesson plans that fit Virginia high school standards. By telling the larger national story with narratives from across the Commonwealth, Voices of Virginia grounds students in how history guides and is guided by everyday people.  Listen online  or  download the 150+ page Reader (detailed table of contents, transcripts, questions and lesson plans), and audio clips.

(License: CC BY NC SA) 

IN THE NEWS

Virginia Tech Daily (July 2, 2020) Voices of Virginia tells Virginia's story for all to hear.

Winner of the 2020 Oral History Association's Mason Multi-Media award.

 The pKAnalyzer Acid-base chemistry is an underlying principle throughout life and the universe, from controlling the pH of human blood to influencing global warming, virus attachment, and life on other planets. Our interactive pKAnalyzer, available on line through GitHub, empowers students and professionals to visualize acid-base species while performing calculations. Student (n=27) response is terrific for the pKAnalyzer tool. The tool scored nearly all 7’s (strongly agree) for ease of use, aesthetics, and format of output, using the 7-point likert scale.

Use the app here | Best viewed with Firefox or Chrome. Make sure JAVA is installed | View the presentation | View the poster

Funded by ICAT MINI SEAD Grant program.  License: GPL 2.0

Project collaborators: Andrea M.Dietrich,(PI), Jonathan Briganti, Anne M. Brown, Adil Godrej, Conor Gallagher, Conor Kelly, Byranne Peterson, Madeline E. Schreiber, Michael J. Stamper, and Anita R. Walz.

Virtual Reality Dog 1.0 and Cow 0.1 (Grantees: Michael Nappier, DVM and Thomas Tucker, MFA)

Virtual reality brings dog's anatomy to life for veterinary students (news & video from October 2018) 

• University Libraries Virtual Reality for Teaching and Research
• Vet Med Library's Virtual Reality Animals Page 
• Express your interest here

VR dog (2018) and cow (2019) anatomy models for Veterinary Medicine. A collaboration between the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Visual Arts, and University Libraries at Virginia Tech.

Normal Canine Video Series

Read more about the project and the grant funds that supported it here.

Electromagnetics, Volume 1 Beta, Volume 1 and Volume 2 (CC BY SA 4.0) by Steven W. Ellingson  (project homepage) 

January 2018  |   August  2018  |  January 2020

• Volume 1: ISBN 978-0-9979201-8-5 (print)
• Volume 1: ISBN 978-0-9979201-9-2 (PDF) 

Electromagnetics, Volume 2 (January 2020) by Steven W. Ellingson is a ~216-page, peer-reviewed open educational resource intended for electrical engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree program. It is intended to follow Electromagnetics Vol 1 as the primary textbook for the second-semester of a two-semester undergraduate engineering electromagnetics sequence. The book addresses magnetic force and the Biot-Savart law; fields in general and lossy media; AC current flow and skin depth; reflection and transmission at planar boundaries; fields in parallel plate, parallel wire, and microstrip transmission lines; optical fiber; radiation from current distributions, and antennas. Published: January 2020.

• Volume 2: ISBN 978-1-949373-91-2 (print)
• Volume 2: ISBN 978-1-949373-92-9 (PDF)

Print on demand: beta version | Volume 1 | Volume 2

Cover credits: Robert Browder | Cover image: (c) Michelle Yost. Total Internal Reflection is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (cropped and/or color edited by Robert Browder)

News

• Announcing Electromagnetics, Vol 1 by Ellingson (September 12, 2018 blog post)
• Author & editor [video] presentation from the 2018 Virginia Tech Author Recognition Event (starts 19:49) (March 21, 2018)
• Poster presentation: Adaptable Course Materials: Creating an Open Textbook for Electromagnetics (February 15, 2018) 
• Electromagnetics Volume 1 (Beta): Virginia Tech’s Newest Open Textbook (January 18, 2018 blog post)
• Electromagnetics open textbook reduces college costs for undergraduate engineering students (October 19, 2018)

Fundamentals of Business, 2nd edition (2018) was released in August 2018. It features multiple formats: PDF, Pressbooks, html, ePub (mobile), Mobi (Kindle), Print on Demand, and XML and ODF formats on request.  Instructors reviewing, selecting, or adapting the text are encouraged to register their use here. Visit this page for more information and links to the various formats. 

Technology and Disability 

by Hannah Herdegen and Ashley Shew

Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical Students

by Jennifer Cleveland, Andrew Binks, and Renee LeClair

Significant Statistics

adapted by J. Morgan Russell

Introduction to Earth Science, 2nd edition

adapted by Laura Neser

Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach

by Lori Anderson, Dirk Buengel, and Joseph J. Simpson

Composite Construction, 2nd edition

Roberto Leon, ed.

Mechanics of Materials 

by James Lord, Sneha Davison, Amy Richardson, and David Dillard

Introduction to International Business

by Laura Townsell Raschke, Ashley Beleny, Donald Hatfield, and Ron Poff

Introduction to Green Engineering

by Scott Durrell and Sean McGinnis

Configuration Aerodynamics

by William Mason.  

Pradeep Raj, ed.

Mathematical Programming and Operations Research: Modeling, Algorithms, and Complexity with Examples in Python and Excel -

by Robert Hildebrandt