1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Textbooks are challenges for students based on criteria of Price, Content, and Availability. The issue of price regarding textbooks is important to students, who already face many burdens while attending school. The price of textbooks varies widely, and some textbooks used for a single course can commonly go for $3-400. When this price is compounded with a lack of use, one can empathize with students bearing such expense to use a book once or twice. Another challenge for students is that of content, textbooks may have too much extraneous content, too little of the course relevant content or vice versa. Poor selection of textbooks can force students subject to flowery language or over complication of simple topics. Textbook availability is another consideration for students. As commercial textbook providers seem to release a new edition almost every year, the availability of used copies becomes almost nonexistent. This issue is exasperated when specialized or austere textbooks are considered. The failure of manufacturers to provide enough books to bookstores can also force students into purchasing from resellers at inflated prices.

OER addresses these challenges by trying to make textbooks an open resource, free for all students and instructors. OER textbooks are unique in that they are written by individuals or collectives and put online for free. There are a few issues with the state of OER at the moment. Currently no single central repository exists for OER textbooks, making comparison of textbooks hard to do. The inherent danger in the OER method is that the quality of the textbook could be lower than the quality of a commercially produced textbook. This danger could be mitigated through work of an instructor or other textbook selecting entity to do quality control when selecting textbooks for courses.

The question of whether students should evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork is an interesting one. While such evaluations are extremely insightful for textbook selectors, they should be one of many criteria used when evaluating materials for course selection. Students should not go out of their way to select certain textbooks for courses, but an evaluative survey for a textbook, like those done for courses, should be enough to provide insight for faculty.

If I were to select a textbook for a course, the most important things I would consider are the frequency of usage throughout the course, the ability of the content to convey the information I want the students to learn, and the price for students to purchase or borrow. In the best case, If I know that the textbook would be frequently used, I might encourage students use the prior edition in order to save money and give them access to a larger used market.

The most important thing I learned from the OER seminar, is that as students we all have different opinions on what makes a strong textbook, and there is no one right answer. But if the conversation stays open about what makes a strong text, and whether those can be provided as free resources, then academia will be well on its way to improving the use of textbooks as a tool.

 

In what ways are textbooks a challenge for students?

Of course the most commonly encountered challenge is the sky high prices of a lot of textbooks. Especially when these textbooks are absolutely required for class while the material could be learned just as well with cheaper resources. Another challenge for students may be determining if the textbook is really comprehensive in learning the entire material for class or just the professor’s version of the material that he/she thinks is sufficient for students to just pass the class. Lastly, every student learns material in different ways. Some are visual learner and some are okay with a lot of text, assigning one textbook that might not be suited to a large group of students may prove unhelpful to some students.

 

What is one way OER addresses these challenges? What is one way OER fails to address them?

One way OER addresses the price challenge by making a lot of useful educational resources available not only to students but to teachers as well. The teachers can assess these resources and may determine that a lot more students may perform better in class if all of them have access to the resources unhindered by finances. One way OER fails to address challenges is in terms of content. The content may not be comprehensive enough as it might be in higher prices textbooks because effort in making the content may be held back by the lack of financial reward

 

Should students evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork/education? Why or why not?

Yes, they should so that professors that eventually pick the textbooks for class take the perspective of students into account. Because professors are so familiar with the content already then they might not realize how hard a textbook may be for a beginner to interpret.

 

Imagine you are a professor choosing a textbook for your class. What are three important ideas to consider when selecting a textbook for students?

1. Affordability- If the price is anything above a $100 for the textbook then a lot of students are going to have a hard time managing the expense. A consideration can be made if the text book is really good content wise and has a cheaper digital version available compared to the hard copy.
2. The amount of detailed and relevant pictures in the textbook. Pictures make the book interesting and visually pleasing to read and they are also easier to retain and interpret. Colorful pictures as well as real life pictures can give a student’s mind a break from all the overwhelming text.
3. How detailed the textbook is in terms of explaining the content. A lot of students may prefer books with simplistic and to the point ideas represented plainly. I believe that a student learns more and is able to apply the material if they are presented with examples, case studies and challenging concepts in a comprehensive manner.

What is the most important thing you learned from this seminar?

I learned about all the legal and financial aspect that goes into creating a text book such as funding and copyright. Taking all these into account, I realized that sometimes textbooks are not unnecessarily high priced. A lot of labor and equipment go into making these books in terms of intellect, printing and publishing costs, advertising costs etc. and the education we obtain in return may be worth the price.

Reflecting back on our work this semester, in what ways are textbooks a challenge for students?

Textbooks are a challenge for students in a way that they seem to be written for someone who already has some kind of prior knowledge and they automatically assume that the reader/student must be familiar with terminology, descriptions, and they tend proliferate knowledge by increasing the text volume and it feels as if they don’t make the book crazy big it wouldn’t be preferable  by schools. I  also don’t think  that the publishers would check and balance their books. Checking might be practiced by some other faculty and editors of their own, but don’t think that they get some kind of consultations of students or lay persons. So, my reviews throughout the semester and my prior knowledge and utilizing of the textbooks made me believe that the way textbooks are mostly formatted can be a barrier between the student/learner/seeker and the knowledge.

What is one way OER addresses these challenges? What is one way OER fails to address them?

OER addresses these challenges by utilizing the students who are in the end the real customers of the textbooks and they are the ones who can decide if the textbook is helpful in what ways.

One way the OER might be failing that  I am not sure how much OER has some kind of enforcement on utilizing textbooks and which ones would be fit for the appropriate levels, and how much a student for that specific class can make a nice blend of online sources in use. How much is the two way communications between the OER and the student/instructor(s)/faculties/departments open for productivity. Is this communication based on advise or on some kind of sanctions. Of course an instructor will claim that her/his textbook is the best, but what about the student’s opinion? The way the instructors were requiring the textbooks almost made me think that they might be taking some commissions from the sales.

Should students evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork/education? Why or why not?

Yes, definitely. Because in the end the student is the one who has first hand learning experience, not the instructor.

Imagine your are a professor choosing a textbook for your class. What are three important ideas to consider when selecting a textbook for students?

The most important one would be if the textbook addresses the level, especially for introductory courses. Whether the content fit for the group of students as a whole, not for a few individuals who had their way out of challenges who the rest of the students would be facing on a regular basis. Also simplicity is very important and less is more. If the book is pages long over a 100, I’d have my high hopes fall because what are the odds that we’d be retaining the pages of information in such a short period time. I see more and more textbooks and instructors are having hard time explaining topics simply and cannot stop thinking of “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein

What is the most important thing you learned from this seminar?

Textbooks matter that it can help us come over the challenges we experience during our educational journey or can be another challenge itself by causing us lose our motivation..

1. Well,  one of the first textbook challenges is certainly affordability (price), and then the coverage of materials which can be overly extensive to get frustrated by  just a glance at it, or relatively poor to get some questions hanging.  The another factor is legitimacy of the material – who are the authors of certain materials provided and what is their agenda: critical-thinking centered or fixed stymie thinking?

2. With all respect, I appreciated  OER`s approach of addressing technical and pedagogical aspects of textbooks. Via these inquiries, I believe that quality of textbooks might be amplified in long-term. Yet, I also think OER failed to address the learning aspects via textbooks. By this I mean, along with pedagogical and technical qualities, accentuation is also required to evaluate how textbooks are transmitting knowledge: did the student actually learn something from textbook except memorized parts?

3. From my perspective, textbooks reinforce learning processes and  academic performance, but don`t guarantee them. Therefore, it`s totally up to students whether to evaluate them as regular classwork  or  supportive learning material.

4. First – affordability to students: not every student has good financial situation to purchase an expensive book.

Second- relevancy of materials: Do materials covered in a textbook actually relevant to class` teachings.

Third – freshness of materials: updated materials with new findings make a textbook more valuable than old coverings.

5. I never paid attention that pedagogical and technical aspects of a textbook can correlate interest to textbook itself, and therefore to learn materials with more passion. So, appearance of the textbook also effects student`s will  and motivation to learn it, doesn`t it?  At the same level, I learned a lot about textbook publishing industry and its properties (i.e. copyright, creative commons etc.)

1. The textbooks can bring challenges to students by a mismatch between target students’ affordability and the price of the textbooks. Besides, entry-level students may find a textbook challenging and hard to navigate if the textbook uses sophisticated language to explain terms and concepts.
2. By lowering the price of printed textbooks and providing free e-textbook and other online instructional resources, OER makes textbooks affordable. Also, students could have a free rein to choose the textbook that matches their levels and most effectively facilitates their understanding when they go through the OER textbook pool – and they can do it free of change.
3. Although it is good to encourage students to evaluate the textbooks they use, and authors and publishers working on improving the quality of their textbooks could never acquire the readers and users’ point of view without asking students opinion, I don’t think students would have the time and motive to evaluate their textbook systematically. If the evaluation process is mandatory, the evaluation will be burdensome for students and it becomes less possible to expect thoughtfulness from students.
4. If I were a professor choosing a textbook for students, the quality of its review questions, the examples it uses (whether they are updated and related to our daily life), and its clarity would be three of my major concerns.
5. One of the most important things I learned during the OER seminar was the importance of a textbook’s visual design. If there are two books containing the same contents, most students would prefer the one with larger font size and more figures and tables.

I think the textbooks are a challenge for students because of the price at times. Sometimes the cost of textbooks are to much for students especially those who don’t get covered by financial aid. But also the material sometimes compared to what the lectures are teaching in class can be showing you two different ways to learn the material which sometimes can be confusing.

OER does great with addressing the cost but sometimes depending on the topic, the OER text can be way to vague for a college student that’s where it fails.

I think students should be able to evaluate textbooks for a couple of reasons. While taking math I realized that my teacher taught me different than the textbook did on how to do stuff so it often confused me. As well as sometimes I realized that the book didn’t give me enough of a depth explanation so therefore I had to do my separate research.

I think the 3 important things to consider would be :

The cost because a lot of students aren’t gonna buy a book if its way to expensive. The material the text should reflect what your teaching in class and in about the same ways. Finally, if we really need the book it would depend on the class because if we don’t need the book than what’s the point of telling us to purchase it.

The most important thing I learned from this seminar would be about the other resources available to me as in textbook alternatives outside of what the school tells us to purchase because I did like some of those books a little better than my regular textbooks and they broke it down in an easier way.

The importance of evaluating a textbook

Textbooks are not only about grouping a bunch of information to share with students so that they could learn from, but also they are about quality, precision, and affordability. So many students are not able to buy those textbooks because of their prices or either they bought them without even being interested in learning from it because of the length and unnecessary information. In this case textbooks represent a challenge for students.  I think OER does a good job into addressing these challenges. OER textbooks are affordable and the information from them is precise, simplified, and valuable. However, some of the OER textbooks fail to present enough study aids such as review questions and some tables. Because textbooks are a core part in students’ learning, I think they should take into account to evaluate the textbooks. It is going to help them extracting the good information out of it and decide whether this is valuable or not and take profit out of it. Their learning experience is going to enhance based on that.

If I was a professor selecting textbooks for my classes, I would consider the clarity, the important study aids, and the price of the textbooks. Not all students can afford to buy a textbook, which is very expensive and sometimes used for a short period of time, and read something which is not well structured or clear. The most important thing I learned from this seminar is the evaluation of study aids and structures in the textbooks because before I did not pay attention to those things. Now, I know better and I am going to use this knowledge when choosing my textbooks.

            Textbooks are becoming more and more challenging to students and there are several reasons for that. First of all, todays textbooks are getting bigger and bigger with lots of materials crammed inside it. This is true most of the time. From my experience, I know that, me and most of my classmates, if they have a textbook ,could not finish the whole textbook and understand it fully in a six months semester. It is not their faults, if the teacher can not cover a textbook in a semester long period, how will a student able to finish it and understand it. Another reason is, in this country textbook market is in the monopoly of couple of big publishers. they are businessman, so it is natural that they want to make maximum profit out of selling textbook. SO, they force the writers to write the textbook in a way that will look heavy with information, looks nice only and without stirring any controversy. Which makes the book ultimately without any personality. They set the price high and does not care much if a student will be able buy a textbook with that price tag. Also, the publishers try to influence professors buy giving them secret incentives(Which I think should be banned) to recommend their published books to the students. Most of the time the professors do not try to make aware of the students that there are other alternative books they can learn from and the students feel compelled to buy teachers recommended textbooks even with a high price tag. These are some of the problems students are facing with textbooks.

               From what I have learned from working in the OER seminar that they made buying the textbooks really affordable. they also let students freely access the digital version of the books which is a big relief to the students. Also, there are the flexibility of improving an OER textbook qualitatively with discussions and recommendations. One shortcomings of OER textbooks are, they are little short on making a textbooks interesting and more engaging to students. They should put more effort on adding more relevant pedagogical aids in their textbooks.

             Students absolutely should evaluate their textbooks as part of their classwork. This way they can let their voice be heard about what they like in a textbook and what they don not.

                If I am professor recommending textbooks to students I will feel the responsibility to evaluate the textbooks myself at first, than I will also consider about the price of the textbooks. But, most important is assessing the quality of the textbooks by self reading and also taking student surveys on the textbooks. last but not the least, a professor should not be persuade by the commercial publishers just for the chance of getting high incentives.

            I Have learned how to evaluate a textbook based on some set criteria. This makes me in some extent an authoritative person to evaluate a textbook properly. Also, I am now more aware of copyright contents and my privacy right in terms of digital medias.

Reflecting back on our work this semester, we’ve uncovered ways that textbooks can be challenging for students. Textbook jargon is a big factor students are faced with because a lot the concepts and  terminologies are unfamiliar.  Another challenge is a limit in teaching methods, in addition to pedagogical aids. One way OER addresses these challenges is by balancing simple and complex terminology within the text, with included definitions and examples. OER addresses the limited teaching methods and aids by implementing familiar examples for students to compare their learning with life experiences. Also OER textbooks use multiple aids to assist in comprehension for different types of learners. Some OER textbooks fail in this aspect because of a limited amount of pedagogical aids; meaning they might only include one or two learning alternative tools, which can limit diversity in learning experiences. Yes, students should be able to evaluate textbooks as part of their regular classwork/education because they are the intended audience. Therefore the information consumed should benefit their future and meet their level of comprehension with a challenging balance. If I was a professor choosing a textbook for my class the three important ideas to consider when selecting a text for students would be intent, utility and challenge. The textbook should suit the overall class objective, be useful outside of the classroom for professional use and challenging enough to spark critical thinking and conversation within the classroom. The most important thing I learned from this seminar is how textbooks affect the learning experience. Encountering textbooks on classes I’ve previously taken and being able to either comprehend well or struggle with the text taught me about the importance of terminology integration, engaging visuals, balanced writing styles and learning tools.