OER Catalog

This open textbook is designed for beginners learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. This book aims to introduce learners to standard Chinese pronunciation, character knowledge, basic conversational phrases, grammar and vocabulary use, and cultural knowledge. Throughout the eight chapters, learners will explore: greetings and self-introduction, hobbies, nationalities, family members and occupations, inviting friends to dinner, talking about food and beverage, making phone calls, and talking about classes and exams. Learning activities include audio recordings so students can listen to the pronunciation of vocabulary words and observe dialogue between speakers. The book also includes videos with captions, allowing learners to listen, watch, and read. Original interactive activities have been created by the author to facilitate the practice of target vocabulary and dialogues.

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.

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 contains eight chapters. In the first five chapters, each chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is based on the conversation and presents the grammar and vocabulary necessary to deal with everyday situations. The Cambodian script and sound system are introduced in the second part of each chapter.

Each chapter has clear learning outcome, a review of the previous chapter, the review of the vocabulary, grammar points and cultural notes. The layout of each chapter is followed by three modes of communication (interpretative, interpersonal and presentation mode) across the four skills. Each chapter also has a listening, speaking, reading and grammar section, followed by interactive activities. Cultural notes and a few online available materials related to the theme of the chapter is also introduced. Each chapter ends with key vocabulary/expression and Grammar summary. Vocabulary in reading and listening is built in the conversation with the English translation so that learners can infer the meaning in the given context. Learning activities have been developed by using h5p so that learners can get immediate 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.

Basic Vietnamese is a comprehensive, interactive textbook designed for true novice and low-novice learners of the Vietnamese language. The book aims to help students achieve Novice high or Intermediate low proficiency according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards. With 15 chapters and nine pronunciation sections, this resource covers essential grammar structures, practical vocabulary, and cultural insights.

Each chapter in the book follows a consistent pattern, featuring conversations, useful vocabulary, grammar structures, culture notes (when applicable), and further practice exercises. The book introduces phonetics in the first part, across nine separate sections. Specific learning outcomes are provided for each chapter, focusing on communication goals. Interactive activities and multimedia materials, compiled and designed with the help of native speakers, ensure authenticity and engaging learning experiences.

Drawing from a combination of pedagogical approaches, Basic Vietnamese encourages both inductive and deductive learning, allowing students to grasp language concepts through context and analysis. The book emphasizes the development of all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), fostering well-rounded proficiency.

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.

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.

Chemistry, Life the Universe and Everything (CLUE) is a transformed general chemistry curriculum, developed by an interdisciplinary team of a chemist and a molecular biologist, that aims to bring about evidence-based change in general chemistry. General Chemistry is a gateway course for many students intending on careers in scientific, engineering, and health care-related disciplines. While there have been many attempts to improve the outcomes for these students, little has changed over the past 60 years. Recent transformation efforts have focused primarily on incorporating student engagement techniques into the course, rather than considering what it is that is important for students to learn. CLUE is different. CLUE was developed using a design research approach that focuses on scaffolded progressions around four core ideas: structure and properties, bonding and interactions, energy, and change and stability. The course emphasizes causal mechanistic reasoning in order to help students move beyond knowing that, to knowing how and knowing why chemical phenomena occur.

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.