Faculty from Fitchburg State University have published new textbooks - on music, language, and mathematics - that may be downloaded and reproduced for free, as part of an ongoing project designed to create open educational resources for students and the general public.
The volumes were published through the state’s Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (ROTEL) project, which promotes textbook affordability, student success, and inclusion and equity to benefit all students, particularly those from minoritized populations. The project provided stipends for faculty to remix and/or develop accessible, intentionally inclusive open textbooks that reflect students’ local and lived experiences.
Fitchburg State faculty have embraced this initiative, which has resulted in the publication of 10 open textbooks. The newest volumes include:
- The Art of Music: Music Appreciation with an Equity Lens, by Associate Professor Amy McGlothlin of the Fitchburg State Humanities Department, written with Boston University faculty member Jennifer Bill. The book is a comprehensive music appreciation textbook with musical and cultural examples from medieval to present times. The text, photographs and musical examples represent populations typically underserved in professional music. Women, minorities, and practitioners from the music’s areas of origin are highlighted in each chapter. The text can be used in its entirety, or by choosing specific time periods or chapters.
- Polyphony, by Assistant Professor Jennie Snow, Professor Elise Takehana and Associate Professor Diego Ubiera of Fitchburg State’s English Studies Department, is a functional, creative, and radical resource for facilitating critical conversations about multilingualism, the politics of language, and linguistic justice in the first-year writing classroom. This book emphasizes open pedagogy, collaboration, and “polyphonic” approaches to first-year writing. The Reader includes key texts (written, audio, and video) that reflect diverse perspectives. The Explorations section includes reading, writing, discussion, and research activities designed around each text in the Reader, and range from shorter in-class activities to longer plans that could span a week or two of class meetings.
- Algebra, Patterns, and Functions for Elementary School Teachers: A Workbook Approach, by Professor Mary Ann Barbato of the Fitchburg State Mathematics Department, is an accessible interactive workbook designed for future teachers with material on algebra, patterns, functions and statistics as they relate to elementary and middle school mathematics and beyond. It aims to use a universal language with clarity of expression that is reader friendly for all. It includes word problems and activities that strive to be relevant to a variety of cultures and genders. It includes components of UDL: material presented in multiple ways, scaffolding, extra explanations and a variety of examples and activities.
Other volumes in the series authored by Fitchburg State faculty members include:
- Introduction to Communication and Media Studies, by Associate Professor J.J. Sylvia IV
- The Data Renaissance: Analyzing the Disciplinary Effects of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Beyond, by Associate Professor J.J. Sylvia IV
- Biological Psychology, by Associate Professor Michael Hove and graduate Steven A. Martinez
- Why Do I Have to Take this Course? by Professor Kisha Tracy
- Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year Writing, by Professor Kisha Tracy
- The Basics of Health, Wellness and Fitness, by Associate Professor Jessica Alsup
- Statistical Problem Sets in WeBWorK, by Professor Peter Staab and Rachael Norton
To learn more about the project, or to download any of the volumes for free, visit rotel.pressbooks.pub.
The ROTEL Project is 100% funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The contents of the OERs do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and an endorsement by the Federal Government should not be assumed.