OER Catalog

Foundations of Neuroscience is aimed at undergraduate students new to the field of neuroscience. The first edition specifically targets students enrolled in Neurobiology at Michigan State University and primarily contains topics covered in that course. For example, only three sensory systems are discussed in this version of the text. Future editions will continue to expand the number of topics and concepts presented.

This OER is unique in its presentation of neuroscience content. The text is divided into short, easily digestible chapters that focus on one concept. Pairing the text with images, animations, and videos provides students with multiple ways of learning the content. The text is written with the undergraduate student that is new to neuroscience in mind. Neuroscience terminology is introduced in an easy-to-understand manner, and supporting content is clear and concise to minimize cognitive load not associated with understanding new material

Each chapter ends with an interactive quiz for student self-evaluation of the content. Quiz questions provide feedback, so students can self-check their understanding at the end of each concept and receive immediate feedback about their learning.

The book comprises a total of nine chapters. Every chapter is equipped with explicit learning objectives, grammatical concepts, and cultural annotations. Additionally, every chapter includes dedicated sections for listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar, which are then followed by interactive activities. Cultural insights and a selection of online resources pertaining to the chapter’s theme are presented. At the conclusion of each chapter, there is a chapter summary that includes a list of functional expressions and a grammar summary. Additionally, there is a further practice section that offers exercises and activities for students to continue practicing the target language or the chapter’s topic.
Each chapter is structured to include three modes of communication (interpretative, interpersonal, and presentation mode) for each of the four skills, or three stages of teaching reading/listening: pre-reading, reading, and post-reading. The acquisition of vocabulary in reading and listening occurs through engaging in conversations that include English translations, allowing learners to deduce the meaning within the provided context. H5P has been utilised to create learning activities that provide learners with prompt and constructive feedback.

Basic Tamil is an online, interactive, and tech-enhanced textbook that promotes speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural skills. Each Chapter in this book has clearly stated learning outcomes, relevant grammatical items, and cultural notes. Each chapter is designed to teach the vocabulary needed as a building bloc as the student progresses to the next chapter. The pedagogical approach in the book is mixed and informed by the socio-cultural approaches and the generative approaches of the Second Language Acquisition theory. The mixed theoretical backgrounds match diverse learning and teaching philosophies and styles. Following the learning outcomes guided by American Council of Teaching Foreign Language (ACTFL), this textbook aims for the novice learners to attain intermediate low to mid-level proficiency level. The textbook incorporates pictures, audio-visual materials, and activities developed on the H5P platform to keep learners engaged.

This open textbook is intended for beginning students of Arabic who have already covered their literacy skills and ready to explore language in a lively and interactive approach. This OER is unique in its presentation of Arabic language content through theme-based modules. Each theme is addressed through vocabulary, grammar, reading, speaking, culture, and writing components. Each chapter includes self-check embedded quizzes that help learners digest language concepts. The book is also designed with teachers in mind. Each chapter includes pair work and group tasks that the teacher can implement in class and other parts that can be assigned as homework. The focus of the book is to establish a sound basis in Standard Arabic structure in a simplified and sequenced approach. Additionally, each theme will include a conversation section in which a module on Egyptian Arabic is presented. While developing a solid foundation in written Arabic, the Egyptian Arabic component will enhance students’ spoken fluency and enrich their cultural experience in their language learning journey.

This book is for those whose financial management focus is on small businesses. For you, we adapt the traditional financial management themes emphasized in corporate financial management courses to meet the needs of small businesses.

Many financial managers of small businesses come from farms or agribusinesses. Others are interested in working for or starting businesses in the food or retail sectors. In most cases, these businesses aren’t organized as C-corporations impacting things like taxes, depreciation, and legal requirements around compiling and reporting financial data. They are rarely publicly traded which creates unique constraints to raising debt and equity capital and calculating required risk-adjusted returns.

These financial managers are interested in solving specific problems they face in family or small businesses. They want to know how to apply the tools they are learning—coordinated financial statement analysis, present value analysis, management of cash flow, measuring their opportunity costs, etc.—to the problems they face at home. As we started to work on the actual problems faced by these managers, it quickly became clear that corporate finance tools don’t exactly fit the small businesses they come from. Further, in attempting to tackle the problems they bring, we learned that finding and/or constructing the data needed for financial management is another skill set often overlooked and in need of development. In the end, after investing a lot of time, we found that—without adaptation—corporate finance theory as traditionally taught doesn’t meet the knowledge needs and application skills of financial managers of small businesses. We wrote this book to be a catalyst that enables students and managers of small businesses to learn the tools and skill sets that will help them make sound financial management decisions.

The basis for this laboratory curriculum is to experience science from the perspective of an organic chemist. Working in groups, students are tasked with a project requiring them to design and carry out an investigation centered around an organic chemistry reaction. Students have opportunities to plan investigations, engage in green decision-making, use scientific models of phenomena, construct explanations, analyze data to generate evidence, and use that evidence in argumentation communicated in classically scientific ways—reports, scientific papers, posters, and oral presentations.

This “textbook” is interactive, meaning that although each chapter has text, they also have interactive HTML5 content such as quizzes, simulations, interactive videos, and images with clickable hotspots. Students receive instant feedback when they complete the interactive content and, therefore, can learn and check their understanding all in one place. I still consider this textbook to be fairly text-heavy and will continue to make even more interactive content!

The image on the cover represents the creation of this book. I pulled most of the content from open resources, modified them, added questions, and now offer them for you to use!

I chose the content to align with two courses that I teach: Environmental & Organismal Applications and Biomedical Applications. Unit 1 introduces students to science, which both courses use. Unit 2 covers content necessary for understanding conservation implications (the underlying theme of the course is de-extinction), and Unit 3 focuses on proteins so that students can understand the implications of modifying DNA (the underlying theme is CRISPR).

Please use this book as you see fit for your classes. I look forward to hearing how to make this book even more useful in the future!

Introduction to Neuroscience  is designed for undergraduate students enrolled in introductory neuroscience courses. This book specifically targets students enrolled in Introduction to Neuroscience 1 and Introduction to Neuroscience 2 at Michigan State University and primarily contains topics covered in those courses.

This completed text will guide students through the structure and function of nervous system cells and nervous system structures, signaling within the nervous system, include various sensory systems, motor systems, motivation and reward, stress, sex and the brain, emotions, nervous system disorders, learning, and memory.

This text has been remixed and revised from two different open educational resources aimed at undergraduate neuroscience students:

Foundations of Neuroscience by Casey Henley, Michigan State University

The Open Neuroscience Initiative by Austin Lim, DePaul University

In addition, new original content has been added to supplement what was provided in the above texts. The text includes many images and animations throughout and will be divided into shorter chapters that focus on a single topic. As this text is meant for undergraduate students, the writing is aimed at students that have not taken a neuroscience course before. Neuroscience terminology will be defined throughout the text through the use of the embedded Glossary terms to help with ease of reading. Additionally, important terms are bolded. Many chapters will end with an interactive quiz for student self-evaluation of the content.

Find errors or have suggestions? Please email hedgesva@msu.edu

An open textbook for undergraduate Criminal Procedure courses that are typically required of criminal justice majors.  The book uses U.S. Supreme Court opinions to illuminate the definition of rights concerning search and seizure, right to counsel, and other aspects of the criminal justice process.  This open textbook seeks to make undergraduates familiar with judicial reasoning as well as the definitions of rights relevant to individuals who are drawn into contact with criminal justice officials.  The chapters give significant attention to police procedures and individual rights under the Fourth Amendment related to searches, including those using warrants and the situations in which warrant searches are permissible.  The book also covers rights in the context of police interrogation, including Miranda warnings and exceptions to the Miranda rule.  In addition, there is coverage of the exclusionary rule, right to counsel, plea bargaining, and trial rights.  It concludes with a brief examination of rights related to sentencing.  This resource challenges undergraduates to understand the development and changes affecting rights as new decisions are issued by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Taking up the challenge of navigating the complex world of digital humanities, Making Sense of Digital Humanities offers readers an exploration of the many ways scholars have employed the diverse toolkit of digital humanities to create a better understanding of the synergies and disruptions created by technological change. Rooted in a concern for the daunting tasks associated with teaching and learning about the digital humanities, this volume hopes to provide easy entry into a complex topic while highlighting how an understanding of digital humanities can transform our thinking about technology in the modern world.