Your final reflection will be a public blog post. Below are instructions on how to create a post:
Create a title for your post and answer these questions in 250 words or less:
- Reflecting back on our work this semester, in what ways are textbooks a challenge for students? It might be helpful to review The Textbook Manifesto and your initial discussion board post about it.
- What is one way OER addresses these challenges? What is one way OER fails to address them?
- Should students evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork/education? Why or why not?
- Imagine your are a professor choosing a textbook for your class. What are three important ideas to consider when selecting a textbook for students?
- What is the most important thing you learned from this seminar?
1. Reflecting back on our work this semester, in what ways are textbooks a challenge for students? It might be helpful to review The Textbook Manifesto and your initial discussion board post about it.
There are different situations where books can be a challenge. The first one is the perception of a book. I mean sometimes students before purchase a book, they judge and get conclusions by the first impression. If the book doesn’t satisfy the expectations of the reader and it is required for a semester, this can be a big challenge. Also, another tragic challenge is the price. Nowadays, most books are over the $200 and students cannot afford that amount of money. In addition, if the book doesn’t explain very well by using complex terms or not proper pedagogical aids is going to be complicated to understand it.
2. What is one way OER addresses these challenges? What is one way OER fails to address them?
Since this program begun, I’ve noticed how this program focused on those points where students needed to be heard. Every class, all students gave their opinion about all the problems related to books and the system education, and the stuff understood these problems. Overall, I feel this program addresses the most fundamental problems.
3. Should students evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork/education? Why or why not?
Students should evaluate textbooks before start reading. Recognize every part of the book will allow the students to know more about every part of the book. In other words, see if the book has index, learning objectives, summary, glossary, and other pedagogical aids will help the student to go to the right place to understand a certain subject. Also, see the way how the book teach is important in order to understand the main subject.
4. Imagine your are a professor choosing a textbook for your class. What are three important ideas to consider when selecting a textbook for students?
If I were a professor, I think the important elements to choose the best book is the price, the quality of content, and the access to internet.
5. What is the most important thing you learned from this seminar?
I learned a lot of subjects in this seminar. However, I think the most important thing is how fundamental is to analyze a book before reading or purchasing. Since the quality of the content is the essential part of the book, it’s necessary to see if the book make use of pedagogical aids and other elements that help the students to understand the different subjects of the book.