{"data":[{"id":68,"title":"Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2011,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"The reason why Randall Fallows wrote Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is simple: to help give students a better understanding of how to discover, develop, and revise an analytical essay. Here is how his 5 chapter book goes about doing just that: The first two chapters focus on the nature of an analysis and what's involved in writing an analytical essay. Randall shows that analysis consists of a balance of assertions (statements which present their viewpoints or launch an exploration of their concerns), examples (specific passages/scenes/events which inspire these views), explanations (statements that reveal how the examples support the assertions), and significance (statements which reveal the importance of their study to personal and/or cultural issues). After showing why each feature should be present throughout an essay, he reveals how to \"set the stage\" for producing one of their own. He first helps students to evaluate their own views on a subject and to examine how these views emerge from their own experiences, values and judgments. He, then, shows them how to research what others have said about the subject and provides suggestions for evaluating and incorporating this research into their own perspectives. Finally, Randall discusses the nature of writing, not as a linear procedure, but as a recursive process where the discovery and clarification of a concept occur simultaneously. The remaining three chapters reveal more specific advice on how to develop an analytical essay. Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis by Randall Fallows is a great text to prepare any student to write analytical essays for the argument and persuasion courses.","contributors":[{"id":1922,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Randall","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Fallows","location":"University of California Los Angeles","background_text":"Randall Fallows is a lecturer and writing two coordinator for the Department of Writing Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds an M.A in Rhetoric and Composition from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of California, San Diego. He has published articles on composition theory, popular culture, literature and philosophy in The Journal of Popular Culture, Rhetoric Review, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, American Drama, Americana, and contributed to the books Conversation: Theory and Practice, Taking South Park Seriously, and Americana: Readings in American Culture. Since 1982, he has been teaching courses in writing, composition pedagogy, literature, and American Culture at SDSU, UCSD, and UCLA. He also spent two years teaching at ELTE University in Budapest, Hungary. When he’s not teaching or writing articles, he participates in both standup and improvisational comedy at various venues throughout Los Angeles, and likes to spend his summer traveling with his wife, Tamar Christensen."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"}],"publishers":[{"id":25,"url":"http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Exploring%20Perspectives%20-%20A%20Concise%20Guide%20to%20Analysis.pdf","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:36.000-05:00","name":"Saylor Foundation"}],"formats":[{"id":250,"type":"PDF","url":"http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Exploring%20Perspectives%20-%20A%20Concise%20Guide%20to%20Analysis.pdf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":251,"type":"Online","url":"https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_exploring-perspectives-a-concise-guide-to-analysis/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":16,"reviews":[{"id":95,"first_name":"Jennifer L","last_name":"Foray","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Purdue University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides a thorough, far-reaching introduction for students in various disciplines, at different stages of their academic careers; the discussions and gudelines contained in this work are specific enough to be helpful yet broad enough for students to adapt them for their own purposes. The book does not contain an index or glossary, and I would have especially liked to see the former, especially as this is an electronic book. Perhaps a summarizing checklist of ideas, strategies, and terms used in the book (such as \"assertion\" and \"working thesis\") could be included in a glossary or appendix.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content itself is largely accurate and clearly-presented. However, there are numerous formatting errors and typos that detract from the text. Spaces between words are missing, and some sentences appear twice (see, for instance, the text after the checklist on page 102). These are not especially egregious but, in the aggregate, they are distracting. Further, I think that, if we implore students to review, self-edit, and proofread their work (as this text rightly does), we need to be especially certain that our own work is free of such issues. On a much more minor note: in his extended discussion of the Wizard of Oz, the author repeatedly refers to the Good Witch as \"Glenda,\" which is incorrect. Her name is \"Glinda.\"","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The discussions of analytical reasoning and writing are excellent, and I do not believe they will prove obsolute anytime soon. However, the author frequently cites popular culture references and ideas, and these do run the risk of becoming dated. For instance, today's students will likely be unfamiliar with the Coke and Pepsi slogans discussed on pages 35-36. I imagine that I'd have to explain to my students some of these examples and references.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This book is written in exceptionally lucid, cogent prose; the author avoids jargon and explains all other terminology, ideas, and theories he references. However, I found some of the end-of-chapter excercises to be too abstract and generalized, and, with their overweening focus on feelings and experiences, they veer too far from the realm of academic writing. If students cannot think of a relevant experience or topic from their own lives, they may just ignore the excercise entirely. I'd have liked to have seen excercises that present a particular idea or claim to be discussed so that students can jump right into the task at hand.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text consistently employs terminology and a clear structure; this is an easy-to-follow text, with each chapter building upon the ideas contained in the previous chapter(s).","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I could easily assign sections of this work, although the large size of each chapter, plus the multiiple sections in each chapter, make the chapters appear far more unwieldy than they actually are. The formatting (what appears to be 1 1/2 spaced text) and layout also creates the illusion of larger, bulky chapters; single spaced text would allow more compact, modular chapters and clear divides between sections and chapters.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The text's organization of ideas and topics should pose no problems for students, although, again, the layout and present size of each chapter impedes flow. Some of the examples could be condensed, too, in order to present a more cohesive, concise narrative structure. I'm not sure why the footnotes to cited sources appear at the end of a section, not the chapter as a whole. It's confusing and distracting.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"See above comments regarding typos and formatting issues; the lack of an index and glossary; and layout. The book is not as user-friendly as I would have expected from an electronic book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text does not contain grammatical errors other than what I presume to be typying/formatting errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I do not find any examples or discussions to be offensive or exclusionary, although, as noted above, some of them are dated and will presumably become even more so. Students may not understand the references contained in the book.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"In sum, this is a comprehensive, valuable text that demystifies analytical thinking and writing. I plan to assign this book--whether in whole or in part--in my undergraduate courses in history, where it will effectively complement history-specific writing guides and pedagogies. I am confident that the text will help students understand how to craft arguments, formulate assertations, and employ relevant details and examples.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":105,"first_name":"Angelica","last_name":"Duran","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Purdue University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text was insufficiently comprehensive for me to adopt, although i am interested in seeing it in a future state, so that I can. There was no title page, Table of Contents, glossary, or hyperlinks to navigate readily through the document, which I would need for any text of this type that I would use for the classroom. The text too could use some (but NOT lots) of work of consistency. For example, one of my comments on page 3 is \"It would be good to add the titles earlier when mentioning Chapters 1 and 2 above, and final chapter later in this paragraph \"It would be good to add the titles earlier when mentioning Chapters 1 and 2 above, and final chapter later in this paragraph.\"","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The content and organization are very strong. The author uses examples from various media, like books, films, popular culture. The grammatical and syntactical errors as well as plain problems that could be resolved with proofreading need attending to. As for proofreading one comment from page 2 is \"earlier use of the singular reader and here the use of singular purpose and audience reflects a set of assumptions I try to avoid\" and I noted on page 22 the typo of \"Mary Shelly's  Frankenstein\" (it is Shelley). I am unable to adopt this book because it reflects the sufficiently high level of errors that I want my students to avoid. I would like the text to define its audience a bit more. One comment I wrote at the bottom of page 6 is that I have a \"concern regarding grammatical skill of splitting infinitives which is often confusing for non-native speakers. Also see typo in last sentence of this page and later in paragraph.\"","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I very much like the scope of this text and on page 4 wrote \"I like this aim of two weeks.\" Following up on my comment above, the author refers to literary and visual works that have Western cultural endurance. The author also uses pedagogical techniques that will remain important, and he sufficiently shows their foundations.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Expanding upon a comment above, at the top of page 14, one comment was \"limited-perspective cultural assumption, as is use of 'American' business paragraph.\" US universities have more and more international students and even native speakers would benefit from reading texts that model global rhetoric, so this text might benefit immensely from a few changes.The author might be willing to do so as the author does a great job illuminating biases in the pages 31-32 section.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author's use of sub-titles and repeated sections at the end of chapters is excellent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I answer this question by referring to page 6. One section that might be added to the beginning of each section or chapter might be tips that may seem obvious but are not, like reading the assignment, asking the instructor about use of formal or informal tone, active peer-reviewing. This could and should be done in brief because one of the very positive points of this text is its brevity.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The author did an excellent job organizing the text, and maintaining the brevity. No easy task.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This does seem relevant overall to this text. However, I did mention above that adding a ToC and glossary that could be linked onto so that it could jump to the appropriate section would be welcome.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are some that seem due to lack of proofreading or sufficiently carefully editing.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Indeed, this book is not culturally insensitive or offensive, although i do not find it \"global\" -- not that it should be, but I repeat that the preface should address this more. The author might also add or modify the Exercise sections so that instructors and readers can benefit from the global representation they might have, without disaffecting or being unuseful to classrooms that do not have wide global representation","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I am very interested in seeing this book revised/improved and would be willing to share my sticky-note marked chapter to provide more details. This text has great potential to be used by many instructors who teach liberal arts classes that do not have much time to focus on the kinds of matters that this text addresses, but could advise students to review it in brief and bring in completed Exercises to office hours electively or even as required assignments.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":120,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Wiley","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"California Polytechnic State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers a number of areas of analytical writing comparable to many other for-sale textbooks. The areas into which the text is divided suggest tremendous usefulness, and I applaud the intent of the book to concentrate on analysis specifically, as that is an area that students in lower- and upper-division courses find especially difficult to perform with any kind of conscious methodology or understanding. They often resort to a kind dart-board approach in which they lob shots at \"meaning\" without necessarily appreciating the steps required to get to meaningful claims. Unfortunately, I found that, while this text provides a great deal of discourse on the subject and offers many models that could prove useful with the aid of--ironically?--further analysis in a classroom discussion or via exercises, the text lacks fundamental guidance and precision that would help students to replicate the process of analyzing texts, data, or other artifacts. For example, somewhere in the introduction or first few chapters, I would expect to see the term \"analysis\" explicitly defined, and perhaps discussed in terms of etymology, as understanding the definition and perhaps having some concrete examples of the concept in a variety of contexts would help students to better engage in actual analysis themselves. This text seems geared toward introductory, general composition courses. As such, it appears comparable to many other closed-source texts available and would function as a suitable replacement to many other fore-sale texts of its kind. The fact that it discusses analysis without attempting to provide catchy, current, or not-button readings/sample issues means instructors can supplement readings as they choose, and that flexibility may offset its lack of rigor or explicit, technical treatment of analysis.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"There are a few typos--missing spaces, for example--and some usage errors (that/which confusion). In terms of the content, the text did not seem to me to be wrong so much as lacking in rigor.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content seems general enough that it should not seem dated any time soon. The organization and simplicity of the objectives should make updates relatively simple to implement.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The book is simply written, aimed toward lower-division students, and seems largely free of technical terminology. Given the topic, however, I'm not sure that's a plus.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book seems very consistent in content and layout.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is very well-organized in terms of modularity.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"To my way of thinking, although the modules included do flow logically, the book seems to start a bit in medias res.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The layout and organization are simple in a pleasing, useful way, especially for reading via PDF/electronically.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The text contains some typos and a few imprecise usage errors (that/which, etc).","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I think this text would prove useful in introduction to composition courses--variants of English 101--more than in a designated critical thinking course or a course in reasoning and argumentation. The book seems most appropriate for those in search of a general composition textbook that would aid students in providing more detail in their essays.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":123,"first_name":"Sari","last_name":"Pinto","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"California Polytechnic State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text primarily explores analysis of literary and cinematic texts but also, to a lesser extent, some discussion of other objects of analysis: personal, cultural or fictional events and personal or political decisions or policies. Some discussion of close-reading techniques, the composition process, modes of development, finding and using sources and effective use of detailed evidence are included. The importance of prewriting/thinking to allow for depth of analysis is emphasized, and the text encourages research on the topic itself but also on the cultural context in order to explore significance. Analysis is carefully distinguished from other genres of writing such as review, summary, description or tangential response. Each chapter provides learning objectives, examples of student work, an exercise or exercises and key takeaways. No table of contents, index or glossary are provided. Ideally, instructors would assign this text or portions of it during the first two weeks of literature or film course.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate and free of errors and demonstrates minimal theoretical or political bias.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Examples are drawn from classical and contemporary texts such as The Wizard of Oz, Office Space, Family Guy and The Tempest, making the concepts accessible to most readers, both faculty and students, but not necessarily immediately relevant to a young twenty-first century audience. No blogs, music videos or other online texts are discussed, and the most current musical reference involves Lennon and McCartney. Updating the discussion with more current examples would require some effort on the teacher's part.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Informal, conversational tone is likely to engage students. Minimal jargon appears in the prose, and ideas are clearly expressed. Some highly abstract content, such as the nature of significance or the distinction between assertion and interpretation, may prove difficult for students without the addition of concrete examples.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Content is theoretically and pedagogically consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Subsections are clearly marked, so content can be assigned in sections, but focus within sections is occasionally inconsistent (see below, #7). Much of the later portion of the text, especially the last chapter on FAQs--is self-referential, so using the content out of its published sequence could present some challenges.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"Chapters and sections are numbered. Content could be more logically organized. Some subsections lack consistent focus and contain content that logically should be placed elsewhere. For example, an argument justifying the study of analysis appears at the end of the composition process section, a survey of the ubiquity of analytical thinking is placed in the section on close reading, and of brainstorming or clustering strategies are explained in the chapter on significance.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"No particular problems with layout or display, but the text looks a little like a 1970s textbook: minimal graphic elements such as text boxes, diagrams or illustrations are provided.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Examples are drawn from mostly dead white male authors such as Frank Baum, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, although a few examples from more contemporary white male authors such as Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) or Mike Judge (Office Space). The author tends to use his own writing and personal thoughts or experiences frequently throughout the text, limiting the appeal for some audiences.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":254,"first_name":"Erica","last_name":"Parker","position":"Instrutor ","institution_name":"Colorado State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Fallows uses a conversational tone to share a stirring range of helpful insights. He frames each chapter with objectives and takeaways while offering examples to highlight his points throughout the middle. There is no index or glossary. However, while an index would be helpful, Fallows defines his central language (either directly or through example(s) or both), so I see the lack of a glossary as an opportunity for students to create their own glossaries. Depending on the type of class, student-created glossaries could be a wonderful way to increase comprehension and study for quizzes and exams; additionally, these glossaries might be employed by teachers to monitor which students read. The appropriateness of this text is dependent on the type of class. For example, I could see this text as wonderfully appropriate for the literature classes I teach, but, across the board, it falls short of the depth required for a composition class. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"While Fallows is just one speaker representing one person’s views on subjects that can be interpreted and applied in many ways, there was nothing major about the content itself that weakened his authority in my eyes. His tone is relatable, and his insights are often more than sound. Still, a bit more concision and proofreading would advance his ethos.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Some examples are more timeless than others. The textual excerpts and models are timeless because students can review for themselves the techniques that Fallows highlights; in contrast, references may become outdated or prove too narrow for a wide audience, which is one of the most common difficulties for any text like this one. Still, Fallows selects references that are more universal than niche.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"A relatable, flowing voice is one of the strengths of this textbook. At times, Fallows could clarifying terms and context in more detail, but, on the whole, he does this quite well. Additionally, this book is a better match for a lower-division course because the terminology and concepts can deepen from here. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters are consistently presented and content builds on itself.  ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"While there are a number of visual cues (like colored boxes) and a consistent use of headings, since the flow of the author's voice is one of the leading organizational tools, chapters may resist being broken into parts. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Easy to follow and reference.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Nothing about the interface confused this reader, but there are no images or charts, which might be nice additions.  ","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"While the text never becomes unreadable, punctuation and sentence clarity do cause some stumbles. As an instructor in an English department, I do not want to put a textbook in front of my students that does not model consistent and clean sentences at a level they should aim for. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Topics and language do not sway into the offensive, and the tone of the text is inclusive and friendly – inviting all readers to think and learn. However, the vast majority of examples represent Western cultural as embodied largely by its white (and predominantly male) members (Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Van Gogh, Woody Allen, Mark Twain, and Tori Amos, just to name a few). Additionally, I wonder about the demographic nature of audiences for media like Office Space and Family Guy, but it is a daunting task to find media that has a true appeal for an enormous audience (perhaps a movie like Cloud Atlas would at least encourage students to consider at least some elements of diversity more directly). On the whole, this textbook could do more to appeal to the rich diversity of American students, the realities of our histories and its contributors, and our expanding global context.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":397,"first_name":"Andrea","last_name":"Hills","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College Portland, Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is an engaging text that clearly covers the the purpose, strategies, and writing process for an analysis assignment for a variety of disciplines. The most comprehensive sections of the text are the descriptions and examples of various aspects of the writing process. The sections that cover analysis are less detailed and sometimes skim over important concepts. As a result of the uneven coverage, it is somewhat difficult to pinpoint the student audience for the text. For example, some of the detailed discussion of the writing process would work well for a lower level class, but the instructor would need to supplement/expand some of the analysis concepts. For a higher level class, some of the extensive examples about general writing strategies like creating an introduction might be repetitive, but the analysis sections would offer enough information. However, the text is consistently formatted and sections are clearly labeled, so instructors could pick and choose which sections are most relevant to their courses.\nThe text does not have an index or a glossary, and a table of contents would be a helpful addition. There is an appendix of FAQs about analysis, but it is a somewhat confusing mixture of odds and ends.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, and the author clearly and completely cites all references to outside sources. The author does have a bias concerning the use of first-person and the ability to achieve objectivity, but he is up front about his positions. It will be up to each instructor to decide how comfortable they are with some of the author's statements on these issues. The text does have a number of distracting editing errors.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content rests on a solid foundation of writing and analysis strategies and principles that will remain relevant. In fact, the author does an excellent job discussing often-tread writing concepts such as thesis statements in a refreshing manner, bringing new life to established concepts. The one element of the text that runs the risk of becoming dated is the reliance on pop culture references. In the case of the extended use of the film Office Space in Chapter 3, the reference might be hard to update; however, most references, such as the use of South Park, are brief examples that could be quickly replaced with more current examples. Note: Most of the music examples have already passed their expiration date and should be updated in the next revision.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The clarity of the text is definitely a strong point. The author is skilled at drawing the reader into the text and providing engaging descriptions of the various writing and analysis concepts. For example, in the section on conclusions in Chapter 5, the author does not just repeat the old adage to avoid starting a conclusion with the phrase \"in conclusion\"; instead, he offers a full paragraph describing how this phrase limits the possibilities of the conclusion. The author is at his strongest when discussing writing principles, and offers clear explanations and effective examples. In other parts of the text, namely Chapters 2 and 3, discussions of some of the more academic concepts such as researching and gauging an argument's effectiveness get a bit thin, and too many concepts are covered in large sections of text. The author does offer a plethora of examples and definitions for most ideas in the text. The most effective ones are those that are briefly woven into the flow of the text such as the quick definition of stock phrases in Chapter 3. Other examples, especially long, narrative examples such as the issue dialogue on page 36, are less effective as they get lost in too much detail and sometimes seem too personal and simplistic to be useful for an academic course. There could be increased attention to various learning styles as the book is quite text heavy with just one visual in Chapter 4. For example, adding visuals to the AXES and pentad heuristics discussions would help clarify these ideas for all students, but particularly for visual learners.\n","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"As a whole, the text is consistent in terms of tone, approach and formatting. The one section that stands out as lacking consistency is 3.2. All other sections open with an appealing introduction that engages the reader with a hypothetical scenario or some real life situation that leads the reader into the focus of the chapter. However, section 3.2 has a brief, abrupt introduction, and the rest of the section is not as cohesive and examples are not as fully integrated as in other chapters of the text.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Chapters, sections and sub-headings are clearly and consistently labeled throughout the text, so assigning specific portions of the text is feasible. One drawback is that some chapters such as Chapter 2, which opens with Kenneth Burke's parlor parable, and Chapter 4, which opens with a extended focus on The Wizard of Oz, refer to the opening examples throughout the chapter, so assigning individual parts of these chapters could be confusing if the opening of the chapter is not also assigned. Additionally, the first few pages of Chapter 5 refers back to concepts and examples from Chapter 1, but most of this chapter could easily be assigned independently from other parts of the text.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"While the interface and modularity of the text are strong, the organization of ideas is somewhat uneven. The author is adept at explaining different parts of the writing process, but the elements of the writing process are scattered across Chapters 2 - 5. For example, Chapter 2 describes how to approach the general writing process, but additional pre-writing strategies such as brainstorming and clustering are not brought up until Chapter 4. It is also unclear what the function of the Appendix is. Some of the responses to the FAQs seem like they could be integrated into Chapters 1 - 5. For example, the response to the question about \"good\" questions seems like it could be worked into Chapter 2. Within chapters, the flow of ideas is excellent, with smooth transitions from paragraph to paragraph, but the chapters themselves are unevenly structured. For example, Chapter 5 offers extended discussion and examples for composing parts of the paper such as the introduction, yet parts of Chapter 3 skim quickly through more complex issues like evaluating arguments and logical fallacies. Condensing or deleting some of the long, extended examples (esp. those that are heavily narrative/personal) would leave more room for dividing some of the longer chapter sections into smaller, more focused sections with more academic depth added to the discussion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is clear and easy to navigate. Consistency in formatting chapters is strong with all chapters set up in the same format and sections of chapters (learning objectives, exercises, etc.) clearly labeled and arranged in the same order in each chapter. There is only one image (see response to Clarity), but it comes through clearly.","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"With a few minor exceptions, the grammar throughout the book is correct; however, the book could use some additional proofreading. Some examples of minor grammar corrections to note include the use of plural \"students\" when the singular is needed (page 100, Appendix), and the need to use \"shown\" vs. \"show\" in the first paragraph on page 46. The more pressing issue is the need for additional proofreading to fix a number of minor but distracting errors such spacing between words, correcting repeated text (page 102, Appendix), and double-checking that the correct spelling and forms of specific names and ideas are correct. For example, it seems that Kenneth Burke's pentad heuristic is generally not capitalized. Additional editing would be a quick fix that would reduce distractions for the reader and increase the overall credibility of the text.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"There are no overtly offensive elements of the text, and the writing is quite reader-friendly and inviting. However, the examples used often rely heavily on pop culture references to movies and television shows, so some students may have trouble fully understanding the references if they are not familiar with current American culture due to their cultural background or age. Some of these pop culture examples may also quickly become dated. While examples are generally engaging, most are heavily dominated by white males, and wider variety of voices and perspectives would be a welcome revision. Additionally, the text could accommodate a wider range of learning styles by adding in visuals and hyperlinks (see suggestions in the Clarity response). The author's extensive use of his own experience works well when he is relating his experiences in the classroom, but the approach is less successful when there are long descriptions of the author's own writing process or his personal life such as trips to the gym.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"With some revisions, I would consider using all or parts of this text in my courses. The tone and approach is similar to other texts I have chosen, and I find the conversational, descriptive style effective in holding students' attention. However, this text errs too far on the side of personal vs. academic. A number of the examples are quite long and based on personal experience/response (either the author's or the reader's), and this approach is reflected in the exercises at the end of each chapter, creating a gap between personal response and the academic approach required in many courses. Refining some of the organization, reducing/replacing extended sections that focus on a personal approach with more academic examples and depth, and revamping the exercises so that a variety of exercises are inserted throughout the chapters to practice or reinforce the writing and analysis concepts would strengthen this text.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":414,"first_name":"Stephen","last_name":"Walton","position":"Assistant Professor of French","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook gives a thorough presentation of the process and steps involved in writing an analytical essay. It provides a general but systematic method for students to use in approaching writing assignments in a number of areas (especially literature, film, media studies) and thoroughly explains the different steps involved in developing a written analysis for a college course, from beginning to end.\n\nIt lacks an index, and it even lacks a table of contents. The latter would be helpful for readers and for instructors using it in a class, and would be relatively easy to provide using standard pdf features. The instructor is left to develop his/her own table of contents by going through the book and noting the page numbers of each of the six chapters, and their sub-sections and sub-headings. Fortunately, the book is clearly organized and easy to navigate one's way through, thanks to the chapter titles, sub-headings of major sections, and sub-titles within major sections of each chapter.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author presents his own approach to teaching analysis and essay writing, so the terms  \"accurate\" or \"inaccurate\" are not the best. However, based on my own experience dealing with student writing and my knowledge of current approaches to writing and composition, this book seems to be well-informed in its approach. The author's assertions are well-illustrated and based on many years of experience in the field.\n\nI would not say that the text is \"unbiased\" either, but since the author does not pretend to objectivity and does not think that student writers can or should be \"objective\", this is not an issue. I would say the author is clear about his own positions, and supports them well. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is more or less up-to-date. The author makes many references to popular culture and current technology, and some of the references to television shows such as \"Family Guy\" or \"Friends\" are already dated or soon will be, and others may also be dated in a few years. Nevertheless, even if some of the references are not salient for students in a few years, the author provides enough context to make them understandable. It remains to be seen whether in 2020 or afterward students will relate to the cultural content, however.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clearly written, as one would expect and hope for in a book about writing by an English professor. The style seems to me attractive and friendly, and very approachable. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent in terms of its approach, its use of terminology and its organization. The author presents a set of elements that belong in any written analysis, and provides a useful mnemonic for these four elements (AXES: assertions, examples, explanations, significance). (This is all clearly presented initially in the overview in the preface.) Then, in chapters devoted to each one, he explains their importance and presents ways students can approach these elements, and the stages involved in developing them.\n\nOne feature of analysis and the writing process that the author emphasizes throughout the text is the recursive nature of writing, and this is a useful theme, as it continually reminds students that the writing process is rarely linear, and prepares them for the real nature of the process.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As stated above, chapters are clearly organized and broken up into sub-sections, which are further broken into subunits with subtitles. Each chapter section states the main topics of that section in outline form at the head of the section and then graphically highlights the key ideas of the section at the end of the section. The graphical layout is simple and uses contrasting color and text boxes effectively: it is easy to follow the structure of each chapter as one progresses through it.\n\nAgain, it would be nice if there a table of contents that laid out chapter titles, subsections and their page numbers at the beginning of the book. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Organization is very clear and logical.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Very simple presentation, clear and unobtrusive. Use of html (hyperlinks from a table of contents to each chapter, section and subsection) would make it easier to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Very well written (again, as one would expect from an English professor). \n\nThere are a few typographical errors, and several instances (10-20 of them) where the space that should separate two words is missing, but these are easily deciphered.\n\nThere is one section where three paragraphs are repeated (page 102).","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Quite relevant. The author shows how analysis is a useful practice to develop in college, but also in one's profession and one's life. The examples he makes use of deal with a variety of personal, political, environmental, social and cultural concerns, and a realistic understanding of the features of college student life pervade the book (e.g., procrastination, boredom, relationships, the role of popular culture). I found these elements to be meaningful and interesting, but it remains to be seen whether students would have the same reaction as the 60-year old academic who is writing these comments.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I found this to be a useful, interesting read. I appreciate the author's organization and his ability to explain his ideas clearly--in short his effective use of the very principles he puts forth for students to follow when they write. There is an openness to his discussion of how to approach writing that is refreshing, and that I believe students would appreciate. He is firm regarding his principles but not dogmatic, and he justifies his assertions in a way that students would, I believe (hope?) find convincing.\n\nThere is also a certain level of personal honesty that is refreshing: the teacher in this book is someone that students will get to know to a certain degree, and that seems as if it would be appealing to student readers.\n\nI have not yet decided how I might incorporate this book into my French literature and French composition classes, but there is a great deal of useful material concerning methods and approach to writing that I would like to provide to my students, one way or another.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":603,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Bockoven","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Lane Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"The first two chapters show the most promise in discussing the concept of analysis, but the development is very thin.  In later chapters, I was hoping to see more of a pay off from this initial promise.  Instead, it seems to devolve into a typical composition textbook in terms of \"how to write an essay.\"  An example of what I am talking about comes in Chapter Two: In the first section of Chapter Two, Fallows endeavors to explore the effect of personal circumstances on one’s opinions, but he merely scratches the surface here.  He doesn’t really show how a student might deal with this in any kind of depth.  I'm wondering if the author was so focused on being concise that he sacrificed other aspects of the topic?\n\nThe book does not contain an index or glossary.  In the on-line version of the text, some of the terms are given a hyperlinked definition, but the application of this feature seemed inconsistent (not all instances of these words throughout the later chapters are given this link).  In the .pdf version of the text, there's no table of contents.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I found much of Fallows's advice to be sound.  When Fallows writes in his Appendix of Frequently Asked Questions “analysis is not an objective process. You cannot necessarily uncover the author’s intentions or reveal the one correct conclusion just by thoroughly understanding specific relevant facts,” I think he is correct and also providing students a helpful way of thinking about analysis.  Other helpful nuggets of advice: “A good analysis starts with the right questions. To uncover your point of view, you need to identify the dilemma or confusion in the scenario. And then you need to ask a question that requires more than a summary or objective answer.”  In Chapter One, he writes, “Though you need to provide examples, you should select and discuss only those details that shed the most light on your points of view. “ In Chapter Two’s description of the writing process, I agree with his assessment that writing is not necessarily a linear process, but more recursive.  “Remember that the goal is not to come up with an answer to the question ‘what’s THE meaning of the piece?’ But rather to explore dimensions of the subject that do not have definitive answers, allowing us to consider our own subjectivities.”  Chapter Three.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Fallows makes an effort to bring in a discussion of non-academic topics, such as students' potential career choices, to demonstrate how analysis is a life-long skill that can be used in many different contexts.  This comes across most clearly in the Appendix of Frequently Asked Questions.  The content seems almost timeless to me as this pattern of thought has been around for a long time.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Mostly very good, I think.  Fallows really makes an effort to explain his concepts in a very basic way so that any first year student should be able to understand these concepts.  Potential exceptions include \"heuristics\" and \"rhetorical choices.\"  In the on-line version of the text, there is a hyperlinked definition for heuristics (but only the first time he uses this idea).  I thought his use of the acronym AXES (assertion, examples, explanations, significance) was clever, and he shows how the plural form of both \"axis\" and \"axe\" apply well to the notion of analysis.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The exact purpose of the book feels inconsistent to me.  Is it mostly a book on academic analysis or on the writing process.  Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive, but it did feel like the book was attempting to be all things to all people.  This criticism applies specifically to the \"framework\" of the book in a conceptual sense.  In terms of its use of terminology and its references, it is very consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The concise nature of the text makes it easy to adapt to different contexts.  Helpful features of the text (Learning Objectives and Key Takeaways) are also useful in this regard.  There are a few moments where the text does seem self-referential.  Sometimes the use of hyperlinks (in the on-line version of the text) direct readers back to relevant sections, but this is not always applied.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book has a strong sense of continuity.  Again, its concise nature aids in achieving this quality.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The use of hyperlinked definitions of key terms in the on-line version of the text were helpful, but their use was inconsistent.  Usually only the first instance of a word had the hyperlinked definition.  If a teacher were using sections of the book out of order, then this practice would not be helpful.  Sometimes, I wondered if words really needed this definition: such as \"examples\" (do some people really not know what an example is?)  Another problem with the hyperlinked definitions was that they were the exact same wording as the text.  If the term is being defined in the text, then why the need for the hyperlink?","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I found two errors: “a students was inspired” in Appendix and Chapter Three: “The best way to begin your analysis is with an attentive, open mind; something that is more difficult than most of us care to admit. “ semi-colon usage?  The text is inconsistent about coordinating quotation marks with other punctuation (does period go inside or outside?).","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive, but it also feels very \"white bread\" to me.  Text does make an effort to achieve a sense of gender balance.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I wish that he would have followed his own advice in Chapter Three: “ it is almost always better to write ‘a lot about a little’ than ‘a little about a lot.’ “  In trying to tackle the writing process as well as analysis, the book ends up saying a little about a lot.  At the same time, there is a lot of helpful information about the process of analysis (and his discussion of the writing process is not bad--it just seems to detract from the book's focus).  I'm almost wondering if the material on analysis wouldn't work better as an essay rather than an entire book?  As I was reading the book, I felt that it was really an extended essay.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1169,"first_name":"Rosalind","last_name":"Sibielski","position":"Assiatant Professor of English and Film Studies","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The strength of this book is that it is limited to exploring one very specific type of academic writing: the analytical essay. Over the five chapters included in the book, it provides students with a step-by-step breakdown of the process of analyzing texts, formulating theses, compiling examples, and organizing the analysis into a coherent essay that provides consideration of the significance of the approach to the analysis within the context of the larger body of scholarship surrounding the topic. It also provides students with in-depth examples--and, what is perhaps more helpful, for each example, an explanation connecting it back to the sections of the book outlining the analysis and writing processes. It also gives consideration to how these steps to analyzing texts can be applied to a wide range of types of texts, from literature, to film, to advertisements.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and error-free. It does draw heavily from the authors own experience in teaching analytical writing to college students, but that bias in relation to the books' topic is arguably a strength rather than a weakness in terms of the trustworthiness of the information provided.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant in terms of the pedagogical approach it advocates when it comes to both scholarly analysis and scholarly writing in the college classroom. The examples used in the book (both the sample writings and the examples used to explain the analysis process and the writing process) are likely to remain accessible to students for some time. The book also provides useful background explanation for students not familiar with the examples. So, for example, when the film The Wizard of Oz is used to provide an example of how to analyze a text, the author includes a plot summary for students who have not seen the film.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is very accessible for undergraduate students, steers clear of jargon for the most part, and when rhetoric/composition jargon is used, explanations are provided to make clear the concepts behind what those terms refer to.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent all the way through in terms of both the use of specialized terminology and its framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book follows a step-by-step process for how to analyze and write about a variety of texts. Each chapter focuses on a different part of the analysis and writing processes. Chapters are also broken up into sub-sections based on specific steps in analyzing and writing. This makes it very easy to divide the book up into modules for a syllabus. The book is not as easily switched around to align with a teaching approach that follows a slightly different order in terms of these steps, since each chapter (and each sub-section within each chapter) builds on a skill and on context examined in the previous chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is very clearly and logically organized. It is easy to follow the flow of information from one section to the next and one chapter to the next. Again, this is a plus for use in undergraduate writing courses (or other courses where analyzing texts is a key component).","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read part of the book as a PDF downloaded to my computer, part of it in a web browser on my computer, and part of it on a web browser on my tablet. The interface in all three versions was intuitive and easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive. It uses a variety of examples and a variety of approaches to analysis that include examinations of ideological analysis around issues of race and gender. It also avoids the use of the \"universal\" male pronoun when discussing hypothetical readers or students.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I teach both first year writing in an English department and a variety of film analysis courses in a film studies program. I would definitely use this book for both first year writing and for my intro to film course. In fact, I will be adopting it for both next year.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1312,"first_name":"Lisa","last_name":"Jensen","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Saint Paul College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book focuses on analysis and breaks the subject into easy-to-use chapters. While not deep or entirely comprehensive, the book does provide a baseline explanation that instructors can add to as needed. I could see using my own examples, for instance, or easily applying his concepts to my particular assignments. As other reviewers have noted, the book touches on the most important aspects of analysis both in composition and literature/film. I particularly like the section on moving from interpretations to analysis. This chapter identifies key aspects of argument, thesis statements, and analysis that are helpful in a variety of writing situations. I also like the organization within each chapter. Each section and chapter begins with learning objectives that are explained in the chapter, illustrated through examples, tested with exercises, and enforced with the \"key takeaways\" box. This varied approach to learning styles works with different students and different assignments. Finally, the appendix, which highlights student questions, puts writing in a larger perspective which in turns shows students that writing skills and analysis with benefit them beyond the assignment or class.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Fallows deals accurately with the major aspects of analysis. While I think the examples are geared more toward  a literature course, overall the book provides a strong base for all analytic writing situations.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The explanation of analysis is up-to-date and the content is arranged in such a way as to make updates easy and straightforward.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clearly written and Fallows has an accessible, conversational style. The online version has hover links for definitions to enforce key terms.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters are consistent and content builds from one chapter to the next. If I were to change anything, I would suggest moving the chapter on using sources to later in the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Because each chapter builds on the previous, I imagine instructors would teach the book in the order presented. Later chapters often reference terms or ideas presented earlier. In the online version, quick links between chapters would be helpful so students, when reading about brainstorming techniques in chapter 4, for example, could quickly link back to the first description of this practice in chapter 2.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Topics are presented in a clear and logical fashion. As noted earlier and in other reviews, the organization of each chapter is quite useful.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read the book both in PDF form and in its online form and found no problems with the interface. Chapters were easy to navigate. The PDF version has a note to teachers while the online version has links to definitions and other content. Neither version has a glossy or index, and the PDF version does not have a table of contents. In the online version, links between chapters would be helpful to remind students of key concepts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No glaring grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The examples Fallows uses are not culturally offensive or insensitive, but the book would be more appealing with a wider variety of cultural examples. The Wizard of Oz, Tori Amos, Office Space, and the Beatles could be replaced with a wider variety of cultural representations that more accurately reflect our students.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1851,"first_name":"Virginia","last_name":"Garnett","position":"Lecturer of English","institution_name":"UNC Pembroke","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Fallows does not purport to offer a complete handbook and in fact states that this volume would be most useful as supplemental reading assigned during the first two weeks of a semester. That said, it successfully covers a wide range of topics central to the writing classroom, including source selection, notetaking, responsible source use, pre-writing strategies, reverse outlining, among others. Additionally, the FAQ section, appearing at the end of the volume, addresses a variety of student concerns, namely the transferability of the analytical skills introduced in the volume. This edition does not contain an index (and only the online edition contains a table of contents), so readers might find the interface frustrating when looking for a quick reference.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information presented in this volume is reliable, and the advice offered should prove useful to students at various levels of writing proficiency. Fallows is careful to avoid offering too prescriptive a guide to writing, recognizing that different rhetorical situations require different approaches and strives instead to offer guidelines that could be easily transferred across disciplines. His discussion of the potential effects (good and bad) of employing first-person pronouns in academic writing, for example, is accurate and prepares students to adopt a voice appropriate to a given situation.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Fallows’s strategies for writing are consistent with many process-based handbooks and so should prove relevant for the foreseeable future. His references to Twain, Shakespeare, Plato, among others, should likewise stand the test of time. His pop culture references, on the other hand, will likely appear dated to current college students, as references to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Don McLean, Beavis and Butthead, and Office Space, for examples, are not likely to reflect their interests.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of Fallows’s book is his conversational tone, and he provides numerous analogies and personal examples to clarify his points in a style readily accessible to freshmen readers. His use of the acronym “AXES” (“making assertions, “including examples,” “explaining the examples,” and “extending the significance”) to help students remember the four components of analysis is clever and easy to follow. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Fallows seems focused on breaking students out of potentially limiting and/or outdated forms of composition to help them view writing as a process of inquiry and discovery. Each section of the book works toward this end, offering students new strategies to adopt and adapt to suit their future writing needs.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Exploring Perspectives is designed to be read as a linear work, as Fallows builds on previously-discussed skills and examples in each subsequent chapter. That said, his chapters are broken into manageable sections, and instructors would face little difficulty in assigning them in a different order to suit the needs of the class, so long as they were prepared to explain a few recurring concepts like the Burkean parlor. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of Fallows’s book is strong, with each chapter beginning with clear objectives and ending with exercises and a list of “key takeaways” for review. The book, as indicated by the table of contents (which, as noted previously, appears only in the online version), moves from concept to application, thereby progressing in a logical manner.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The textbook is easy to follow whether reading online or downloaded as a PDF, though at least one internal link in the online version is broken (between chapters 3 and 1). The online version includes a number of highlighted words over which readers can hover and view a definition. These hover boxes work, though their value is questionable, as many of the definitions offered are almost the same as those given in the body of the text. See “freewriting” and “brainstorming,” for examples (chapters 2 and 4, respectively).","grammatical_rating":3,"grammatical_review":"The book contains only a few minor grammatical errors, though the most common problems throughout the volume are inconsistent capitalization and missing spaces between words. The most glaring editorial error is the repetition of the same paragraph on page 102.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Fallows works to offer examples from a variety of fields—literature, film, philosophy, political science, history, among others—and should likewise be accessible to a variety of readers. While nothing about his discussion, references, or writing style appears offensive, I do wonder at how culturally inclusive his work will appear to students for whom his pop culture references fall flat. See \"Relevance/Longevity.\" ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, Exploring Perspectives would serve as a useful supplement to a writing-intensive course in which students are assumed to have some proficiency in writing at the college level (i. e. they have already taken first-year writing). A first-year writing course would require a more comprehensive resource, but this text, particularly with its examples of underdeveloped analysis, would likely prove useful to students in a literature survey, for example, or other general education courses. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1870,"first_name":"John","last_name":"Wallace","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of California at Berkeley","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The scope of this book is to provide a basic approach for writing an analytic essay for college students unfamiliar with the practice. In that it never forgets its audience and takes care to provide structure and advice for \"beginning\" students to write analytic essays, its coverage is excellent. It does not, however, explore more advanced analytic essay style.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is fully accurate except for a very limited number of places where spaces between words are missing or font is non-standard. There might be 5-10 of these occurrences in the entire work. These are in the PDF version only. The web-based version of the text is perfect as best as I can determine.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Many of the fundamentals of analytic thinking are, indeed, enduring. But the portions of this book devoted to research need better attention to digital resources. The word \"internet\" appears only three times in the entire volume. Some comments feel dated. For example, \"And thanks to the Internet, I do not even have to leave the house, but can do a Google search for up to the minute news or visit any number of academic websites to see what my fellow scholars have written about my subject.\"","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clarity is one of the outstanding successes of this work. It has excellent structure, clear and clean prose, ample examples, useful callout boxes, and conceptual rigor. The book reads quickly and easily and would be easy to navigate, too, should one need to go back and locate a certain topic that was discussed.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book has been well-conceived and reconsidered and rewritten with care, affording a strong sense of an \"organic whole\" to the project of teaching how to build a good analytic essay from the inception of the ideas to the submission of the work. The key concepts are kept alive and effective everywhere. There is no sense that the topic or argument is shifting or slipping at any point.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book has struck an excellent balance between the full explanation of a concept and the packaging of it in a module of a size that would be comfortable for undergraduates.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The author has a vision of how an analytic essay gets started and grows into its final form. After a chapter that establishes his definition of analysis, its four key components, and the need to maintain a balance among them, then a much longer chapter that argues for the necessity to think of analysis as an act of a thinking subject embedded in contexts that affect the direction of analysis, he takes up each of his three phases of development: establishing key perspectives / theses, explaining the origins and implications of them, and structuring the essay argument. This 5-chapter approach offers a logical progression of ideas that significantly improve the chances that undergraduates unfamiliar with writing analytic essays can develop a writing path that will work for them.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The web-based version of this book is well designed, with a table of contents listing hyper-linked chapters and chapter sections. Many of the key terms have useful pop-up definitions associated with them. As with many web-based books, the chapters require a considerable amount of scrolling to navigate. \n\nThe PDF version seems more like an afterthought. There is not even a title page or table of contents.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This book keeps its sentence structure simple and clear. There are times when I felt that the tone was just slightly condescending because of its simplicity. On the other hand, as a textbook for those not strong in reading, or in a hurry, or for non-native students, this approach is understandable, perhaps even laudable.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There is some narrowness in its cultural terrain, in my opinion. For example, the author writes, \"Jeff is not happy. His clock shows 2 a.m., but his computer screen shows nothing. For the last four hours he has tried to get started on an essay on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, but he just doesn’t know where to begin. 'It’s Professor Johnson’s fault I’m in this mess,' he thinks to himself.\" To my ear, \"Jeff\" and \"Johnson\" — although I understand the wish to be generic and broadly approachable — seem a bit too exclusively of a certain cultural background. Also, the text feels just slightly \"old\" to me in this way. Again, when discussing argument in advertising, the example used, as if recent, is \"things go better with Coke\" — a 1960s phrase. This just evokes a certain America to me.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This work is most appropriate for lower-division undergraduates or college students of any level who have not had much training in analytic essay writing. While I wouldn't be able to use it in my lower-division literature classes in its entirety, there are portions  definitely worth sharing. For example, the coverage of basic errors is something I feel could be repackaged and offer welcome guidance. I am glad to have read it. Some of its observations may well find a place in my teaching plans.\n\nAs a final note, some of the author's arguments seem just a little too simple. But perhaps avoiding those complexities is one of the strengths of this basic textbook.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":3152,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Schaupp","position":"Adjunct Professer","institution_name":"Point Park University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book claims to be a concise guide to a specific style of writing–the analytical essay–and that it does. In its conciseness, the book actually attempts to cover multiple aspects of the writing, researching, revising, and idea generating process. I think the book makes for a handy reference rather than an exhaustive treatment of the subject.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book acknowledges the existence of bias in writing and, obviously, the author writes from his own experiences in teaching and writing, including an example of one of his own published essays, which demonstrates the process he discusses in this book. Overall, the author creates an objective template, if you will, to guide the subjective undertaking of analytical writing. \r\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Close reading and analytical writing have been around for years and continue to be a part of many college English courses. While classes, universities, and teachers vary, especially over time, the expectations remain similar and reference material like this one will come in handy. In the book, a few references to current social media forms may need to be updated in the future depending on technological advancements, and a few pop culture references, while applicable to most teachers' generations, feel a little out of touch with the current students' generation. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Aside from a few jargon words, like heuristic, the book is easy to read and accessible to readers given the author's informal style and personal examples. In a world of online bullet-point reading material, this book provides an easy-to-remember acronym (AXES) for the four main components of analytical writing and clearly-labeled takeaways at the end of each chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The main purpose of the book is present in each chapter. The author does not lose sight of his focus, and the consistent layout of the beginning and end of each chapter provides reliable visual cues to the readers.\r\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters consistently start with learning objectives and end with key takeaways and also consist of exercises that allow students to practice main ideas. Depending on where they are on the writing process, students can refer to specific chapters or subchapters for guidance.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book strives to take its own advice, following the order a student would take in developing ideas for, writing, and revising an analytical essay. Each chapter refers back to something the author already discussed, showing both the importance of connections/transitions but also the non-linear nature of the writing process. Additionally, the FAQ chapter at the end acknowledges common student concerns about analytical writing and looks at the value of analytical writing for students of all majors.\r\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I did not observe any interface issues with the PDF or online version of this book.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few errors in Chapter 6 (the PDF version) that could be easily corrected with another round of proofing.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book excellently draws on a variety of forms that likely require analysis—from books to music to advertisements. However, the author tends to rely on examples of famous white men, including John Lennon, Vincent van Gogh, and Shakespeare, as well as pre-2000 references. The examples could use a bit more generational, racial, and other forms of diversity.\r\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I taught Introduction to Literary Studies last semester to students generally stuck on the traditional five-paragraph essay model with a specific prompt from their teacher. When I asked the students to generate their own ideas about the books we read in class, they were often stumped. I created guidelines for them to brainstorm, draw from personal experiences, and create theses that passed the so what? test. This book would have been a handy resource for those first few weeks of class (and throughout the semester) when the students were trying to figure out the best way to tackle the writing, revising, and even the peer reviewing of their analytical essays!","created_at":"2019-08-18T16:13:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-08-18T16:13:43.000-05:00"},{"id":33448,"first_name":"Heidi","last_name":"Hamilton","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Emporia State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book focuses particularly on the analytical essay, and in that regard, provides a comprehensive covering of what goes into the conceiving and writing of this type of essay. While I expected more attention to building support for your analysis, the book seems more focused on a personal analysis type of essay. While this may make it useful for beginning composition courses, the applicability to courses in other fields, as the author intends, is more limited.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Writing principles seem accurate, although geared more for English composition and literature courses. Use of term “assertion” to represent one’s claim is not universal in other fields, and “argument” might be better term, given an assertion generally suggests a claim that is unsupported.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The basic principles of analysis and writing remain relevant despite the publishing date. The popular culture examples used in the book, however, are likely less well known to today’s students. While it’s possible (questionably) that they still view Office Space, a Tori Amos song would resonate with few of them. An instructor may need to supplement to provide further application examples.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author’s style makes this book easily accessible to an undergraduate student. Fallows writes very “casually” at times, particularly when relating personal experiences, but this may aid some students’ understanding. Overall, terms are defined.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"While the book begins as an introduction to how to write an analytical essay, some chapters focus more on writing mechanics, while others focus on the type of essay purported to be the book’s focus. This lends itself to some inconsistency in the framework and purpose of the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters easily could be used separately, depending upon what you want students to learn. Chapters are subdivided as well. I can see only assigning what is useful to my course without any problems.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Middle portions of book that discuss aspects of writing such as language and style seem to flow less logically. If book’s focus is on writing analytical essay, then it would make sense for chapters to build on how to support and develop your points or arguments, rather than discussing writing mechanics. More positively, each chapter flows well with clear learning objectives stated at the start of each section, then the material presented, and ending with exercises and key takeaways.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface problems were detected with either the pdf or the online version.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"A few errors but not significant to disrupt the flow or readability of the book. The pdf version contains some copyediting issues, such as text being repeated.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Nothing in the text appears culturally insensitive or offensive. That being said, the examples, especially the popular culture examples, provide a narrow representation of race, ethnicity, and background, as most of them refer to white, middle-class U.S. citizens.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"For someone, like myself, who does not teach composition classes but assigns analytical essays to upper-level students, this text both delivers and disappoints. I definitely could assign the first chapter which explains an analytical essay and nicely lays out common errors in writing these. The appendix section at the end also answers common questions. Middle chapters, however, would be more useful for an instructor focused on teaching writing skills, rather than an instructor using analytical essays for assignments and hoping to use this text to improve students’ understanding of this type of writing.","created_at":"2021-11-05T12:34:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-11-05T12:34:00.000-05:00"},{"id":35370,"first_name":"Karen","last_name":"Pleasant","position":"Humanities Instructor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook provides a great overview from developing to revising an analytical essay.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book presented information in an accurate and unbiased fashion.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book will appeal to college-aged students and had many examples that they will be able to relate to via stories and exercises.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is written in clear and concise language.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is organized well and each chapter starts with learning objectives and ends with exercises and key takeaways.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is organized so that readers progress through the stages of writing an analytical paper.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well organized and flows well from one chapter to the next.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate through the book and there are no distracting images,","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors that I noticed.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The material is presented in an unbiased way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am looking for a book to use in my research paper writing courses.  This one is the best OER textbook I've found so far.  I will try it in my course this upcoming term and see how it works.","created_at":"2024-12-20T14:50:29.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-20T14:50:29.000-06:00"},{"id":35574,"first_name":"Abigail","last_name":"Dutcher","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Saint Francis","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis provides a solid, foundational overview of analytical writing with an emphasis on critical thinking, subjectivity, and writing as a recursive process. The text thoroughly addresses the key components of analysis: assertions, examples, explanations, and significance using the AXES framework. It covers the stages of analytical writing, including forming a perspective, conducting research, engaging with multiple viewpoints, and structuring essays effectively.\n\nThe early chapters introduce essential concepts such as subjectivity in interpretation, the role of cultural background, and the importance of research, while later chapters guide students through developing and refining analytical theses and producing full essays. Each chapter includes objectives, real-world examples, and practical exercises that support student engagement and skill development.\n\nHowever, the textbook lacks an index or glossary, which may hinder quick reference or navigation, especially for students new to analytical writing. While the chapter objectives and headings are clear, the absence of a glossary limits the accessibility of key terms and concepts after initial exposure. Instructors may need to supplement with a vocabulary guide or create one collaboratively with students.\n\nOverall, the text is comprehensive in content and well-scaffolded in structure, but would benefit from the addition of an index and glossary for enhanced usability.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content in Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is accurate, well-researched, and presented in a manner consistent with current best practices in writing instruction.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content in Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is both timely and enduring, emphasizing core analytical and rhetorical skills that remain relevant across disciplines and time periods. The text avoids reliance on rapidly changing examples or technologies, instead grounding its instruction in flexible frameworks like AXES and recursive writing processes that are unlikely to become outdated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in clear, conversational, and accessible prose that effectively engages student readers without oversimplifying complex ideas. Concepts such as subjectivity, recursive writing, and analytical frameworks are introduced with ample explanation and relatable examples, including narratives like “Jeff’s struggle with The Tempest” that humanize academic challenges. When technical terms or rhetorical concepts (e.g., “assertions,” “significance,” “heuristics,” “close reading”) are introduced, they are thoroughly defined and contextualized through both explanation and practical application. This clarity supports a wide range of learners, including those new to analytical writing or unfamiliar with composition terminology, making it an excellent resource for both entry-level college students and adult learners.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis maintains strong internal consistency in both terminology and instructional framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into several small sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics flow in a logical progression.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of interface issues. There are minimal images/charts, which could be a future area of improvement.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Error free.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is thoughtful and respectful in its treatment of culture and perspective, frequently encouraging students to reflect on their own subjectivity and the influence of cultural, social, and personal contexts in shaping their interpretations. It makes a deliberate effort to highlight that meaning is not fixed and promotes the inclusion of diverse viewpoints in analysis.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is a valuable and pedagogically sound resource for introducing students to analytical thinking and academic writing. Its conversational tone, clear structure, and recursive approach to writing make it especially effective for first-year college students or those new to composition. The AXES framework offers a flexible and memorable guide for developing arguments, and the focus on student voice and subjectivity helps demystify analysis as a rigid, impersonal task. While the lack of a glossary, limited cultural range in examples, and minimal visual support may require some supplemental materials, these are minor trade-offs for a text that is open-licensed, adaptable, and thoughtfully designed. I plan to use selected chapters in my own course to support lessons on analysis, drafting, and revision, especially during the early weeks of the semester. Its emphasis on thinking critically and writing to discover ideas aligns well with the goals of reflective, inquiry-based instruction.","created_at":"2025-07-10T22:55:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-07-10T22:55:45.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/exploring-perspectives-a-concise-guide-to-analysis","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:50.000-06:00"},{"id":153,"title":"Educational Psychology","edition_statement":"Second Edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2009,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":"","accessibility_features":[],"description":"Chapters in the text can be assigned either from beginning to end, as with a conventional printed book, or they can be selected in some other sequence to meet the needs of particular students or classes. In general the first half of the book focuses on broader questions and principles taken from psychology per se, and the second half focuses on somewhat more practical issues of teaching. But the division between “theory” and “practice” is only approximate; all parts of the book draw on research, theory, and practical wisdom wherever appropriate. Chapter 2 is about learning theory, and Chapter 3 is about development; but as we point out, these topics overlap with each other as well as with the concerns of daily teaching. Chapter 4 is about several forms of student diversity (what might be called individual differences in another context), and Chapter 5 is about one form of diversity that has become prominent in schools recently—students with disabilities. Chapter 6 is about motivation, a topic that is heavily studied by psychological researchers, but that also poses perennial challenges to classroom teachers. Following these somewhat more basic psychological chapters, we turn to several lasting challenges of classroom life—challenges that seem to be an intrinsic part of the job. Chapter 7 offers ideas about classroom management; Chapter 8, ideas about communicating with students; Chapter 9, about ways to assist students' complex forms of thinking; and Chapter 10, about planning instruction systematically. The book closes with two chapters about assessment of learning: Chapter 11 focuses on teachers' own efforts to assess students, and Chapter 12 focuses on standardized measures of assessment. We have organized material and features in ways that we hope will allow for a variety of students, instructors, and institutions to use the book. For instructors and courses that seek a strong focus on research and the research process, for example, we have included an extra “chapter” on research methods—Appendix C, “The Reflective Practitioner”—that discusses the nature of research and the research process. We have also included a set of research-related case studies in Appendix B, “Deciding for yourself about the research”, that describe a number of particular educational research programs or topics in detail and that invite students to reflect on the quality and implications of the research. Whether or not a strong focus on research is a priority in your particular course, there are additional features of the book that are intended to help students in learning about educational psychology. In particular, each chapter ends with a “Chapter summary”, a list of “Key terms”, and links to Internet sites (called “Further resources”) relevant to the themes of the chapter. One of the sites that is cited frequently and that may be particularly helpful to instructors is the teachingedpsych wiki (http://teachingedpsych.wikispaces.com/), an archive of hundreds of teaching and learning materials that supports the teaching of introductory educational psychology. Teachingedpsych is a project of the Special Interest Group on the Teaching of Educational Psychology (TEP SIG), affiliated with the American Educational Research Association. All in all, we hope that you find Educational Psychology a useful and accessible part of your education. If you are preparing to be a teacher, good luck with your studies and your future! If you are an instructor, good luck with helping your students learn about this subject!","contributors":[{"id":3679,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Kelvin","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Seifert","location":"University of Manitoba","background_text":"Kelvin Seifert is professor of educational psychology at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He earned a BA from Swarthmore College in 1967 and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1973, in a combined program from the School of Education and the Department of Psychology. His research interests include the personal identity development of teachers, the impact of peers in 0pre-service teacher education, and the development of effective strategies of blended learning. He is the author of four university textbooks (with Houghton Mifflin, in traditional print format) about educational psychology, child and adolescent development, and lifespan human development. He is also the editor of the online Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. Recent publications include “Student cohorts: Support groups or intellectual communities?” (Teachers College Record) and “Learning about peers: A missed opportunity for educational psychology” (The Clearinghouse). His professional service includes serving as chair of the Department of Educational Administration, Foundations, and Psychology at the University of Manitoba, and serving as president of the American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group on Teaching Educational Psychology. During his career of 35 years, he has taught introductory educational psychology over 75 times."},{"id":3680,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Rosemary","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Sutton","location":"Cleveland State University","background_text":"Rosemary Sutton attended graduate school and earned her MS in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois and her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in Human Development. She joined the Cleveland State University faculty in Cleveland, Ohio in 1983 and since that time has taught pre-service and in service undergraduates and graduate students educational psychology and educational technology. She has received several University awards for her teaching and has conducted numerous workshops for teachers in North East Ohio. Dr Sutton has published a variety research articles on teacher development as well as equity issues in mathematics, technology, and assessment. Her recent research interests have focused in two areas: teaching educational psychology and teachers' emotions. Recent publications can be found in Social Psychology of Education, Educational Psychology Review, Journal of Teacher Education, and an edited volume, Emotions and Education. Since 2004, Dr Sutton has been working as an Administrator, first as the Director of Assessment for the University. This position involved coordinating the student learning assessment for all graduate, undergraduate, and student support programs. In August 2007, Dr Sutton was appointed Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and is now responsible for overseeing offices and functions from academic and student service areas in order to create a campus culture that coordinates student services with the academic mission of the University."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":42,"name":"Psychology","parent_subject_id":9,"call_number":"BF121","visible_textbooks_count":51,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/psychology"},{"id":9,"name":"Social Sciences","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"H1","visible_textbooks_count":285,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/social-sciences"}],"publishers":[{"id":367,"url":"https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-08-24T21:04:46.000-05:00","name":"University of Manitoba"}],"formats":[{"id":627,"type":"PDF","url":"http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~seifert/EdPsy2009.pdf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":19,"reviews":[{"id":151,"first_name":"Kelly","last_name":"Lynch","position":"Teacher - Elementary Education","institution_name":"University of Oklahoma","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Text covers all aspects of what a teacher would encounter throughout the year in a classroom.  Very comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"To my knowledge and experience, this text is very accurate on all fronts.  It is up-to-date when it addresses standardized testing, management challenges, and student diversity.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content in this text will need to be updated at times to keep in step with changes in standardized testing.  Other than that particular section, I don't believe there will be signifigant updating needed regularly.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Text is easy to read, comprehend, and offers varied examples to address multiple ages of children and adults.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistency is not an issue.  Text is in step with current terminology. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text is clearly divided into smaller sections. Very easy to assign. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Text is well organized and easy to follow. Topics are clear and easily defined.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Text is very clear and easy to read. Information is easy to interpret.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No signifigant grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Text is culturally diverse.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"none","created_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":159,"first_name":"Selma","last_name":"Koç","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Cleveland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"Educational Psychology” by Seifert and Sutton covers a wide variety of topics providing examples from everyday classroom situations. The authors need to be commended for a book that can lay a strong foundation in the area for prospective teachers. The structure of the book, the contents, the easy-to-read approach, how the authors make connections relevant to theory and practice and among the topics will be of value to the educational psychology courses. The language of the book makes it clear for the prospective teachers develop an understanding of how major theories of learning and models can be relevant and useful in teaching and learning. The inclusion of the chapters on the nature of classroom communication, facilitating complex thinking, teacher-made assessment strategies and examples provided as well as the appendices with respect to preparing students for licensure, research and the reflective practitioner complement the book compared to the other outlets in the area. For example, in the appendix titled \"deciding for yourself about the research,\" the readers are provided with examples of several research\r\nproblems, how they were conducted and their implications that reflect many of the themes of the book chapters.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content seems to be accurate, error-free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book starts with a chapter about the changing teaching profession: new trends in education such as diversity in students, use of technology to support learning, accountability in education, increased professionalism of teachers. Updates can easily be made if necessary if new trends or influences in education were to occur.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a clear and easy-to-understand style that is adequate for those who are novice to educational psychology. The language of the text makes it appealing for exploring the book content further. Although the book is written by two authors, it's hard to detect the difference between the authors' writing.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The table of contents is well organized and easily divisible into reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. The authors do a great job providing headings and subheadings to avoid reader fatigue or overload that contibute to the the reading of the content more appealing.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a manner that is suitable for an educational psychology course that flows with the course content and activities.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text does not have any interface or navigation issues when read on-screen or in print.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have not noticed any grammar mistakes or issues with the writing mechanics that will disrupt the meaning of the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book makes use of diversity and cultural relevance as it provides numerous examples from everyday classroom situations as well as the research it discusses.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a book that can rivet the attention of teacher candidates because of its easy-to-understand style. I commend the authors for a book that clearly communicates the purpose of studying educational psychology and how it relates to teaching and learning.","created_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":794,"first_name":"Maite","last_name":"Correa","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is very comprehensive. Any prospective or current teacher could use it as an introduction or a refresher (respectively). The topics covered are ample and the references and additional readings provided at the end of each chapter help the reader expand on the topic if needed. The text provides an effective index at the beginning and a glossary for each unit.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate. Drawing from different pedagogical approaches, the authors manage to create a balance that helps the reader make their own choices.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content is relatively up-to-date. Although chapter 12 might become obsolete depending on state requirements for standardized tests, overall, the text can stand the test of time (taking into account that pedagogy is an area that changes rapidly).  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is accessible for any reader. All jargon or terminology is explained. It is suitable for teacher candidates, for teachers who want a refresher and for anyone interested in pedagogy.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Chapters flow into each other very well, although they could be used separately (see modularity below).","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could be used as a whole textbook divided by units (the order seems appropriate for an \"Intro to Pedagogy\" course), but it could also be divided into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. It could also be used as a companion to any other handbook that is discipline-specific (Math, Language Arts, World Languages, etc.). Case studies at the end make it very easy to assign them at any point.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text follow a logical fashion. From the introduction (learning process and student development) until the end (assessment and standardized tests), the text increases in specificity/complexity. The case studies in the appendices are very conveniently located at the end for easy access in case the chapters are assigned in isolation.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Although the indentation in the tables could be improved and some images could be formatted to be more visually appealing, the interface in general is appropriate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. On the contrary, it follows pedagogies that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a great textbook that can be used in any education course at both undergraduate and graduate levels. It can be complemented with research articles in each discipline if needed, but it can be perfectly used on its own.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1079,"first_name":"Cecelia","last_name":"Monto","position":"Dean, Education and Humanities, and Adjunct Instructor in Education","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides an overall comprehensive look at educational psychology, but I think it could be updated.  If I use this text, I would supplement this text with current sources on:\n•\tEducational neuroscience\n•\tPoverty and the brain (use Eric Jensen and other sources)\n•\tThe need for greater diversity in the teaching force  (use Linda Darling-Hammond and others)\n•\tBilingualism in the U.S.\n•\tThe concept of grit (use Duckworth), and for U.S. use I would fold in current legislation and historical pieces. \n•\tCommunication during conflict \n   Each chapter begins with an inviting story on the opening pages, and then moves on to the core topic.  The stories seem a little simplistic, but they do provide a welcoming beginning to each chapter.  Some of the openers (such as journals kept by author Kelvin Seifert) would not relate well to U.S. students.\n   I would have liked a “social justice perspective” woven into the book. This could be related to students as they imagine their future teaching role, and the contribution they will make to kids, and to greater society. In the U.S., education has a solid link to democracy, and the historical foundation is powerful to students. Arne Duncans’ quote could be used to lead this idea. ““I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.”\n   There are no photos or eye-catching items in the text. The authors comment that this is for cost reduction purposes, however, since the text is offered digitally it could add a needed dimension to the text. \n\nChapters 1, 2 and 3\n   The first chapter would be a good place to lay the ground work for education as a vehicle for social justice. The “trends in teaching” paragraphs should be updated. I actually thought the first chapter was a little short. \n   There was good coverage of the learning process, although I would add information about learning and the brain.  and the major learning theories (behaviorism, Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner), as related to educational psychology and the implications to teaching. The Student development chapter was appropriate for a course on educational psychology, but may present too much information for more introductory courses. \n     I would have liked a more straight forward piece written about stages of development, with a clear outline of physical, cognitive, social and character development, and I would have included a clear graph of Piaget’s model for cognitive development with this section. They do cover this, but the writing is less clear for me in this section. Same on Maslow- I would have liked a simpler hierarchy of needs chart. Erik Erkison’s psychosocial development section is good. The outline for Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning, and linkage to ethical thinking and justice was good, with Gilligan’s framework included. For US use, I would add in examples from US schools and even court cases to exemplify points.  \n\nChapters 4, 5 and 6\n   The student diversity section was not comprehensive. The content on learning styles, and multiple intelligences was fine. There was some information on Talented and Gifted, but it was not linked to learning disabilities. I would have folded in Chapter 5 into Chapter 4, instead of making it a separate chapter on Students with Special Educational Needs. The separate chapter on Students with Special Educational Needs offered pretty good detail for an overview class. The ADHD section was good. I would recommend more content on dyslexia. \n   The segment addressing behavioral issues could be linked to societal and SES issues. I appreciated the inclusion of hearing loss and vision impairment, because I have not seen that in many texts. I would have introduced the concept of differentiated learning in this section, and then revisited it in the later section. \n   The Gender roles section of chapter 4 is incomplete and dated, more information is needed on different sexual orientations. \n   I would have liked to see deeper content related to the bilingual and second language learners. The initial chapter mentions language diversity, but too briefly.  There is no mention of the need of greater diversity in the teaching force itself. Authors could use research from Linda Darling-Hammond to write about this topic. In Chapter 4, the Student Diversity section., there is discussion of bilingualism, but seemed too clinical. I would have liked discussion of why language learners need models ….. and more coverage of English language learners in relation to motivation would have been helpful. The part on cultural identity development was good. This could be addressed by adding journal articles on this topic into supplementary coursework. Content related to low SES and the role poverty plays in the psychological profile of students is missing. \n   The Student Motivation chapter would be appealing to students. I think this could be inserted into any time frame of the class. Perhaps this information would have been better if directly linked to the learning theory section, ie Skinner’s behaviorism, or to the Student Motivation Chapter. I would have liked to see more about making learning relevant and placed in the real world context in this chapter. Motivation linked to self-efficacy was good, but the self-determination section seemed a little esoteric and I don’t think would resonate with U.S. students. This might be a good chapter to include a piece about “grit” (by Duckworth) and learning. \n\nChapter 7 and 8\n   I would re-title this section, to use words such a Creating a Positive and Productive Learning Environment, and fold in the student motivation section and the classroom communication section. This chapter could be shorter, and written in a way that made inquiry with the reader to make it more relevant. That would leave more room to fold in the other chapters. The segment on focusing on future solutions rather than past mistakes is excellent. I would have liked to see the use of the word pedagogy in this section. I would remove the section on “functions of talk”, and reduce down the section on nonverbal communication. That would leave more room for additional information about communication and conflict and also cross cultural communication, which are areas where students need help. I would also shorten the section on classroom communication, and build in more inquiry for student readers in this section.\n \nChapter 9, 10, 11 and 12\n   Facilitation Complex Thinking and Planning instruction and Assessment  could be combined.  I would like to see the concepts of diagnostic, formative and summative assessment included, and then linked to current examples. This would align with the concepts of student-centered and teacher-centered learning, with discussion on the methodology such as inquiry based learning, cooperative/collaborative learning. Setting learning goals and “backward design” could be added to the curriculum section. The section outlining Bloom’s Taxonomy with examples and revisions is excellent. I am glad you included Marzano.  I would revisit the concept of differentiated instruction with the information presented on response to intervention. I would move the multicultural education and anti-bias education section out of this chapter, and in to the earlier section on student diversity. Information on alternative approaches to learning, like online learning and service learning is good.\n   The assessment section was thoughtfully written, and would challenge students to consider how they are making assessment decisions. Getting students to consider the validity and reliability of assessment is critical, and revisiting the concept of bias as related to assessment is important. I would reduce the content related to teacher made assessments, and perhaps have the students evaluate existing assessments ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, information was accurate. Some sections that are dated presented slightly inaccurate information. For example, the authors give data about the Hispanic population in the U.S. from 2005, which was 14%. This should be adjusted to 18%, and notice of the growth of this segment should be noted to represent the true picture. The U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics notes about 25% of students in public school are Hispanic (and even that information is 3 years old). The licensing chapter is also dated and therefore inaccurate. \n   The sections on “deciding for yourself”, which explained the research procedures used  and gave more content information, were a great vehicle to encourage students to consider the complexities of research, and demonstrate their ability to evaluate and critically consider complicated topics, thus improving the accuracy of their own thinking.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The authors bring a unique perspective to educational psychology because they are from outside the U.S.  I appreciate their candor in acknowledging that most major textbooks in this area cover similar content, but are quite expensive when printed and published via conventional manner. \n   However, there are some content issues that jeopardize the relevance and longevity of the book. I would like to see the concept of educational neuroscience addressed in the early sections on cognitive development. The Student Development Chapter 3 would need to be re-worked for greater relevance for U.S. use. I would have liked to see development issues tied to social factors. The authors did some of this when they discussed health issues, but for the most part social links are missing. To improve relevance, I would like to see information on how poverty affects the brain and learning. I would also like to see a section devoted to the importance of having a diverse teaching workforce.\n   The section on technology use in schools is quite dated and unrealistic. Discussion of single-computer classrooms is outdated. Although they must exist, I have never observed such a classroom in at least 10 years. There needs to be more emphasis on using technology in a myriad of ways, from harnessing the power of smart phones, tablets, and internet resource gathering was not fully covered. Chapter 10 references online learning, but it could have been made more relevant by explaining this book as an example. \n   The final section on licensing requirements was outdated. Our state no longer uses PRAXIS. Perhaps because licensing is done on a state-by-state basis, this section should encourage instructors to use their own state resources in this area. \n   Other topics that would improve relevance would be the topic “grit”, and the development of communication skills that address conflict. \n   The citations seem dated, not much past 2006. The publication date is 2011. Relevant current publications and issues should be brought in.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Due to the consistent writing style and predictable format, the book was clear and easy to follow. Additional charts or graphs could reinforce points made in the book, and thus might improve clarity for visual learners. Chapter summaries clearly reinforce main points for students to grasp. Lists of key points and terminology also added clarity, such as the listing at the end of Chapter 3.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Overall consistency was good. Writing style was straightforward and standardized throughout the text, which made reading easier. The links to additional articles were consistently presented, and therefore would be easy to reference.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is designed in a modular framework, and authors note that chapters can be taught in any order. Some of the repetition crosses over modules, which helps with clarity.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text flowed in a logical manner, and as a reader I would recommend teaching from it from the structure already presented. In terms of organization, I would move the Action Research table to a different section, not right up front. The first three chapters fit together nicely as a unit. In this early section, I would also like to see more on changes in the brain that occur from learning new information. Chapters 4 and 5 meshed well. As I already noted,  I suggest linking the learning section with the motivation section .I would organize the material in Chapter 6 to fold into the later Chapters 7 or 8.  The final chapters regarding instructional planning, assessment and facilitation of complex thinking could be reorganized. \n     Each chapter finished with a summary, which could help students organize their thinking. I would change the layout of the summary into bullet points, to make it more readable.  Key vocabulary was also highlighted, so that students could focus on the language specifics of the education field.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online resources, with examples of assignments, are beneficial. Simple assignments, such as creating a chart summarizing human development, would be easy for students to follow and reinforce their reading. There was a large array of resources and articles, which would allow instructors to supplement and make the chapters more relevant. \n\tI would like to see more reflection pieces, like journals on certain topics. The autobiography assignments were too vague. The assignment on “true confessions” from students regarding moral development would be too risky in a community college setting. \n\tI would also like to see some video pieces attached as additional resources. In the communication section towards the end of the book, it would have been great to observe examples of communication styles in the classroom, or include interviews with teachers. Video clips demonstrating children in varying stages of development would also be useful. \n\tI know it’s always easier to ask for more resources than to provide them. But these additional elements would provide variety to the course.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar was correct and accurate.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Greater relevance could be achieved by updating resources used and broadening topics to include current issues in the United States. Some opening stories did not mesh well with current student experience. For example, the Chapter 4 opening story would not be relate-able to the students in my class. As noted earlier, more emphasis on the importance of a bicultural and bilingual teaching workforce was not mentioned, and this perspective is critical. Lead in stories could provide a venue for greater cultural perspectives on teaching and student experience, and is needed.  \n   The text also lacks mention of social justice issues as they relate to teaching, which is an important point in proving cultural relevancy. Reflective assignments and inquiry based writing could be added to challenge students to broaden their thinking and relate content to their own circumstances.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Many sections of the text are solid, and I would like to use content for an online book that I will create for our Foundations of Education course. I read this text through the lens of that course need, and I was looking for some elements that are understandably not covered in this text. \n   The current text I am using incorporates a lot of student reflection, and I think including that aspect into this text would make it more engaging. I also  noted that the lack of content related to social justice and the teaching field is a concern.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1652,"first_name":"Stephen","last_name":"Vassallo","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"American University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers most of what one might expect in an conventional educational psychology text for teacher education. However, I am surprised that self-regulated learning is not included in the book. This notion has been an important area of study for educational psychologists for about 4 decades now. Self-regulated learning is often discussed in the section on \"higher order thinking.\" There are also other ideas such as growth mindset and grit that are more contemporary than self-regulated learning. I would like to see these concepts discussed in an educational psychology text. I would also like to see some text on embodied cognition, which is a perspective of memory that is contrasted with the information processing perspective, which also happens to not be discussed. Although the information processing theory is philosophically and conceptually limited, it can be helpful for thinking about teaching. There are also sociocultural theories, beyond Vygotsky, that can be helpful for getting a broad and diverse representation of the field.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Educational psychology is never unbiased. The one major error in this book is that this bias is not acknowledged. However, I am hesitant to call that an error of the authors and the text an error of the field. I did not find any errors in representing the elements of the field that are typically taught to teachers. However, what is typically taught to teachers relating to educational psychology misses a great deal of complexities--including those biases that underpin theories, perspectives, methods, ways of reasoning, and models. The authors are accurate in explaining the theories and concepts that are taught in an educational psychology text. ","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"The text is written in a way that can support adding contemporary ideas. For example, grit and growth mindset are getting a good deal of attention among educational psychologists, psychologists, administrators, and policy makers. These notions can easily be integrated in the chapter on motivation. These notions are also problematic. I would suggest integrating not just explanations of these ideas but their philosophical and ideological complexities. As another example, researchers have recently debunked the learning styles framework. I think it is worth talking about \"learning styles\" but offer different perspectives related to this way of reading and naming students. I am not suggesting that authors shape their texts in response to every educational fad that emerges, but I think authors should try to capture as best they could the critical nuances with the ideas they present to teachers. One of the major shortcomings of this book is the contemporary relevance but I rated this high because the structure of the book lends itself well to integrating new content.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and lucid. All terminology is explained well. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent. And although consistency is generally a positive quality of a book, I would like to see competing and contradictory text. For example, developmental frameworks can be useful for teaching but they can also be implicated in a number of problematic student evaluations and educational interventions. It is useful and valuable to capture the inconsistencies with thinking about learning, development, and teaching. With that said, the authors are consistent within their frame of reference. They present educational psychology ideas that are intended to improve teaching and learning. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The authors do a fine job at partitioning the text and labeling sections with appropriate headings. Although topics and concepts across chapters are related, each chapter can stand on its own and does not have to be assigned in chronological order. The text is not overly self-referential. In fact, I argue that it lacks self-reference. There are many ideas that need to be considered together and hyperlinks can help students make those connections. For example, the chapter on complex thinking should be considered in the context of development. I would like to see links between chapters. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book conforms to the general organization of educational psychology texts. Early in the book the authors introduce readers to theories of learning and then move into development. Following are two chapters on learner differences. One is related to cognitive differences such as learning styles and intelligence. The other is related to special learning needs. The middle chapters center on big topic, including classroom management, motivation, and complex thinking. Like many other books, the last chapters are dedicated to application by focusing explicitly on pedagogy and assessment. Although chapters are dedicated to pedagogy toward the end of the book, the authors integrate suggestions throughout for applying ideas to the classroom. The organization and flow makes sense. I might consider, however, having the \"complex thinking\" chapter follow learning and development. The book is organized and written in such a way to support assignment chapters out of the listed order. I think that is more important than having the book chapters conform to how I might organize topic. Instructors will likely have different ideas about topic organization and this book allows for that possibility.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The images, charts, and tables are clear. There was nothing that distracted me as a reader. I did experience any problems with navigation. One very minor interface issue was that the tables were a little drab. Reviewing the tables felt like I was reviewing a quickly constructed table on a Word file. Perhaps shading title boxes or different rows or columns, for example, might make for targeted attention and aesthetic pleasure. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors in this book.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I do not believe the authors say anything explicitly offensive or insensitive. There are some examples and discussion of cultural groups and variation. Some educational psychology textbooks have a chapter dedicated to cultural differences in learning and development. This book does not have such a chapter, but rather has evidence of cultural relevance sprinkled modestly throughout. The issue of culture has not quite been handled well in general within educational psychology texts. This limitation is characteristic of the field in general and not specific to the text. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I would like to see some hyperlinks in the text. There are many ideas that are related to each other but are in different chapters. If hyperlinks are not possible to refer students to other chapters, perhaps not just refer students to outside sources at the end of the chapter, but also point them to different chapters within the book. \n\nThis textbook is a solid educational psychology book. Aside from missing discussion of some contemporary ideas, concepts, and critical perspectives, the authors provide a good overview of the field. I recommend using this book for a course but supplementing some of the material. I suggest certainly bringing in readings on grit, growth mindset, self-regulated learning, and embodied cognition. I also suggest bringing in text about critical educational psychology, which can support the reflections on the ways ideology, history, culture, and politics operate in and through educational psychology. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2254,"first_name":"Nautu","last_name":"Leilani","position":"Asst. Prof. of Education/Exec. Dir. of K12 Programs","institution_name":"Southern Utah University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"\r\n\tThis resource is very comprehensive. It actually covers the content for several of our courses at our institution (introduction to teaching, principles of learning and teaching, educational psychology, classroom management, and instructional planning/assessment). With a resource like this and being so comprehensive we could definitely remove the barrier of cost for our students.\r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"\r\n\tThe content in this resource is accurate. I was not able to find any errors and did not find biases. We already have professors in our department using this resource and I have not heard from them that there has been any issues in these areas either.\r\n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"\r\n\tThe content is up to date and will not become obsolete. Since the book is so comprehensive I don't believe the authors could go in depth on many of the topics. They discuss the topics very well. The only suggestion I would have is that they add to each section actual strategies to help teachers with applicability.\r\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"\r\n\tThe text is written so that a student new to the field could understand it - the authors take time to explain terminology that is specific to the field.\r\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"\r\n\tI did not find any inconsistencies in terminology or the framework provided. I believe that in using this text in our classes, we will be more equipped to add further comment on this section.\r\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"\r\n\tOne of the biggest concerns we have now in our College is overwhelming our students with too much reading. The problem when we do this is that the students choose to do none of it. The smaller chunks that the author provided makes this a resource that helps us address this concern. We could definitely use this resource as an introduction to all these topics and then jump off from there. Since the chunks of reading are small the students will likely read it and get the foundation we need them to have to go deeper.\r\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"\r\n\tWe just did a scope and sequence of our courses in Teacher Education and when I compare the flow of this resource to our outcomes from our scope and sequence, I found that the flow matched what we thought should be the flow of our courses in general.\r\n","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"\r\n\tI would have liked to see more graphics and visuals and flowcharts to attract the attention of the reader. I think also the very narrow margins makes it feel like there is too much to read on a page. At the expense of having more pages to read for each chunk I would probably make the margins at least a little bigger.\r\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"\r\n\tI didn't necessarily read for grammatical errors - because that would be a read of it just for that - but as I read each part I didn't find any grammar errors that would prevent comprehension.\r\n","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"\r\n\tI would say that the cultural relevance/sensitivity of this book is a good surface attempt. I would have liked the authors to go deeper in other areas of culturally responsive teaching like they did with the english language learner sections.\r\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"\r\n\tThank you to the authors for helping us compile such a wonderful resource, and for being willing to share it with us inexpensively. They should be commended. This was a lot of work on their part - and then to be willing to share it liberally is noteworthy. My suggestions were meant to only add to the wonderful work they have done. Thank you again.\r\n","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3225,"first_name":"Mistie","last_name":"Potts","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Manchester University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"While the text offers a clear table of contents, no evidence of an index was observed. The reader can clearly locate topics that are relevant to teaching by using the table of contents, however finding specific theorists may be more challenging without an index of terms/names. The text appears to cover all relevant topics necessary to preservice or in-service teachers. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content covered in this text appears to be accurate and aligns with recent peer-reviewed research in the field of educational psychology. The text clearly cites relevant research to support concepts covered. Each section concludes with references that direct the reader to recent research in the field. This research-based approach appears to be unbiased and consistent with commonly accepted views in the field of educational psychology. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this textbook compliments the needs of today’s teachers. In this context, the content is relevant and applicable in a way that will allow it to remain relevant for years to come while providing a realistic way for teachers to utilize the theories and research findings. As research continues to unfold in the field of educational psychology, necessary updates may include small adjustments and manageable changes.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Written with a focus on practitioners, the text is clear and understandable. In this way, the text allows access to important topics in the field of educational psychology without bogging down the reader with complicated prose/jargon. The text calls upon a mild level of background knowledge (e.g., Pavlov and classical conditioning) yet provides contextual clues to include readers lacking this background. In my experiences, most undergraduate teacher preparation students come to the classroom with basic understandings of these topics. The clarity of the text is sufficient for this level of learners. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms and conceptual frameworks appear consistent throughout the breadth of the text. Tables with terms common to specific theories/concepts are provided to add clarity throughout the text. The terminology is highlighted with bold print making them easy to identify for the reader. No conflicting terminology or definitions were found during this review of the text. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The layout of the text provides clear sections identified with headers and subheadings. These make the text easy to divide and study in specific sections/topics. It could easily be read in chunks rather than front-to-back without disrupting comprehension of the text. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Similar to other textbooks I have explored in the field of educational psychology, the topics in the text are presented in a logical fashion that lays the groundwork for how individuals learn, educational diversity, development, and commences with topics surrounding the assessment of learning. The flow of text and tables is consistent and clear throughout the text. Distracting content is minimized by excluding sidebars and unnecessary graphics. The organization of the text fosters cognitive processing of the information with little distraction from supplemental information. A clear format for the licensure preparation section allows readers to access important test preparation information as needed. These take the form of sample questions from Praxis II exams, which will assist the reader in practice testing to prepare for the licensure exams. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free from distracting content such as sidebars, photographs, or text boxes that may detract from comprehension of the material. Links from the table of contents direct the reader to specific sections in the text. The tables provide clear explanations of terms and theories. No displays or distortions of the images/charts/text were noticed in review of this text. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"In review of this text, no grammatical errors were observed. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text embraces multicultural education and is free from offensive or insensitive material. The omission of photographs alleviates the need to include a diverse array of examples to represent all cultures. The text discusses research relevant to diverse groups of learners and provides culturally relevant concepts to support multicultural education in schools. The examples provided throughout the text are inclusive of race, ethnicities and students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. Specifically, this text focuses on subject matter that will support educators as they provide educational experiences for all types of learners. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-10-28T11:47:04.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-10-28T11:47:04.000-05:00"},{"id":3275,"first_name":"Jose","last_name":"Martinez Molinero","position":"Assistant Professor of Secondary Education","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"In terms of covering all areas, this text provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of teaching. It is organized effectively—it takes the readers through a journey of the joys, challenges, nuances, and realities associated with the teaching profession. The additional materials at the end of the text (Preparing for licensure, Deciding for your self about the research, and Reflective practitioner) provide resources that students in education preparation programs can refer back to as they progress in their respective programs. Although, the text could benefit from presenting other major licensure exam bodies other than Praxis. The text does not include an index or glossary in the traditional sense, however, at the end of each chapter key terms and a works cited is provided.3","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"From my perspective, the content of this text is accurate, error-free, and is unbiased. Furthermore, the authors invite readers to apply a critical lens on the content and research by providing open-ended questions regarding each chapter in the ‘Deciding for Yourself About the Research’ section in the additional materials section in the end. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is written in broad terms that allow longevity in its relevance. This is mostly achieved by presenting various/multiple theories and approaches when explaining how concepts may be applied in the classroom. Also, the authors recognize and address the differences in the classroom diversity and demographics within the text—although some of the content may not apply to one’s specific situation, other areas of the text will apply.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is accessible to students entering a teacher education program. As I reflect on the students I have had, I can envision my students reading this book and having ‘something to say’ about the content based on their own experiences as students and in their field experiences. What I appreciate the most is the teacher ‘scenarios’ that are presented in the beginning of each chapter and how authentic/realistic they are—this sets the tone for the chapter and captures the reader’s attention—answers the ‘why’ the chapter is important.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its terminology and framework. One example of this, is once a concept(s) presented within the text, a visual chart or graph of the same information is provided for additional clarity. Moreover, I can expect a list of key terms and works cited at the end of every chapter.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The modularity of the text makes chapters easy to read and therefore makes the content accessible. Although there are some key terms I would like to see bolded versus italicized, the bullet points and section headers will make it easy for me to section off, focus on, or assign certain elements of the chapter to my students.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical, clear fashion. Although, I would say this is true for teacher educators—some of the students in our programs may be completing their field experiences or student teaching in school districts that emphasize (or even romanticize) standardized testing—and this dominates their concerns and questions. Therefore, I would ask those considering the text to reflect on to what extent or where in the curriculum an honest discussion about the value that is (mis)placed on standardized testing should take place. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The navigation is appropriate and accessible from the Table of Contents. It would be helpful to include a navigation link at the end of chapter that takes the reader back to the Table of Contents instead of having to manually scroll back up. The use of pictures and charts are appropriate and helpful for the readers; however, they appear as simple or basic—not as vivid as in a traditional textbook. Typically, this is not an issue—however, the current generation of students’ focus is on ‘clout’ and aesthetics in determining the value of something.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"From my reading of various chapters, I did not find any evident grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I appreciate how inclusive and authentic this text was in discussing the different types of learners. For example, I have use multiple multi-cultural education textbooks in the past, and not one has mentioned the phenomenon of ‘language loss’ that ELLs experience and its implications in the classroom. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-11-11T13:46:49.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-11-11T13:46:49.000-06:00"},{"id":3379,"first_name":"Cassie","last_name":"Bergstrom","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Northern Colorado","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers a wide variety of topics typical to intro to educational psychology texts. The main topics of development, learning, student differences, motivation, classroom environment, and assessment are all covered in what I thought was appropriate depth. There were a few topics that I think could be more strongly emphasized, particularly related to how the brain works in the context of learning, information processing theory, and some additional cognitive topics. But I could also see these as topics that teachers could supplement. I did not see an index, but the table of contents is detailed and linked to the subtopics in the chapters. Each chapter has a list of “key terms” at the end (although they are not linked back to the area in the chapter). No overall index or glossary is present. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not find any content that was inaccurate. There are many citations throughout the text that I was familiar with in the context of the topics being discussed. References are listed by chapter, so the content is supported by outside sources that students can access. I didn’t detect any biased coverage, most of the commentary speaks to how the topics are currently seen in the field of educational psychology.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Overall, I do think the text is written broadly enough to be relevant for a number of years. Content in a few areas could be updated, as it is now at least 10 years old. There could definitely be more information on a few topics, for example the role of the brain in learning and memory, growth mindset, grit, autism spectrum, self-regulated learning, etc. These are topics that the field of ed psych has expanded on within the last decade. Other topics could be better positioned to reflect the general thinking in the field (ex. the content on Gardner's multiple intelligences could include more than one sentence of criticism…). I do think the text could be updated fairly easily, and would recommend the authors consider doing so within the next few years. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I really enjoyed the writing style of this text. The authors wrote in a clear, but concise manner. They did a nice job blending their writing styles (as opposed to some texts that feel distinctly written by more than one person). Additionally, the terminology and topics are explained at a level that someone without a background in psychology could understand. There is lots of context for the new ideas and terminology. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The internal consistency of this text is strong. Each chapter has the same organization, beginning with a vignette/story and followed with a number of subsections on different topics. The terminology and framework seem to be consistent across all chapters. Additionally, the headings provided follow the same pattern in chapters, also aiding consistency. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"There are many headings and subheadings in this text, dividing main ideas into smaller chunks that could be assigned. The text is not overly self-referential—but honestly I think a bit more reference would be helpful at some points (for example connecting the info on gifted learners with special needs, mentioning the focus on multicultural and anti-bias education within the chapter on diversity). I do think the chapters could be assigned in a variety of orders, and the many headings improve the modularity of this text. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, I think the topics presented in the chapters of the text flow logically, both across and within chapters. Providing the basis for learning up front (in Chapter 2) is a strength, as is following it with the information on development. Within each chapter, the topics logically follow one another, but not to the extent that assigning one chunk would disrupt the flow. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, I think the PDF of this text looks really good. The interface feels more streamlined than many published texts, as there are no boxes, unnecessary graphics, or other distractions. The addition of a few more hyperlinks within the text (to help navigate) would be beneficial. Since the text is a bit dated, there were a few links at the end of chapters that didn’t work for me—which might confuse readers.  I do wish the text was available in a format other than just a PDF. I have found it beneficial to provide the OER texts directly within the LMS, as opposed to linking out to another source. With the interface of a PDF, I believe this would be more difficult (I’m less likely to cut and paste PDF content, because of the formatting issues and needing to clean up the copy). ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors in my reading of this text. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I didn’t detect any insensitivity or offensive handling of cultural issues within this text. The focus was often not on cultural diversity, and I think this could be improved. There is a full chapter on student diversity, but the section on culture is almost entirely devoted to language (while important, doesn’t encompass everything about culture). I did enjoy that the vignettes at the beginning of the chapters were authentic to the authors, but I think this could be an area that would benefit from including more diversity of representation (particularly the vignette at the beginning of Chapter 4…I’m not sure it’s the best way to speak to diversity).  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think this is a strong basic educational psychology text. The writing is clear and easy to read. If I was using this text, I would supplement it with a few topics that are either a bit dated or not covered in the text. But overall, I think it is a strong option for an intro to ed psych OER. ","created_at":"2019-12-14T10:38:09.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-14T10:38:09.000-06:00"},{"id":3413,"first_name":"Adam","last_name":"Moore","position":"Assistant Professor ","institution_name":"Roger Williams University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers an overview of educational psychology. I wonder about some other areas within educational psychology that are not addressed such as universal design for learning (UDL) (Rose \u0026 Meyer), multiple intelligences (Gardner), backward design (Wiggins \u0026 McTighe) and growth mindset (Dweck). While some of these theories are not without controversy, it might provide future educators and education professionals a more complete understanding of how one learns by including these topics. Even a critical analysis of these commonly known contemporary theories could help provide necessary background for future professionals. ","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Some of the terminology used to discuss people with disabilities in the text are not in line with people first language and are not 100% accurate (i.e. use of term IEP (\"P\" means program, not plan). Additionally, authors might consider mentioning the movement to \"end the r word\" instead of using the term \"retarded\".   It is also important that professionals are explicitly told the problem with calling students \"slow learners\" (from p. 96). These ideas tend to support ableist language and ideologies that are too often present in educational settings.      ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This text will support the many education psychology courses offered at most institutions. The topics presented are almost universally taught in educational psychology courses. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear and coherent. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in presentation, how terminology is presented, and how information is conveyed. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Many subheadings and bold-face print allow the reader to find information in manageable chunks. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the text is similar to other educational psychology texts.  Clear and logical presentation of information. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to read, provides some charts and photos, and is clear in presentation. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors that I found in my reading of this text. ","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"There is not a substantial focus on historically minoritized people in this text. While some of the chapters mention race/ethnicity, there is not a consistent focus on people who have minoritized in educational settings (LGBTQ community, racially minoritized people, gender, people from the disability community, etc) nor is there a focus on equity. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-12-20T07:14:07.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-20T07:14:07.000-06:00"},{"id":3474,"first_name":"Amanda","last_name":"Bozack","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Radford University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers the general areas explored in an introductory educational psychology course. The chapters are short but address the main concepts widely taught in this course and the reference list at the end of each chapter is comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"On many main points, the text is accurate. However, the student diversity chapter plays into outdated thinking about learning styles and multiple intelligences. Because the chapters are short, the complexity of this discussion and the importance of combatting misconceptions are missed. Instructors who use this textbook should consider supplementing this section or omitting it. \r\nAdditionally, the chapter on students with disabilities does not use the language of or discuss tiered levels of support--the basic building blocks for preservice teachers--and the chapter on classroom management is very traditional without any information about trauma-informed practices or restorative practices.  The chapters on motivation, communication, and complex thinking are strong.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Updates to the sections on learning styles and multiple intelligences, and the addition of tiered levels of support, trauma informed practices and restorative practices would increase the relevance of this textbook. Additionally, a section devoted to learning science and neuroscience would be useful given the many advances in recent years that help us understand learning from a neurological perspective.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is clearly and succinctly written. Terminology is bolded when appropriate and a list of key terms is provided after the chapter summary.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in format, terminology, and framework from one chapter to the next.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text can easily be assigned in its entirety or for only specific chapters or topics. The information in one chapter is not dependent on information in another chapter. As such, instructors who use the whole text may find it useful to note where information from one chapter is aligned to information in another chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book and the chapters are organized logically, clearly, and follow the general arc of many educational psychology textbooks.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface for this text was appropriate. It is \"low tech\" and has a clickable table of contents. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors evident in my review.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This book did not address culture, race, or ethnicity specifically as part of the content. Educators looking to use a culturally responsive lens to teach educational psychology would probably want to supplement this text or use another text. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-01-06T13:33:28.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-06T13:33:28.000-06:00"},{"id":3569,"first_name":"Elbert","last_name":"Davis","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook aligns with another for-profit textbook that cost $220.  The major concepts of educational psychology are present, including the major theories and theorists of education, along with assessments, student diversity, learners with special needs, and motivation.  I was pleasantly surprised to see appendices concerning action research, licensure preparation, and critical evaluation of research articles.  \r\nReferences were provided at the end of each chapter, as well as websites for additional information.\r\nAt the end of each chapter are key terms, but no index or glossary was found.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I saw nothing that was inaccurate or biased.  Errors were not evident.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The major theories and theorists are covered.  As most of these people have passed on, it is unlikely major changes will need to be made.  It would be easy to add new theories or theorists if the issue arose.  \r\nThe only section that will need updating or overhauling would be the chapter on standardized testing.   This seems to change every so often due to national, state, and local politics.  It is possible that major overhauls may be needed when laws change, as with any textbook that discusses these laws.  I do think these updates would be straightforward to implement.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is as accessible as similar books on educational psychology.  Jargon is typically defined for the student in-text, along with examples where needed.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework is very consistent.  Once a student reads the first chapter, he/she should be able to know what to expect in future chapters.  In each chapter, headings are broken into subheadings, followed by a chapter summary, key terms, online resources, and references.  \r\nTerminology is consistent throughout the textbook, and is on the level of college students in the education field should comprehend.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook is organized into chapters with the major concepts.  The chapters are organized into headings and subheadings.  Each page is numbered.  It should be easy to assign different chapters or even sections of a chapter, if necessary.\r\nLong blocks of text are interrupted by images, charts, and tables, along with subheadings.  \r\nThere are very few self-referential moments in the text, other than providing an example at the beginning of each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the textbook mirrors that of costly for-profit textbooks on the same subject.  Major areas are divided into 12 chapters with relevant headings and subheadings in each chapter.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The textbook is free of navigational issues.  Headings and subheadings are used throughout the book.  In the table of contents, the headings and subheadings are clickable and linked to the appropriate section or subsection of the book, eliminating the need to endlessly scroll to find a certain page.  The images and charts used are not distorted.  If I had a minor complaint, it would have been to use page breaks to ensure tables were on the same page, rather than be split across two pages.  Again, this is a very minor issue.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were found.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is a section of the textbook that discusses cultural diversity and provides classroom examples based on different customs.  Most of the examples outside of this section relate to the authors' personal experiences. \r\nThe textbook is not insensitive or offensive in any way.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"It is obvious that a love for educational psychology is the major motivation of authors Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton, as well as reviewer Sandra Deemer, and the editorial team (Marisa Drexel, Jackie Sharman, and Rachel Pugliese).  Professor Seifert, in the preface, also explains his other motives for co-authoring the textbook (individualization of the content, the expense of the textbook, and eliminating the added features commercial textbook publishers use to increase the price).  ","created_at":"2020-02-05T13:19:04.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-05T13:19:04.000-06:00"},{"id":4163,"first_name":"D","last_name":"F","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Worcester State University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"Surface treatment of some topics. Out dated Bloom Model \u0026 references to learning styles; missing discussion of memory; passing reference to race (as part of culture), nothing about poverty, etc. Missing Social Cognitivism. Really missing links to effective teaching","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"Inaccuracies due to out of date information/theories\r\nBias in the sense that White, western is normal diversity is other\r\nRight at beginning does not use person first language, instead referring to \"disabled children\"","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"Book needs major updating in terms of student diversity \u0026 students with disabilities. Needs to include the nature of memory, learning theories and give direct links to effective teaching","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"Tends to pack a great deal into brief sections. More examples and photos would certainly help.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"seems to be","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"yes","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"I prefer Ormrod's approach to Educational Psychology starting with research basics and looking at learning theories in depth and then diversity","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Not seem to be an iussue","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"None that I found","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"Narrow, white, western treatment--not reflect US adult and student diversitIES","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":"Good start. Needs updating","created_at":"2020-06-30T09:43:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T09:43:00.000-05:00"},{"id":4599,"first_name":"Audrey","last_name":"Roberts","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Bowling Green State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provides a relatively comprehensive overview of most foundational educational psychology theories. However, there are some important elements missing, as well as an over-emphasis on classroom management and assessment that veer away from the curriculum normally taught in an introductory educational psychology class for undergraduate students. I would argue that Chapters 1-6 and Chapter 9 would be the selections covered in an ed. psych class, with Chapters 7, 8, and 10-12 better suited for a more pedagogically focused or more assessment focused course. The two biggest concepts not covered in the text are information processing theory and memory, and any sort of mention of the LGBTQ+ community in regard to addressing diversity. I would've liked to see more attention paid to socioemotional learning theories as well.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate, error-free, and not significantly biased in any one section or area overall. Where appropriate, the foundational researchers are given credit, so that someone with knowledge in the field would concur.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"Content for many of the foundational educational psychology theories has not changed since the bulk of this material was released in 2009. So, in this way, the first 6 or so chapters could continue to be used, with some more recent articles to support it. However, almost all of the citations are now, in 2021, 15+ years old. This presents problems with some of the education policies they mention, and it also neglects the impact that technology has in the day to day classroom. Tech is mentioned, but almost 20 years have passed, so things are rightfully different, and classroom management is a bit different too. Many of the hyperlinks to appropriate websites do not work or lead you to a now incorrect page.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I do appreciate the writing style of these two authors. It is conversational, yet appropriate for an academic audience of young adult students. I appreciate the real-life classroom examples, and think a real effort has been made to make connections and the material more engaging for the reader. It's not bogged down with over-difficult vocabulary, but not too simple either.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is generally consistent in the way that material is presented. One issue I had was that there were often concepts brought up in the middle of one chapter that weren't really explained well until later chapters. For instance, discussing motivation at the same time operant conditioning is mentioned is confusing and motivation isn't broken down until chapter 6.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I think this text would be very easy to pull out certain sections, i.e., divisible. The glossary links in the PDF are useful as well.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Overall, the organization isn't bad, however the text has a tendency to jump a bit over the place. Bold text is somewhat liberally used, which could be distracting for readers. I thought Chapter 9: Complex thinking should've been placed before it was in the text-it would've been a natural section after information processing theory/memory (which was not addressed).","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Easy enough to navigate. Most of the hyperlinks do not work at the chapters' end. Very few images, but many tables, and they have all formatted well","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no glaring grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive, but it does not address any information on the LGBTQ+ community, which is mentioned earlier.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This text has many strengths. It is free to use under a Creative Commons License, which is incredible for students who struggle with text costs. It is well laid out and would be easy to navigate. It covers most foundation educational psychology theories/material well. Last, it is an engaging read, and not filled with dry or overly academic language. \r\n\r\nThis text also has weaknesses. Nearly all citations are 15+ years old. It does not properly address current technology use in the classroom, social development in adolescence and the importance of friends, information processing theory, memory, or the LGBTQ+ community. There is an overemphasis on classroom management, assessment, and even some research methodology that seems unnecessary. There is no test bank (understandable) or self-review questions to help students. Last, most of the hyperlinks in the pdf no longer work or go to the appropriate place described.  \r\n\r\nOverall, as an instructor of an educational psychology course that has taught for years, I would feel comfortable using the first half of this text, supplemented with other articles. I think the fact that this textbook is free outweighs most of the negatives.","created_at":"2021-01-28T15:16:18.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-01-28T15:16:18.000-06:00"},{"id":5173,"first_name":"Eliza","last_name":"Bobek","position":"Associate Clinical Professor","institution_name":"Massachusetts Department of Higher Education","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Addresses the main topics covered in a typical Educational Psychology course. Does not include information processing, memory, cognitive load. Could include more on the science of learning, LGBTQIA, trauma informed pedagogy. Some chapters more appropriate for students enrolled in teacher preparation e.g. \"Planning Instruction\" compared to students taking this course as an elective.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"High accuracy- no errors noted.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some outdated terminology e.g. students with \"special educational needs.\" Could be more inclusive in this chapter by addressing \"students with disabilities\" and avoiding a deficit perspective. Very little discussion of anti-racist and anti-bias pedagogy, stereotype threat etc.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Clear and well-organized. Text is written in the familiar-tone and terminology is clearly explained. Text is divided into manageable sections.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Appears to be consistent throughout, in terms of structure and flow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is very well done, sections are accessible, reducing cognitive load for the reader.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Flow is clear, but perhaps consideration to the audience- teacher preparation course for pedagogy, or psychology students as an elective?","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Navigation is clear; additional images and visuals would make it stronger.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Accurate grammar.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"No mention of culturally responsive teaching. Predominantly white western view. \"Student diversity\" is presented separately as \"other.\" Section on \"student diversity\" could be re-titled to be more inclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-06-29T20:18:36.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-29T20:18:36.000-05:00"},{"id":33389,"first_name":"Jodie","last_name":"Riek","position":"Assistant Professor of Teacher Education","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin - Superior","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text comprehensively covered most key traditional aspects of educational psychology such as human development theories; learning theories; and diversity. However as an introduction to education text, it was distinctly lacking content discussing political and social issues which impact education systems, the work of teachers, student learning and curriculum.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"What is covered is accurate and is unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content that is covered in this text is relevant and up to date. Any updates that will be needed in the future (for example hyperlinks which are dispersed throughout the text, may need updating in the future); will be relatively easy to update.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is very straight forward using every day language with limited jargon and technical terminology. When there is jargon or technical terminology there is a thoughtful easy to read explanation/definition for the reader to be able to understand in context.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms are used consistently throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Chapters are just the right size, with key topic headings and sub-headings within to help the reader consume the content. It was dispersed with images and hyperlinks which breaks up the reading work. This approach makes it very consumable for the reader.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are somewhat in a logical and clear sequence, although as mentioned earlier as an introduction to education text, it was distinctly lacking content discussing political and social issues which impact education systems, the work of teachers, student learning and curriculum.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Easy to navigate. Presents as a pdf file so it can be read online and offline. It can also be printed for those readers that prefer a hard copy.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors that I saw.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Very EDI aware text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2021-09-20T17:56:50.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-09-20T17:56:50.000-05:00"},{"id":33920,"first_name":"Melanie","last_name":"Park","position":"Assistant Professor of Education","institution_name":"Huntington University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Major educational psychology theories are covered, but instructors using this text may want to supplement the material with current neuroscience findings to ensure teacher candidates are prepared to implement brain based instructional strategies. The impact of trauma on learning, the implications of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory in the classroom, and Dweck’s Growth Mindset Theory are additional concepts not covered in the text.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the content is accurate for the publication date, but instructors will need to point out that Bloom’s Taxonomy has been updated. References to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) should also be included in a discussion of special education.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text provides relevant classroom examples of educational theories. Commentary on technology and diversity have become outdated due to the rapidly changing nature of these areas in education.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The concepts are clearly communicated, and the classroom examples show students how educational theory is applied in the real world of teaching. The writing is easy to understand, and university students will easily comprehend the text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text consistently addresses educational theories.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is designed for ease of division during an educational psychology course. The chapters on classroom management, planning instruction, and assessment could easily be revisited in upper level education courses to reinforce the concepts learned during the introductory educational psychology course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is logical and will allow instructors to easily design their course in a clear fashion.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Many of the supplemental links need to be updated or replaced. The links to the text in the Table of Contents are very helpful.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text was free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text did not address the needs of students in the LGBTQIA+ community. References to gender roles and assumptions regarding cultural stereotypes need to better reflect the current social climate.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The text provides a starting point for presenting educational theories. Instructors will need to supplement the text to ensure teacher candidates are exposed to current educational research. New theories and instructional approaches have emerged since the text was published, but overall, the text is easy to understand and certainly helps teacher candidates understand how educational theory can be applied to classroom situations.","created_at":"2022-06-21T05:28:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-06-21T05:28:43.000-05:00"},{"id":34265,"first_name":"Seokmin","last_name":"Kang","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"There is a lack of neuroscience and cognitive aspects such as information process and knowledge representation.\r\nAlso, it touches a little bit of everything but is shallow in its depth.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate overall.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"More adding needs in neuroscience, cognitive perspective in learning, and technology use in teaching and learning.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"It is clear overall.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There is no framework, but a description or summary of the theories.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is readily divisible into smaller reading sections.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"One topic is described or explained throughout the chapters. This is a double-edged sword. While readers can connect one concept with various different concepts, novice readers, before fully understanding the topic's core idea, can be easily off track, thinking of how a certain topic is related to different topics.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The text covers mainly its content. There are few images or diagrams to better support student learning. Learning objectives or key terms should be introduced at the beginning of each chapter.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book's grammar is fine.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"n/a","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"It leans much on education and application rather than foundational theories.","created_at":"2022-12-11T16:20:51.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-12-11T16:20:51.000-06:00"},{"id":35648,"first_name":"Abigail","last_name":"Dutcher","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Saint Francis","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Missing is explicit integration of trauma-informed practice, social-emotional learning, and current neuroscience, which are increasingly emphasized in teacher prep.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The book explains Bloom’s framework in its traditional form (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation). That version is now considered somewhat dated.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content in Educational Psychology is generally up-to-date for foundational teacher preparation. While some examples (e.g., references to NCLB-era accountability or early computer access in classrooms) are dated, the core theories, models, and practices (learning theories, motivation frameworks, developmental psychology, assessment basics, classroom management strategies) remain relevant to pre-service teachers.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose is clear, examples are relatable, and necessary context is consistently provided for technical terminology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology and framework remain consistent throughout, which enhances clarity and supports cumulative learning for pre-service teachers.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is highly divisible, logically segmented, and easy to realign with subunits of a course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Topics are presented logically, with clear progression and internal chapter organization that supports comprehension.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is free of significant interface issues. It is easy to navigate as a PDF, with a functional table of contents and clearly labeled subsections. Images, charts, and tables display without distortion, and the overall layout avoids distractions that might confuse readers.\r\n\r\nThat said, the text is currently limited to a PDF format. While this works well for basic accessibility, I would love to see it available on a more interactive online platform. A web-based version could allow for embedded media, hyperlinks to updated resources, and smoother integration into LMS platforms. This would further enhance usability for pre-service teachers who are accustomed to digital learning environments.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Inclusive and not offensive, with room to update examples to reflect contemporary culturally responsive practices.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2025-10-03T20:04:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-10-03T20:04:00.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/educational-psychology","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:08:50.000-06:00"},{"id":190,"title":"The Information Literacy User's Guide: An Open, Online Textbook","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2014,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Good researchers have a host of tools at their disposal that make navigating today's complex information ecosystem much more manageable. Gaining the knowledge, abilities, and self-reflection necessary to be a good researcher helps not only in academic settings, but is invaluable in any career, and throughout one's life. The Information Literacy User's Guide will start you on this route to success. The Information Literacy User's Guide is based on two current models in information literacy: The 2011 version of The Seven Pillars Model, developed by the Society of College, National and University Libraries in the United Kingdom and the conception of information literacy as a metaliteracy, a model developed by one of this book's authors in conjunction with Thomas Mackey, Dean of the Center for Distance Learning at SUNY Empire State Col- lege.2 These core foundations ensure that the material will be relevant to today's students. The Information Literacy User's Guide introduces students to critical concepts of information literacy as defined for the information-infused and technology-rich environment in which they find themselves. This book helps students examine their roles as information creators and sharers and enables them to more effectively deploy related skills. This textbook includes relatable case studies and scenarios, many hands-on exercises, and interactive quizzes.","contributors":[{"id":3153,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Deborah","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bernnard","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Deborah Bernnard is Head of the Dewey Graduate Library at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is also a veteran information literacy instructor. She was a member of the committee that created UNL 205, Information Literacy, a one-credit undergraduate course, taught by University at Albany librarians since 2000. She also teaches a graduate course; Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Technique. She has authored several book chapters and articles on information literacy topics."},{"id":3154,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Greg","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bobish","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Greg Bobish is an Associate Librarian at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He has taught credit-bearing information literacy courses since 2000 and enjoys experimenting with new educational technologies and new pedagogical approaches as he tries to convey the relevance of information literacy to his students’ lives. He has received the Chancellor’s and the President’s awards for Excellence in Librarianship."},{"id":3155,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Daryl","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bullis","location":"Babson College","background_text":"Daryl Bullis is the Lead Instruction Librarian at Babson College. He received his BA in Classics and Russian from the University of New Hampshire, an MA in Russian and an MLS from the University at Albany, State University of New York. He has taught credit courses in Information Literacy and is currently researching best practices for adapting TBL methods to bibliographic instruction sessions."},{"id":3156,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Jenna","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Hecker","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Jenna Hecker is an instructional developer for the University at Albany, State University of New York and teaches Information Literacy in both face-to-face and online formats. She received her MLIS from the University of Rhode Island."},{"id":3157,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Irina","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Holden","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Irina Holden teaches Information Literacy in the Sciences and works as an Information Literacy and Science Outreach Librarian in the Science Library at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research interests include science literacy, reference and instruction in both traditional and virtual environments, sustainability and first year experience courses. Ms. Holden is a native of Ukraine."},{"id":3158,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Allison","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Hosier","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Allison Hosier earned her MSIS from the University at Albany, State University of New York in 2011. She is currently an Information Literacy Librarian at Coastal Carolina University."},{"id":3159,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Trudi","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Jacobson","location":"University of Albany","background_text":"Trudi Jacobson is the Head of the Information Literacy Department at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She and Thomas Mackey developed the concept of metaliteracy, which has infused her teaching and her research. She loves the challenge and excitement of effective new teaching methods, and is currently involved in the development of a metaliteracy badging system. She was the recipient of the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year award in 2009. She is honored to have taught or mentored all but one of the co-authors of this book when they were graduate students."},{"id":3160,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Tor","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Loney","location":"Albany Public Library","background_text":"Tor Loney is a Youth Services Librarian at Albany Public Library, concentrating on teen engagement with a focus on creative arts and emerging technologies. He previously worked as an Information Literacy Librarian and Instructor at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he earned his MLIS."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":27,"name":"Higher Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":34,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/higher-education"}],"publishers":[{"id":125,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:36:26.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":179,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/the-information-literacy-users-guide-pdf-pdf/?tmstv=1672321931","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":180,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/the-information-literacy-users-guide-epub-epub/?tmstv=1672321684","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2123,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/the-information-literacy-users-guide-an-open-online-textbook/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":19,"reviews":[{"id":104,"first_name":"Deborah","last_name":"Wilhelm","position":"WINGED Coordinator, Technical Writing Instructor","institution_name":"California Polytechnic State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Using the 7 Pillars of Information Literacy as an organizing structure, and with the addition of two chapters discussing specific kinds of information literacy (visual and scientific), the text provides a broad overview of information literacy with an emphasis on metaliteracy, which the authors describe as \"information literacy for today's open, networked, collaborative information environment\" (1). The text covers traditional sorts of information gathering, such as library stacks and databases, as well as newer approaches like using social media and backtracking through popular sources to locate primary research. While the general philosophy undergirding the work is one that will be familiar to many faculty members (for example, those teaching a prospectus-based opening to working with information often use guiding questions: What is your tentative position? What do you know? What do you not know? Where will you look? What problems do you anticipate?), the authors provide a contemporary approach with a practical and overt stress on metacognition. They also offer a useful focus on collaboration that is often missing from this kind of text. The authors provide in-text definitions of most but not all concepts; they provide neither glossary nor index, although both would be valued additions to the book. The depth of coverage, I believe, would likely work best in lower-division college courses, or in upper-division courses with additional deeper analytic tools from the professor, aimed at specific course content.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the content to be high quality. The exercises are directly connected to the material and have been carefully designed to help students apply what they've just learned. The book's information and strategies are up-to-date and accurate. I would, however, quibble with the Chapter 7 definition of the \"traditional paper\"; I don't know many faculty who are assigning work fitting such a limited description. We're looking for analysis, synthesis, evaluation, creation of something new - and we recognize that the writing process itself adds to learning about the topic. We're not just wanting students to show they've \"understood the topic and can draw some conclusions\" (94), even within the \"traditional\" kind of format. Deepening of a few concepts at some point would be very helpful. Chapter 5, for example, discusses fact checking but doesn't describe differing levels of fact-checking, which is likely different at _The New Yorker_, perhaps, than it is at _People_. The \"Choosing Materials\" section in this chapter offers key characteristics to seek but doesn't give much about HOW to check accuracy, relevance, bias, reputation, credibility. On the other hand, the text does use worksheets, exercises, and other resources (the CRAAP test from Chico State, for example, is great) to help clarify difficult concepts. In the big picture, this text attempts to help students uncover what they don't know by offering relevant information and skills for this kind of intellectual work, and this \"what we don't know\" focus is supported by an accurate text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text makes good use of contemporary issues (such as hydraulic fracturing) in its examples and also does a nice job of tracing an idea (iodine use after radioactive exposure) by starting with an event that may not be familiar to students (the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986) and making connections to an event that probably is familiar to them (the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011). The text integrates examples in such a way that updating should be a smooth process. If the authors should choose to integrate more visual elements into the text (a strategy that I recommend, by the way), these should also be easy to update.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"With the exceptions that I've noted under the \"grammar\" category, below, the text is clearly written and easy to follow. Jargon is minimal and the text explains newly introduced concepts. If anything is missing that would directly influence clarity, I would say that it is a discussion, including suggestions, to help students surface the idea that \"what we don't know\" is a very Big Space and may include ideas, facts, and possibilities that aren't yet in the student's current awareness. That is, if Sarah doesn't have a certain bit of information, and that bit of information isn't even on her radar, how will she begin to look for the thing that she doesn't know exists? Many students lack the experience, context, and background knowledge that faculty can draw on--and may take for granted--to help in the search. This idea of \"what we don't know\" is especially important when students are working on projects that they didn't choose themselves and might not be inherently curious about, as sometimes occurs in college (gasp).","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"My comments on organization, below, will be helpful here in terms of noting some repetition and overlap. One overall comment would be that the book might benefit from the application of a similar structure to each chapter: some chapters begin with a scenario, while others begin with an introduction or other opening strategy. This suggestion also applies to the structure and order of the opening bullets (what to understand, what to do). Harmonizing the chapters for style, content, and consistency of categories and divisions would be helpful.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Because it uses the 7 Pillars of Information Literacy, and because the text itself notes that these pillars don't necessarily delineate a step-by-step process, instructors can certainly divide the book if necessary. None of the chapters is excessively long, but even so, it would be simple to assign parts of chapters. That said, the information-seeking and -analyzing process does have some inherent order (that is, the chapter on gathering information comes before the chapter on sharing information), and the 7 Pillars approach will work best in their original order. The final chapters on visual and science literacy, however, could be easily shifted and integrated anywhere to best fit a given course. As someone who teaches technical writing for engineers, for example, I would open with the chapters on science and visual literacy.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The flow is not seamless, although the text does refer the reader to relevant discussions elsewhere in-text, which indicates that some connecting work has taken place. More \"conversation\" among the topics would be very helpful. For example, Chapter 5 distinguishes between news media and social media, but Chapter 2 does not mention the latter, an important distinction that should take place early and work thematically throughout the book. Chapter 2 discusses Boolean Operators, and then Chapter 3 repeats that discussion (although with less effectiveness); Chapter 3, however, adds some advanced search tips not available in Chapter 2. Combining all of this information in one place, with many visuals, would be much more effective. In addition, Chapter 7 (\"Present\") would benefit from a discussion of what happens to information that people gather and share; that is, what goes on when the work goes \"out there\" into the world and joins the conversation (I am thinking of the Burkean Parlor here, of course). A discussion along these lines would give a sense of completeness and working-together of the entire structure.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I've read several books in the Open Textbook Library, and this one has a very good reader interface. A few of the visuals (screenshots, for example) in the book are fuzzy, but the rest are clear and sufficiently sized for usability. I do recommend a re-working of the links: The Table of Contents links out into the text, but the text does not link back to the Table of Contents. Similarly, the authors occasionally provide in-text links to upcoming chapters that they've referred to; these are helpful, but links BACK to the starting point would eliminate the long scroll backward. Also, having notes/links to the exercise answers would be helpful (I did not realize until I got to the end of the book that answers for students were even available). And finally, in-text links to the full-size versions of the worksheets would be most welcome. Nevertheless, the book is generally easy to navigate, and I did not have any difficulty reading it online.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The book suffers from inconsistency of style (likely because of the working of multiple authors) and minor but annoying grammar problems. Issues of pronoun disagreement within sentences (mixing single and plural pronouns, mixing first- , second- , and third-person pronouns) and lack of pronoun clarity (for example, use of \"this\", \"that\", \"there\", and \"it\" without specifying what nouns these words point to) are very distracting. As a technical writer, I would need to explain to my students why these are not OK. The mix of active and passive voice is also distracting. Finally, although perhaps nobody other than technical writers will find it bothersome, I was unsettled by the occasional lack of parallel grammatical structure among bulleted items and (especially) within the 7 Pillars (perhaps \"scope\" is actually being used as a verb in the second pillar, but the explanation doesn't lend itself to that interpretation). That said, I noted no glaring issues of sentence structure that would cause me not to adopt this text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text uses a variety of examples (computers, fracking, women painters, and radiation poisoning, for example), although the examples lean toward East College college students. The names in the examples range from \"cutesy\" (\"Norm Allknow\" and \"Harry Dositall\" to pseudonymous (\"Harry and Sally Dennis\"), so I suggest a consistent naming strategy throughout the book, and one that uses a variety of names. The text is not offensive in any way, but it is not particularly inclusive--however, the examples in the text would be easy to update for diversity.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I'm adopting this text for my technical writing students and would recommend it for nearly any lower-division course that involves research, application of critical thinking principles, analysis/synthesis/evaluation of information, or metacognitive activities (in particular, helping students to understand the thinking process and encouraging them to think about their thinking). I would not recommend assigning this book as \"recommended reading\" to help students with course content and projects; rather, if you don't want to use the entire text, I'd recommend choosing specific chapters such as those on visual and science literacy, and then working the exercises together so that you, the context expert, can model your own information literacy processes and abilities.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":113,"first_name":"Carmel","last_name":"Finley","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Oregon State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is extremely comprehensive, describing the different elements of an internet search and providing a series of exercises designed to give practice in efficiently finding, storing, and assessing information. It covers a range of searches, from using google and wikipedia, to much more in-depth academic searches.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I have not done the exercises, but I see the utility of them in a classroom, and have no reason to believe that the serches they describe are not accurate. A series of exercises details how to find different kinds of information, for example, including how to access academic information through inter-library loan. The book attempts to be useful for citizen science (there is a section on how to do this), as well as for beginner and advanced researchers. It will be useful to undergraduates, and the to new gradute students grappling with getting a handle on a new research topic.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is arranged so that new information could be incorporated. The text makes the point that research skills are for life, not just the next class. I liked the discussion on metaliteracy, a term I was not familiar with; I use the term media fluency. I especially liked the introduction exercises, on identifying your information need and scoping.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"If anything, the book is too detailed; I admire the intend to be as clear and transparent as possible in how to do a complex search and I certainly agree with the intent to make searches as efficient as possible. That said, I will put in a pitch for just wandering around in databases, as you can do in a library shelf, and depending on chance to encounter relevant material.  The prose is clear and precise, the instructions are detailed, there is a ability to create a glossary, and to use components of the text in class, depending on the level of skill you require your students to attain. The book is  very well thought-out.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"All the chapters follow the same format, in escalating complexity, and each includes a series of exercises designed to allow the student to follow each of the steps.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Pieces of the text can be used in a class, depending on the level of research required. I teach undergraduate public history, so I am always urging my students to create good questions. I very much like their exercise of examining the level of research the task requires, and the written assignment of what do I know, what do I need to know. There is a menu of learning activities, so you can pick what would be most useful to your class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is consistent, each chapter starts with the personalization of a research question, and not all are for academic purposes. I liked the distinctions in the chapter on researching fracking, and the distinctions between political or scientific information, and opinions.  This is the sort of thing that I can immediately identify, but a student might not see the difference between an editorial and a letter to the editor.  A great deal of work has gone into the scenarios, so they represent the diversity of the kinds of searches we all do.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read the book on an ipad mini and I found the interface was clean and appealing, there were no navigation problems. Some of the charts displayed across two pages, but that is minor and not distracting.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't find any errors or awkward constructions. The language in the exercises is painsaking.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Technology is transforming education. We have the ability to amass great mounds of data, but then what do we do with it? I find that students like to do research, but they often see what they have gathered as being equal, they often tend not see any difference in the quality of the information they have found. The exercises force them to parse different kinds of information and assign credibility. This again is something that I do automatically, but students have to learn these skills.  If there is a cultural bias inthe text, it is the assumption that we all have research access, although there is also information on using inter-library loan to access academic information.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will use the exercises from the first chapter in my public history class. I appreciated the explanation of the more complex searches. I liked the exercise on using information in different formats. The section on photographs could be aumented with additional information, but that is a minor criticism. On the whole, I found this book useful, I learned several things, and I appreciated the unpacking of a skill that I take for granted, because I have done it for so long. This is is a thoughtful contribution to the ongoing discussion of how to teach students skills that will cross disciplines and that can be updated  as new technologies emerge.","created_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2014-07-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":149,"first_name":"Theresa","last_name":"Cullen","position":"Associate Professor, Instructional Psychology and Technology","institution_name":"University of Oklahoma","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"I find it pretty comprehensive.  (In fact, much more than I was expecting). As I delved into the book I could see being able to use it with a variety of audiences.   I am an educational technology professor working with both graduate and undergraduate students.  I think it has use for both. I appreciate that it talks about both MLA and APA..(students get thrown by not seeing the citation style the need).  Of course the citation section is not comprehensive,  but it’s a worthwhile introduction to documenting the who what where when of sources.  \r\n\r\nI was a little surprised by the lack of discussion about evaluating online resources. There some in the evaluate chapter but it is really short.  This may be due to the fact that I am not in the library sciences but given the title I had expected a more comprehensive discussion of citing and evaluating and using online sources because in education much of information literacy is focused on evaluating online sources.  This would definitely be something that I would need to supplement when using this book.  There are places where the book opens the door, and I could easily supplement.  \r\n\r\nI appreciate the visual literacy chapter and the science literacy chapter but they are the least comprehensive resource in the book. For example, the other chapters talk about giving credit to the sources and talks about Open Source and citation (specifically Chapter 4 Gather).. In the visual literacy chapter,  one of the biggest issues I have with students is the fact that they don’t think they need to cite them or do not cite them accurately given their ability online.  If the book is going to go into images as sources, this discussion is necessary and a missed opportunity.   In fact, there is a section on saving images (page 115 starting with “For visual materials, another important aspect of access involves saving copies.” And there is no discussion of citation here, a clear missed opportunity.  \r\n\r\nIf I was rating the book on just the 7 pillars – I would rate it a 4 in comprehensiveness,  but I will rate a 3 taking the last two chapter into consideration. \r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I am an Educational Technology professor so library science is not my area of expertise but I often have to teach finding sources and judging their accuracy and usefulness under the veil of Digital Literacy,  Digitial Citizenship etc..   I don’t see anything inaccurate in the way that I would use it.  I do think the authors do have a a bit of a bias toward traditional sources and do not spend a lot of time with non-traditional sources. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I think this book has fine longevity. They did an excellent job of picking resources and examples that are both timely and will not easily age out of relevance.   It is clear that the authors were careful to use general examples and perhaps some of their lack of online discussion was an effort to make a book that was general enough that it would retain relevancy over a longer time.  They of course will have issues once a new version of APA/MLA comes out but that is a risk of anyone who includes that material.   \r\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I think the book is quite clear. I find it very readable and the authors do a good job of pulling examples through the book that are engaging and useful to students who are learning the topic.  ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"For the first 7 pillars I would say the book is very consistent. The last two chapters are very cursory and not in as much depth as the others.  I could see using any of the chapters or a few of them together and I think the time that it would take to cover the material would be similar for course planning purposes.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book has a clear framework that I could easily see only using parts of it.  The 7 Pillars could easily be used as a group of individually or could be used for remediation.  As I read this book, I thought,  this would be a good book to use to either prepare for a library search or to remediate one that went wrong where it was clear that the student did not follow how to value sources. The last two chapters seems superfluous.  Not that I might not use them,  but the 7 pillars make a clear framework,  and the two extra chapters on Science Literacy and Visual Literacy make me say – but what about Global literacy, Cultural Literacy etc.. ? \r\n\r\nThe table of contents is well organized and so I could easily direct my students to a particular section or task and their appendix has activities that I could easily assign only one part of this book and likely intend to do so. \r\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I think the framework is easy to follow.    I wish that the activities were linked at the end of each chapter.  As I read each chapter, then I went to the end to see the associated activities.  Since on the computer it’s a linked PDF, it would be a nice addition to link to the appendices at the end of each chapter as  print book often does. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This book is available in two formats PDF an EPub.  I explored both.  For PDF, it’s a straightforward PDF document, with no bells or whistles. On a computer it has clickable links to go to activities within the text and referenced materials.  Since I direct a one to one iPad project,I loaded it on my iPad in a few ways.  I first started with the PDF and opened it both as an iBook and opened it in Notability (the annotation tool that we give to all students at the start of the program.)  It loaded well in both these ways.   I also then downloaded the EPub version and opened that in iBooks.  I don’t recommend this as strongly.  Its nice to be able to jump from the table of contents and has more of a book feel, but some of the clean formatting is lost in ePub version.The greatest issue is that the appendices with activities are not indexed as part of the Table of Contents in the Epub version and its difficult to get to them.  Then when you do get to them, the formatting of them is awkward. The notetaking tools of the ePub are fully available on that version, and if you had a student that you needed to accommodate via a textreader the ePub would fulfill this need. \r\n\r\nSo overall,  I would highly recommend the PDF version for its versatility. I am going to rate it high for choices and options that I could present to students to use this book.  \r\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have not noticed any errors. It reads well and seems carefully written. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I don’t think its culturally insensitive in any way, I like the way the book is written, I do think that there are some cultural references and examples that may be challenging to International students.  I think that this the price to pay for book that I find easy to read and engaging.  For example their comparing of objectives to punchy email attention getters (don’t love this example) but I could see this getting confusing for some.  I went through looking for other examples and generally its pretty culturally neutral but examples are very US student.  ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am much more impressed with this book than I thought I would be.. If they make additional versions, may I suggest an added activity.  The authors did a good job of keeping resources general when referring to library resources that may be available.  I will likely pair that chapter with creating an inventory of what our library has. This would be a great activity to encourage people to personalize the text to their institution and would give a great framework to encourage those who adopt the text to partner with their librarian.  \r\n\r\nI am not asked this anywhere else so I will share it here.  What audience would this be appropriate for?   I can see applying it to several groups of students that I teach. I could see using it with my undergraduate students, especially when I assign a paper and want them to find sources.  Additionally, the next time that I am asked to do an honors research project with a student, I could see using this text to verify our shared understanding of finding resources and what types of resources are acceptable or not.  For graduate students, I could see using this for my classroom research class for the same purpose.  I also teach our seminar for first semester doctoral students. We meet with the librarian and this would be a great preparatory read for that visit.    This book is not for looking at electronic sources as a source, it is definitely designed to address the needs of someone assigning a traditional paper using traditional library sources and does a good job of introducing relevant topics and opening the door for other appropriate discussion.. \r\n","created_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2015-01-12T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":243,"first_name":"Rebecca Kate","last_name":"Miller ","position":"Assistant Director, Learning Services ","institution_name":"Virginia Tech ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text comprehensively covers basic information literacy concepts.  It is interesting that the authors chose the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy as the book's framework, since a number of additional information literacy models exist.  In the United States, the Association of College \u0026amp; Research Libraries (ACRL) recently revised the ACRL Information Literacy Standards, and developed the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.  These different models simply offer a different lens through which to view information literacy and its goals, but I was a bit surprised that none of these were mentioned.  Since the book seems directed toward undergraduate learners, it does make sense that the information was presented as simply as possible, so I can understand the decision to not include a discussion of other models.  However, the new Framework does include a big focus on metaliteracy, so it may make sense to include that in a future edition of the book.  \r\n\r\nBesides the last two chapters on Visual Literacy and Science Literacy, the information represented in the book is fairly discipline-agnostic, so instructors may want to make sure any discipline-specific ideas are addressed in class or through discussions or reflections.  For example, when primary sources are discussed, an instructor may want to talk about how the term \"primary source\" may mean something different in different disciplines.  This idea does come up in Chapter 9:  Science Literacy, but it's an important one for learners to understand.  \r\n\r\nFinally, the exercises, teaching tools, and graphs at the end of the book really make this a very helpful book for new information literacy instructors.  The authors clearly lay out effective methods for teaching these ideas, and offer very practical and valuable tools for bringing this book into the classroom.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Information literacy ideas, tools, and strategies are represented in an accurate and objective manner.  The only issues I identified along these lines are a few misspellings that I discuss more in the grammar section (#9) of this review.  The authors of this book are to be lauded for their accurate and engaging discussion of a complex topic.  ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Books on information can be very difficult to keep up to date.  I applaud the inclusion of social media and other types of new media in this text; however, the landscape of social media is changing so quickly that the specific examples given will be out of date sooner rather than later.  Databases can change names or publishers, which could also cause confusion if not updated in the book.  Finally, discover services are hardly mentioned at all (3 times throughout the book), and most libraries are moving in this direction. This is a good example of the extremely dynamic landscape of information in libraries, and in social media, right now.  Of course, instructors could easily take these chapters and update them with relevant examples--again, one of the real benefits of using an open textbook.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Information literacy concepts are notoriously complex, and this book does an admirable job breaking down some very complicated ideas.  The scenarios make the concepts at play very clear, and offer learners a way to relate to the ideas discussed throughout the book.  If anything, the book may over-simplify ideas in order to make them accessible.  For example, in Chapter 2:  Scope, the concept of controlled vocabulary is identified as an important consideration in searching databases and library catalogs.  Controlled vocabulary is a strangely difficult concept to grasp for learners who have never thought about information organization; however, I do believe that Chapter 2 is a great starting point for learners beginning to wrap their minds around this concept.  Ideally, the concept would be addressed in class or in discussion at a later point, and learners could really begin to engage with the idea.  ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Overall, this text is fairly consistent.  However, there are a few places in the book where different terminology is used for the same thing.  For example, in Chapter 6:  Manage, the learning objectives stated at the beginning of the chapter use the phrase \"bibliographical software\" to refer to software that helps researchers organize and manage their research.  The rest of the chapter, though, uses the phrase \"reference management software\" to refer to the same thing.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As an information literacy instructor, I could definitely imagine using this book in bits and pieces.  Each chapter does not rely on knowledge of the previous chapter(s), even though that would certainly help.  Important ideas, such as information formats and search strategies, are covered multiple times.  While learners reading through the entire book may need some guidance in order to ensure that they don't skip over some of these parts because they think they have already read about them, this does offer instructors the opportunity to review important ideas and make sure that learners really grasp them at different points in their research, or on their way up (or down!) the Pillar(s).  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The authors made good use of the flow inherent in the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy.  Organization/flow is typically difficult in books on information literacy and research, since the research process isn't linear, so I really appreciated that the authors touched on this idea at the beginning of the book.  In fact, the authors' ability to highlight the iterative nature of research was clear, as many of the chapters covered the same ideas, but with a slightly different perspective. Chapters 8 and 9, Visual Literacy and Science Literacy, seemed to fit well at the end of the book, since the learner should already be familiar with the Pillars at that point.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This book is available as a .pdf and as an eBook.  I downloaded both versions, and used both for different reasons.  I preferred to navigate through the book with the eBook version (using a Macbook Air), but appreciated being able to pull up the .pdf in order to search for specific items within the text.  In the eBook version, a few of the graphs were a bit distorted, as they were spread over multiple pages, but the distortion did not present any major issues with my ability to read and understand the goal of the graphs.  The online, interactive quizzes were a great feature, but could potentially cause confusion if a student had printed out pages from the .pdf version of the book, or was not connected to the internet.  The authors dealt with this situation by offering text versions of the quizzes directly below the link to the online quizzes.  ","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are no major problems with grammar in this book.  However, there are a few significant misspellings that could potentially impact a learner's experience.  For example, in Chapter 6:  Manage, the authors describe various reference management software, including Mendeley.  The chapter consistently spells it wrong (Mendelay) and even includes this misspelling in the URL given.  The incorrect URL (www.mendelay.com) should be: https://www.mendeley.com/.  ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The scenarios that are part of each chapter are great, and it's clear that learners will benefit from reflecting on an example that may clarify a situation or concept. However, a number of the examples in the book are specific to New York or SUNY, which may cause some confusion.  For example, in Chapter 2:  Scope, the main character uses the SUNY catalog to search for information.  This totally makes sense, given that a number of the authors are from a SUNY institution.  If I were going to use this in a class, I would likely go in and edit a few of the scenarios in order for them to make sense for my students.  Indeed, this is one of the major benefits of an open textbook--that instructors are able to do this!  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I've taught both undergraduate and graduate information literacy courses, and I can see using pieces of this book in both classes.  The text is clear, but I think that it is most useful when supplemented with guided practice and discussion.  I think this textbook may also be of interest to new information literacy instructors.  The book offers clear strategies for teaching complex information literacy concepts, and I would recommend it as a starting point for new teaching or instruction librarians in order to get a sense of how these concepts can be discussed and shared.  Thanks to the authors for making their expertise accessible and open!  ","created_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2015-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":364,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Wepking","position":"Senior Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text uses the contemporary British  framework of the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy: Identify, Scope, Plan, Gather, Evaluate, Manage, Present.  This forms not only the content of the first seven chapters of the book, but also provides a visual representation of the skills and knowledge required to be information literate.  The text conveys a very useful and contemporary emphasis on the behavioral aspects of information literacy, stressing the need for a student to develop habits and dispositions that will move him or her through effective information use.  Additionally, the social context of information use is also present.  Beyond the traditional academic paper submitted to an instructor as the output of a research project, the authors offer suggestions for alternatives from speeches to video to social media.  Both the purpose of the research and the potential audience must be considered.  Adding additional detail on the use of Creative Commons licensing, mentioned briefly elsewhere in the text but not in the context of the research product, would be beneficial.\nIn addition to the Seven Pillars, the text also uses standard information literacy models and tools such as the CRAAP test which will allow instructors to easily use other supplemental materials that use the same models.\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text appears accurate and consistent.  However, it would be best if instructors could edit or modify external content linked to the text such as quizzes which are sometimes problematic.  For example, in one quiz question on resources, students are asked to choose the best resource to use to locate the full text of Franklin Roosevelt’s speech in which he said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  The possible answers include a website of presidential speeches, a newspaper article from October 1941, and the print version of Vital Speeches of the Day which began publication in 1934.  The correct response is listed as “all of the above.”  However, since the speech was given in 1933, the 2nd two responses seem unlikely to be true.  Clearer questions with answers that do not “trick” students would be preferable.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Over time, as research tools and information sources change, the steps required to effectively use information remain relatively constant.  These steps are clearly defined in each of the book’s first seven chapters.  \nThe authors of the text view information through a very contemporary lens, noting that online information is increasingly social and participatory.  This adds relevance to the text since today’s information user must not only be able to find, assess and use information but is increasingly responsible for information creation and collaboration with others who have interests in the same topic.  Although chapters are devoted to Science and Visual literacy at the end of the text, aspects of metaliteracy (self-reflective and intellectually engaged information use) are embedded throughout.  The addition of information on the concept of transliteracy – how today’s information seekers must be able to access and use information in and between a variety of forms and formats – would also be useful.  Transliteracy is briefly mentioned in the Visual Literacy chapter, but could be used as the chapter topic, expanding coverage to include media literacy of all types (film audio, digital, etc.). ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The authors use clear language throughout.  The use of visuals and scenarios (some with humor) will prove not only informative but engaging to undergraduate students.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The Seven Pillars framework provides consistency and clarity.  In each chapter, a chart separated the chapter’s concepts (Identify, Gather, Evaluate, etc.) into two categories, detailing what students should know about the topic at the conclusion of the chapter, and also what they should be able to do to apply this knowledge to the research process, categories aligned to standards-based instruction in k-12 and beyond.  Today’s undergraduates are very familiar with this model from their pre-college educational experience.  Indeed, many elements of the text align with instructional language and tools used in k-12 education.  The KWHL chart (what to you KNOW about a topic, what do you WANT to know, HOW will you find information, and what have you LEARNED) is regularly used in information literacy instruction in secondary and even elementary school libraries.\nAlthough clearly structured around a step-by-step process to information use, the exercises included throughout the text are appropriate to engage students in critical thinking as opposed to rote learning of a process.  Most encourage students to apply the principles of each step to a topic of personal or immediate interest, yet provide relatable examples to guide that reflection.\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The research process in the 21st century is examined through the established steps/pillars, each of which is covered in the first 7 chapters of the text.  However, hyperlinks in the digital versions of the text allow for easy review of concepts and movement between the steps as necessary to the individual learner.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is very strong here, with introductory material, organized chapters, in-context examples of visual and scientific literacy, and a summary of content.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"In both the PDF and ePub versions which were examined, full functionality were present.  Search features were successful, text size could be adjusted, and bookmarking was available.  \nUse of hyperlinks in the ebook takes students quickly and easily from one part of the textbook to another, allowing for individualized learning and review.  There are also external links to useful resources in context.  The discussion of citation styles, for example, provides a link to an online slide show which instructs students in the elements of citations in several styles and for several types of sources.  As an added benefit, these illustrations are also available in an appendix for off-line access.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text does include some examples of inclusiveness.  In a few subject examples, we see research questions and sources on topics related to gender, race, and culture.  Sample searches and references include links to content that helps to answer the questions posed in these examples.  (Glass Ceiling, women artists).  Additionally, one example in the Evaluate chapter warns against the use of unreliable information; the example given is of information found on Black Confederate soldiers, but the source citations for that information proved biased and incorrect.  This was an appropriate example of the need to carefully evaluate and assess online and other sources.\nAlthough these examples exist within the text, there’s room for greater inclusion of culturally diverse content within this text.    \n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":377,"first_name":"Christina","last_name":"Trunnell","position":"Head of Library and Information Services","institution_name":"Treasure Valley Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is a very thorough and comprehensive instructional text that connects students with not only the basics of information literacy but with practical application.  Further, each step of the information literacy process is coupled with a delving into the concepts which leaves students inspired to explore and question further.   ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text reflects no bias and demonstrates care and intent placed into the accurate reflection of information literacy standards and applications.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text integrates current formats for information access into the examples and research modes.  Using appropriate methodology and incorporating common searching strategies, the authors have created a text that will remain relevant as information formats and methods of access change.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Though the text is clearly written, it utilizes all the technical terminology of the discipline.  For many students, there are sections of the text that will be challenging to follow and require a higher level of thought.  However, the terms are placed appropriately within understandable examples and explanations.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Though the terms and structure of this topic may be great to the student new to these concepts, they are well presented and consistently so.  By the end of this book, students will be left with a solid knowledge of information literacy and the accompanying terminology of the discipline.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text could easily be modified or used in parts in information literacy courses.  It can also be integrated into English composition courses or upper level researched based courses.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The headings, subheadings, images, charts, etc. were appropriately and logically placed making each section read and flow well.  This text reads well and cleanly.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book format is created well and without error.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The examples in the text are all easy to read and cleanly placed.  Though not culturally diverse, they are openly identifiable to the average student.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this is an incredibly thorough and well crafted text that comprehensively integrates current information literacy standards and concepts with practical application for any student at any level.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":393,"first_name":"Lyndsay","last_name":"Smanz","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is a very comprehensive approach to learning about information literacy at the college level, suitable for a 1 credit class or as supplemental material for any other course that includes a research component.  While the content of the book is based on the SCONUL 7 Pillars of Information Literacy, it's coverage of information literacy also aligns well with the ACRL information literacy standards and framework.  The extra two chapters of visual literacy and science literacy are very important topics that fit under the information literacy umbrella and are great additions to the subject.  Worksheets and exercises are included that are appropriate to assign as graded homework or use for in class activities, along with quizzes that can be taken online (although I did not find the quizzes to be very good).  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I have noticed a few errors in the writing, but nothing that negatively detracts from the book.  My main concern is with the quizzes included with the book. I have found that I often disagree with what the authors have determined to be the correct answer. Before assigning the quizzes, I definitely recommend taking a close look at the questions and answers.  Since the book was written for SUNY, it does have references to their specific library resources (such as the SUNY catalog) which may be confusing to readers from other universities/colleges.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Even though the book was only published a year ago, I have found URLs provided to already be out of date.  Search tools and databases (especially those that are freely available) change frequently.  The topics and examples given are very timely, but could begin to seem dated in a few years.  Updates will be necessary for this textbook to remain relevant and for the exercises and examples to be useful to students.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in a very conversational manner and tries to engage students by framing the content through scenarios they may find familiar.  There is some library/research jargon used, but definitely tries to minimize this and assumes that the reader has limited knowledge and experience with traditional library research tools.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent from chapter to chapter, as each chapter follows a very similar pattern.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Since research is rarely a linear process, a student could easily find themselves going back and forth between chapters in the book and reading or referencing them out of order.   Concepts can still be understood if reading of the chapters and completion of the exercises occurs out of order.  Each chapter is organized into many different sections by subheadings which allows for assigning even smaller chunks of a chapter for reading.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is organized in typical research stages--starting with identifying a topic, defining information need, developing a search strategy, how to find information, then being able to assess and use the information effectively.  Even though the book is based on the SCONUL model, the same stages are represented in many other information literacy/research frameworks.  It definitely makes sense to approach the topics in this specific order--but as mentioned above, since research rarely is linear, it is expected that some students using this book will be jumping back and forth between chapters.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The PDF file of the book is easy to navigate between chapters.  It would be nice if the worksheets provided in the book were available as fillable PDF forms.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Some typos were noticed.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Overall I didn't find anything to be insensitive or offensive about this book, although I do think scenarios and examples could be more inclusive to a wider variety of information resources and needs.  The book mostly focuses on academic, scholarly research.  The book also does not provide any guidance or assistance for students who may encounter additional difficulties in research because they are international and/or non-native English speakers.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":525,"first_name":"Scott","last_name":"Miller","position":"Reference and Instruction Librarian","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text does cover aspects of information literacy quite well. The inclusion of visual and science literacy is unusual for this type of textbook, but welcome. There was obviously much thought put into the structure and focus of the book, but apparently the authors thought no index or glossary was needed. I disagree with that decision. I noticed, too, that no mention was made at any point of doi (digital object identifiers). This omission can hardly be justified and shows an unfortunate sloppy attitude toward citations in general (more on that in the grammar section).\nOn the plus side, I liked that the authors pointed out the use of people - experts - as resources. I also liked their mention of interlibrary loans as a source of material.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Only considering the content, I found the book accurate enough in the description of concepts and use of terms. On the other hand, the authors were sometimes guilty of bias and presenting uncritical assumptions as facts. One example is the passage on p. 63 (Evaluate) where the authors discuss the book \"Our Virginia\" and how a mother found \"errors\" in the text. They specifically call attention to the claim that there were thousands of black soldiers in the Confederacy. It's ironic that the authors are trying to educate the reader about evaluating source, but they failed to evaluate or present their facts properly. Yes, it may be true that \"Our Virginia\" was written by a non-historian, and it may be true that the author learned about black Confederate soldiers from a potentially biased source, but it does not follow that those facts automatically make the \"errors\" seen by Bernnard, et al. really errors.  Did they read the book? Doing a little research of my own, I located a site hosted by a state (not an individual) that indicated there were perhaps 3,000 or more black Confederate troops. But Bernnard, et al. imply that it's impossible that there were black Confederate soldiers and \"Our Virginia\" contains a gross error. They deserve the grade of F for that section.\n\nAnother example of bias was in the social media section of the book (p. 66) where the authors write, \"Anyone can create or contribute to social media and nothing that's said is checked for accuracy before it's posted for the world to see.\"  Nothing is checked?  Really? Never?  How do they know? If they were honest, they could have simply pointed out that we can't reliably know what social media posts are accurate and which aren't.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is up-to-date aside from the fact that no mention is made of doi. All the links that I tried worked, but there will have to be regular ongoing updates to keep the book relevant. Even if the links stop working the basic information presented will remain more or less relevant for some years.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I had no problems with understanding what the authors were trying to get across. I was sometimes irritated that the style would change. Some sections felt like they were writing for 5th grade elementary students, and then other sections felt more suitable for college age students. There was a fair amount of wasted prose.\n\nI also did not understand why the term \"thesis\" was never defined, but under a section about formats a whole paragraph was written about books. It's good to know how books are different than articles, but shouldn't a student get a little help with what makes a thesis different from a hypothesis?","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"I found the book consistent when it came to terminology and framework, but I cannot say the same for style. There were too many places where style would change and one part felt written for elementary students and other parts for college students. To be fair to the authors I should point out that I see this in other instructional books as well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One very nice thing about \"The Information Literacy User's Guide\" is that its structure easily allows for readings of parts and even subsections. Headings and subheadings are easy to see and the layout is generally good.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I think the authors did a good job presenting the sections in order (according the \"7 Pillars\") and there was a logical sequence to the book.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I sometimes thought the concept maps were messy and sometimes even distracting or unnecessary, but overall I think the interface worked well.","grammatical_rating":2,"grammatical_review":"I only noticed one minor grammatical error, but citations were another thing altogether. I won't go into all the problems I found with the citations, but I have to give a very low rating here. The citations in the text were nothing short of sloppy and mismanaged. Periods at the ends of citations that should have had them were often missing. There was an inconsistent use of styles - sometimes MLA and APA citations were used on the same page (see p. 61). Even the link that should have showed students how to structure citations had errors. On p. 119 one citation for a work by Zuern had the last digit of the date cut off. Whoever was responsible for proofreading any of the citations did a very poor job and the book should not have been published like this.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The authors made an effort to keep situations in the exercises modern and neutral.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"One last point I'd like to make is about the \"Advanced Searches\" section on page 41. The authors point out that the minimalist search box for Google is not ideal and advanced searching is preferable. The implication is that single search boxes are bad, but that's exactly the trend now with Primo and Ebsco (Discovery) services. Of course, simple search boxes can be filled with terms to create a complex search, but the authors don't make that explicit. Yes, advanced searches are usually the best way to get information, but it's hard to see what the point is here. Is it that simple search boxes are bad? If that's true, then why are libraries trending in that direction and making advanced search tools more invisible?  There could have been a discussion of that very timely topic.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":562,"first_name":"Tina","last_name":"Hovekamp","position":"Ph.D., Library Director","institution_name":"Barber Library, Central Oregon Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, this text is fairly comprehensive.  I found the model of SCONUL Seven Pillars straightforward in its representation of the different phases of information seeking process, and I appreciated the emphasis the authors placed on the fact that research is not always linear and some steps in the process may often need to be reiterated or completed in a different order.  The presentation of how students may experience and use information through the SCONUL model also fits well within the context of “metaliteracy” which the authors use throughout the text as they point to the importance of awareness and self-reflection for each of the steps.  The two additional chapters on Visual Literacy and Science Literacy seem to stand on their own focusing on these two specific information literacy types and highlighting their current significance.  As far as possible recommendations, Chapter 6, Manage, could perhaps benefit from more extensive information on the topics of citing and plagiarism.  For example, the chapter could explain more the importance of citations for the reader, clarify the difference between paraphrasing and quotes (students often struggle in their most common attempts to paraphrase), discuss self-plagiarism, etc.  Chapter 7, following the section on presentation format, could perhaps be enriched more with a discussion of information characteristics that support effective, powerful presentations such as visual material, statistical information, seminal content, etc.  Finally, I was a little surprised to see that Chapter 9 on Science Literacy includes no mention of library database subscriptions as a main source for scientific information.  This chapter touches upon great discovery tools such as Public Library of Science (PLoS), Science.gov, institutional digital depositories, even science zines; however, it seems important to also point to the value of library article databases as discovery portals for scientific information.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"The information in the text is bias-free and accurate. A small recommendation may be that Chapter 6 mentions tools such as Turnitin not just as a plagiarism detection mechanism, but perhaps more importantly, as great tools helping students identify, understand and correct possible plagiarism in their own writing.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The information world is constantly evolving, and I expect the need for the content of this text to be updated on a relatively frequent basis making sure that not only links remain accurate but also the content reflects emerging trends in the way we consume, create and disseminate information.  Still, the main framework of this publication, the Seven Pillars of information literacy, as well as the general approach of metaliteracy will continue to be relevant for the years to come as valuable principles around which students may develop their information skills.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This text was put together with student needs in mind.  The audience addressed could easily span from undergraduates to graduates, even early career library professionals, with adequate language to weave expertise and linguistic differences.  I found the storytelling method the authors use throughout the text very helpful providing a familiar, non-threatening context to support student understanding.  There is some use of specialized language and terminology, but any necessary jargon is presented contextually in a way that does not inhibit the easy flow of reading even for those less familiar with the concept of information literacy.  Still, it might be helpful to have a glossary of terms included at the end of the text.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in the application and discussion of the SCONUL Seven Pillars model.  The opening of each of the first seven chapters includes a listing of student understandings and abilities associated with each of the information literacy pillars followed by a graphic representation.  One recommendation I may have is that the language as well as sequence of the proficiency listings and their corresponding graphic representation align more closely.  This may help with consistency and cohesion on what exactly is communicated.  In addition, one of the last chapters, Visual literacy, makes a deliberate effort to link back to the seven pillars model of the text; however, this is not true for the chapter on Science literacy, which could perhaps have followed a somewhat similar format to keep the thematic cohesion and consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easily divided in chapters based on the Seven Pillars literacy model.  Each of these sections would be easy to adopt as part of the learning progression in a course.  The chapters build upon each other and interlink, but they could also be used individually as stand-alone units (the latter is particularly true for chapters 8 \u0026amp; 9 on the Visual and Science Literacies).","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organizational structure of the text is clear.  The use of scenarios and the authors’ narrative style help the reading flow, the audience’s engagement and the unfolding of the different concepts.  The use of examples and the embedding of exercises within each chapter help the learning progression and allow for student self-reflection.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I was able to download the book both in PDF and ebook format on my iphone and iPad first-generation.  I even printed it out knowing that students often wish to use paper copies of their textbooks.  All formats seem to be available with no major problems (my only problem was retrieving the book using with my ipad 2, probably due to my settings).  Navigation within the ebook environment was easy and the links to quizzes and exercise answer keys worked smoothly.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I did not detect any major grammar errors.  There were a few places where commas are overused and single and plural pronouns are mixed.  One example of a grammatical correction needed in the introduction is at the beginning of the third paragraph, \"While this textbook refers..., there is a variety...\"","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not detect any cultural or gender bias in the text.  It is true that some of the examples and references relate to SUNY resources, but if instructors consider adoption, they could easily modify those references.  Also, the discussions reflect western, mainly American, experiences in the information world, but I am not sure how a text such as this may cover the complexities of a more international scope shaped by different beliefs and values, political realities and access issues.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Below are a few other thoughts and suggestions for possible consideration:\n- in chapter 2, Scope, it may help to provide a more extensive explanation of how keyword searching works, including its challenges as well as advantages.  This might be particularly important since students (actually most of us!) look for information sources mainly by keywords rather than controlled vocabulary/subject headings.  In fact, I would recommend that discussions specifically on the use of thesaurus are minimized and rather point to the utility of subject headings as tools for generating additional terms for expanded keyword searching.\n- I particularly appreciated chapter 4 and the opportunities it provides for self-reflection throughout the research process.  My only comment has to do with the use of Boolean OR in Google Scholar on page 38.  Unless this has recently changed, I understand that the operator OR needs to be in capital letters for it to work effectively in Google.  The authors might want to check on this in case they need to make corrections in the chapter’s examples.\n- In chapter 5, I found that there is a lot of content overlap between the sections “Choosing materials” and “Evaluating resources in practice” to keep them separate.  Since the criteria students need to use in both the selection and final evaluation of sources are similar, it may help to consolidate to avoid unnecessary repetition.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1004,"first_name":"Brandi","last_name":"Porter","position":"Director of Stanley Library \u0026 Associate Professor of Library Science","institution_name":"Ferrum College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is quite comprehensive given the expansive concept of information literacy.  Use of the pillars is a good framework by which to organize the chapters and discuss the various stages of research.  The authors also move beyond basic concepts of library research to include metaliteracy components of visual literacy and science literacy as part of their coverage of information literacy.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The topics in the text are well researched and consistent with known literature in the field of information science.  There are no known inaccuracies in the coverage of topics within the text.  Material is consistently presented in an unbiased way.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The authors do a solid job of making a case for the importance of information literacy.  While there is sufficient detail in describing information resources and materials, which may change more frequently; the text also discusses concepts  such as plagiarism and copyright that will present information challenges for many years to come.  This approach adds to the longevity and relevance of the text.  An area that could precipitate the need for updates is if any of the hyperlinked technology resources or URLs become obsolete or unusable.  However, the layout of the text appears such that updates could be made easily.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The authors do a good job integrating knowledge of library resources into the larger context of research and information literacy.  Complex terms and library jargon are explained in detail throughout the text, which should provide clarity for novice researchers.  The use of research scenarios help provide meaningful examples of how information concepts relate to real-world situations.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Chapters for the most part appear to follow a similar format.  They include a definition of the key concept, demonstrable understandings and abilities for that concept, and a research scenario.  Some chapters; however, included a bibliography and others did not.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The organization of the concepts and chapters in this book make it quite modular.  Faculty should be able to easily find and use smaller sections of the book in their instruction.  There is also be some built in redundancy of terms like scholarly publications throughout multiple sections of the text, thus making it easier to pull apart chapters into stand alone lessons.  Exercises and quizzes can also serve as templates, which faculty could build upon to create discipline-specific examples in their courses.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The flow of the text was logical; following the research cycle from identifying a need, to finding and evaluating information, through to presenting one’s final research product.  Chapters relating to concepts presented in other chapters were hyperlinked for cross-reference.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The interface for reading the book was quite usable allowing for online reading via a URL or downloading to a PDF for offline access.  The book is easily read on a tablet device.  There are some external links to slides and materials, which need use of the internet to be fully interactive.  However, these materials are included as text in the downloadable PDF version.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Several typos exist. They are located on pages: 34, 48, and 72.  These issues were not significant enough to interfere with the reader’s ability to comprehend the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The use of the research scenarios, and well as inclusion of real-world examples (like cases of plagiarism in publication) makes the text more culturally relevant for readers.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Librarians might also find this text useful, as it includes many helpful worksheets that could be included in library instruction programs.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1106,"first_name":"Rachel","last_name":"Wexelbaum","position":"Associate Professor / Collection Management Librarian","institution_name":"St. Cloud State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The authors do an excellent job covering different strategies using Google, research databases, and other resources to search for, evaluate, and use information critically and ethically in visual or written form. They also provide information about how to use online library catalogs to locate books using the Library of Congress call numbers , and provide some advice as to when students should refer to books over journals. What they leave out, however, is using social media for research purposes, as well as how to evaluate information received from social media, which has become a source of information for most undergraduates as well as professionals in the field. (Ironically, the authors provide an exercise for students on how to compose research queries to find out how college students use Twitter for research, though.) While the authors note Wikipedia as a possible source of information for research papers, they do not go into detail on how to evaluate the quality of Wikipedia articles; most students-as well as professors--remain unaware of WikiProject quality scales and how to tell if information in Wikipedia articles is current, or even who makes the edits to those articles. The book also does not address data literacy, which is a major concern if one is going to talk about presenting data or science literacy. The science literacy and visual literacy chapters would have benefited from that addition of data literacy.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"The authors make a broad assumption that people who post information to social media do not check for accuracy, and they attempt to steer students away from using it as opposed to giving them the tools to assess whether or not the information posted is factual. The authors also do not explain how social media content itself can be used as evidence of some phenomenon that students may want to write about (for example, citing Tweets from government figures as evidence of what they may believe, or what they are promising people). Wikipedia is also not explored as a research resource, as the authors make the same assumption that Wikipedia contributors do not use legitimate sources--which is incorrect.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The authors use SCONUL's Seven Pillars of Information Literacy as a main framework for the book. The first seven chapters are named and ordered in sequence of those seven pillars (Identify, Scope, Plan, Gather, Evaluate, Manage, and Present). Academic librarians have used the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy to guide their undergraduate library instruction since 1999. If an undergraduate student is still required to write a research paper or give a presentation based on some form of research, then the content of this book will remain relevant for some time to come.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the language used in the book easy to read, and believe that it would be accessible for an undergraduate. The authors provide a conversational, yet professional, tone that students will appreciate, which makes for light reading.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"A different author worked on each chapter, but the language and tone used by the authors, as well as the structure of each of the first seven chapters, appears consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book is formatted as one large PDF or ePub file. While it is possible for a professor to assign individual chapters or sections of the book, if they wanted to make those chunks available through their course management system it will take some maneuvering with the right version of Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro. A professor could easily assign chunks of the text and not the entire book, but due to the nature of what is being taught, with the exception of the last two chapters on visual and science literacy, it would make no sense to rearrange the sequence of the chapters.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"If the focus of this book is on process, the authors should have chosen one scenario that students can follow, in order to see one strong, positive model of an undergraduate student achieving each of the seven pillars in order to write a paper and give a presentation on a particular topic. Instead, each chapter focuses on a different student and a different research problem that they have to solve, which does not allow the reader to see the research process in action. This will be very confusing for undergraduate students. Also, if the authors want students to follow this process, the book should be reformatted as a workbook, where students will complete exercises that would complement the research assignment that their professor would assign to them. If the intention of the authors is to provide exercises that librarians can give to students during one-shot library instruction sessions, or use in online tutorials, however, this book achieves that goal.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found the text easy to read and navigate. I appreciated the charts in each chapter that could help a student organize their work, as well as the exercises provided. The authors smartly hyperlink previous or upcoming sections of the book so that students can skip ahead or \"flip back and forth\" if they wish.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical or spelling errors in the text that I could detect. I found the editing to be of high quality, as there was consistency in language and style across the chapters.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"While the text would not be interpreted as culturally insensitive or offensive, the authors do not  do a thorough job explaining what bias is, how it manifests in different types of information resources, and how such bias harms people. Undergraduate students would benefit from seeing some real examples of biased publications, or a real example of a biased student paper, to fully grasp the concept, as a significant percentage of these students will assume that anything written in a traditionally published resource must be correct. On the flip side, a growing number of undergraduate students want to write research papers that identify racial, gender, class, heteronormative, cisgender, and/or other biases in history, literature, science, the arts, etc.--these students need to know where to look and how to unpack what they see. As we are currently in the era of \"fake news\", the skill of identifying bias in a news article or a research article has become more important now than ever. If the authors decide to update this edition they will need to make improvements in this area.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"While the book has some faults, The Information Literacy User's Guide is actually the best information literacy textbook for students that I have seen to date. While I am not sure that I would use the entire textbook for my course LIB 280: Critical Thinking in Academic Research, I believe that the charts and exercises provided would be very helpful for my undergraduate students.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3134,"first_name":"Cheryl","last_name":"Hoover","position":"Distance Learning Librarian","institution_name":"Montana State University - Billings","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text offers a very comprehensive treatment of the subject, including coverage of developing research questions, thesis statements, and search terms. All digital versions include an effective hyper-linked table of contents. The text links to an ALA glossary of terms; however, the link was broken at the time of this review. \r\n\r\nThere is solid coverage of advanced searching skills like Boolean searching, truncation, phrase searching, and subject headings. Ancillary materials including exercises, tables, quizzes, images, and graphics are very helpful and could be easily incorporated into someone’s course. The quiz answer keys provide detailed explanations in the epub and PDF versions but are less robust in the HTML version. The real life scenarios in many chapters are helpful in making the concepts accessible and relatable to students. The end of chapter bibliographies are also useful for further exploration.\r\n\r\nThis text would benefit from further explanation of primary versus secondary sources. The focus on the Seven Pillars, rather than the ACRL Framework, could be considered a drawback for a higher education audience in the United States. Even with these limitations, this is a quality, comprehensive text on information literacy.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is generally accurate as of the time of publication and appears to be mostly error-free other than some broken web links. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"There are many references to the authors’ institution, which may not translate well to other schools adopting this text. For example, there are quiz questions pertaining to SUNY and references made to the SUNY catalog. While this is something that could be revised, it would require some work to update the SUNY references in the text to make it either more generic or specific to another institution.  The text also provides helpful citation information; however, references to the MLA 7th edition and would need to be updated to the 8th edition.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a pleasant conversational tone that is clear and engaging. Technical terms or jargon are explained to readers.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There is some inconsistency in chapter layout. For example, chapters may start with an introduction, scenario, or even just jump into the concept without a heading of any kind. For ease of navigation, the text could benefit from more consistent formatting of chapters. The use of language and tone appears consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The first seven chapters do build upon each other and focus on the Seven Pillars model for information literacy. As an information literacy instructor who teaches a fully online three credit, 100-level class, keeping the chapters in this order makes the most sense.  However, readings from the text could be divided into sections or chapters and placed at the point of need in classes that may not need the entire array. The final two chapters on visual and science literacy could work as their own units or modules. The exercises in each chapter reinforce concepts covered and an instructor could easily select the best ones for their needs or do some slight revisions to make them more relevant to their students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text flows logically through the research process from one concept to the next and the writing style makes it easy to follow along. The chapter exercises and quizzes enhance the text and provide opportunities for students to practice the concepts. The authors also provide helpful hyperlinks to cross reference information.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Overall, the interface is fine. I viewed the book on my computer and the activity components of this text work best in the HTML or epub formats. The online quiz tool is a useful interactive feature that allows students to check their knowledge. A printed version would be less desirable because students could not readily check their answers. The text could benefit from some additional visual interest – the authors actually acknowledge the lack of images in the visual literacy chapter due to the difficulties of obtaining permission. Images could potentially be added in future versions. The external links would need to be checked to ensure they link to the appropriate pages but this is always a problem for online resources. The HTML anchors placed in the text forward students to an upcoming place in the book but lack a return anchor for convenience. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any glaring grammatical errors beyond a few typos.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No concerns regarding cultural relevance. The examples specific to SUNY or New York might not be easily understood by students of other institutions or in states where they don’t recognize SUNY.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, a comprehensive text that could be used in any information literacy course. Instructors would want to double-check all web links to make sure they direct to the appropriate pages. This text could be useful for both undergraduate and graduate level information literacy course or incorporated into subject-specific courses. The text encourages self-reflection as the reader moves through the modules and makes the link to metacognition.","created_at":"2019-07-31T14:08:26.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-31T14:08:26.000-05:00"},{"id":3172,"first_name":"Timothy","last_name":"Hackett","position":"Reference/Instruction/OER Librarian","institution_name":"Peralta Community College District (Merritt College)","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"\r\nThe text is based on the SCONUL format; this provides a solid framework for students to Information Literacy and its related issues.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"No issues/major considerations.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The formatting of the book would make for relatively simple updating.  Most of the examples are from the beginning, rather than the back-end of the decade; however, these provide appropriate \"concrete examples\" of the IL concepts within the chapters.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"There are some sections that are written in a \"breezier\" (more conversational) tone than other sections; however, this does not detract from the work's substance.  Overall, the text is clear, concise, appropriate.  \r\nTechnical terminology is part of the territory, or \"information landscape\" as the case may be; this would not be a consideration for most upper division/graduate students, but might require a \"glossary ramp-up\" for under division/ESL students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Text hews to the SCONUL format; outline/progression is clear.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is a strong area for the text, as sections (e.g. dealing with Academic Integrity/Evaluation) could be ported as stand-alone readings for Distance Education courses.  In terms of OER remixing, the formatting of the text lends itself to being used with other IL materials that might be more discipline/subject specific.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Overall presentation is logical/clear/concise; the additions of Visual and Scientific Literacy are useful additions, albeit these could also be used as \"stand-alones\" for hybrid/DE courses.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Having the text in multiple formats is definitely an asset; although I prefer not to read on a mobile device, many of our students do so in lieu of a computer/monitor.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"A few grammatical \"considerations\" although these might result from having a more conversational tone in some of the passages.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"No issues.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this text presents a solid effort to introduce students and faculty to structure and issues pertaining to Information Literacy.  The \"added sections\" of visual and scientific literacy are useful and appropriate ones.  A couple of minor recommendations:  given the rise of cybercrime/data aggregation, it might be helpful to have a passage concerning information security and a note of about data harvesting/profiling/resultant marketing from individual(student)  searches with certain browsers; in addition, more explanation concerning presentation of visualization of information might prove helpful for initiates.","created_at":"2019-09-26T17:04:17.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-09-26T17:04:17.000-05:00"},{"id":3492,"first_name":"Marisol","last_name":"Moreno Ortiz","position":"Library Reference Assistant/Librarian","institution_name":"Linn-Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers all the pillars and provides additional links for further sources for the students. The content page is clear and provides easy access to the chapters.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Information on the pillars and other information literacy subjects is clear and the explanations are unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The model of the seven pillars of information literacy, I think that won’t become obsolete any time soon as it provides an effect way to provide information literacy to students. The links that are provided for further information and as further resources are able to be easy updated if needed. For example, in introduction links are provided for websites where search terms can be looked at for their definitions however the links are broken and need to be updated. Introduces primary vs. secondary sources in a simple way that can be understood without confusion. Introduces students to the structure of libraries through the scenarios like interlibrary loan, journal subscription, google scholar etc. It also does a good job of talking about the role of librarians and the work they do in the library. It also discusses call numbers and what they are. Includes the library of congress classification and citations briefly without too much information that can overwhelm students. These are topics that first year students will always need to know to help them access their library fully so they will continue to be relevant. The inclusion of visual literacy and science literacy are relevant for students to know as well as they will come across them in their studies if they are science majors or are into visual arts or even interested in visual information format.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text has been written in a clear matter with simple language that students can understand. Terms introduced are explained if complex. The diagrams to describe the pillars are very helpful and straightforward. Formats of information diagram does a good way of articulating the differences between the formats.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The chapters on each pillars are structured in the same way. Some of the chapters also includes quick quizzes to text students on what they learned in the chapter. For example, a quick quiz on search strategies is a good inclusion for students to practice what they learned in the chapters before it. Quizzes on primary sources and citations at the end.\r\n\r\n","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are easy to read. Subheadings on topics are introduced effectively without confusion. The chapters on the pillars could be hard to use out of order as they build on each other. The introduction of the visual and science literacies would not disrupt students.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The chapters are organized in clear chapters based on the pillars and other information literacies introduced briefly. However, in chapter one when the pillars are introduced, it would have been appropriate to introduce where they came from, how the pillars were developed in chapter one instead of the introduction. In the introduction a link is provided the pdf of the pillars core model, which is helpful to learn more about how this model was created and by whom. When topics are introduced the structure is information about topic, examples, and then quiz. For example, when the text discusses plagiarism, examples follow,  and then a quiz to test student knowledge. Questions throughout the chapters are a very great way for students to start thinking critically and grow their critical thinking skills when they start to think about audience. Useful links for further information about citations and others are organized in a logical manner and text does not overdo it with the links. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The diagrams of the pillars are clear and are not distorted. The interface of the online reading version is easy to navigate and has the option of the font size to be increased for individuals that prefer to read text in a bigger font. The content section can be easy navigated and chapters accessed individually. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar used is clear without errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text provides a varied examples of scenarios that includes both genders but it is a general text intended for every student learning about information literacy. However, there were opportunities missed where examples of topics would have been used that deal with different social justice topics. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Some of the information that is included that is very helpful for students is that the text does a good job of introducing the library catalog, databases, and their search elements of an interface. It also provides examples of how to create search terms from topics. The text does a great job of introducing Truncation, which not a lot of texts do, or even mention it. Introduces and explains the CRAAP TEST. A valuable section I thought that was done well was that the text clearly explains the different ways to present information. The last two chapters on visual literary and science literacy also do a good job of introducing these literacies to get students thinking about these literacies and how they connect to their studies. Uses scenarios and case study of examples but doesn’t define case study for students. Has links to some search catalogs and engines.\r\n\r\n\r\n","created_at":"2020-01-10T12:25:12.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-10T12:25:12.000-06:00"},{"id":4552,"first_name":"D'Arcy","last_name":"Hutchings","position":"Instructional Design Librarian; Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Alaska Anchorage","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is built around the SCONUL (British) Seven Pillars model with the addition of chapters on visual and science literacies. With a chapter dedicated to each Pillar, the book is quite comprehensive. There are topics I wish were covered and others that I wish were covered differently or more in-depth, but there is a limit to how big the book can be and still be approachable for students. I feel it is about as comprehensive as a textbook can be. It can certainly be used as the only text for an information literacy course, though instructors may wish to be selective in the portions they use and to supplement instruction with other materials.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Overall the book content is accurate. There are some philosophical takes the authors promote that some may have issue with (I did), as other reviewers of this text have mentioned (e.g., regarding usefulness of social media and Wikipedia in research).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Despite being based on the Seven Pillars model, the text works well when course learning outcomes are written for and aligned with the ACRL Framework as mine is. Even instructors unfamiliar with Seven Pillars will find it approachable and easy to work with. Aside from web links, the content is likely to be relevant and useful for a long time. I started using this textbook in 2014 have found it to be consistently useful throughout this time. Instructors may choose to find more recent examples if they feel there are some that may better grab student attention, but the examples provided are appropriate for use over time.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Text is very readable, even if I wish some parts were more concise and others explained concepts more in-depth.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"It is clear that the book is authored by several people rather than one. The reading level, tone, and writing style of the text changes periodically. Still, it seems to be working well enough for my students. Terminology, use/names of headers, etc., are consistent enough throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is very easy to assign specific chapters and sections of the book while leaving out the rest. Chapters are frequently and logically divided by headers, call-out boxes, and the like.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Organized in the order of the Seven Pillars, the text makes a logical progression.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No issues observed with the interface. Charts, diagrams, and images were overall helpful for understanding the text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Errors in the text are rare, aside from some broken links. This is to be expected from a 2014 book with web links included. Instructors can update and edit the text if desired, thanks to the Creative Commons license it has, or provide alternative links for their students. Errors are more rampant in the citations, which is a missed opportunity for modeling sticking strictly to a citation format to students.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"While not cultural insensitive, there is a great deal of room for this book to be more representative and inclusive. Common Western (American) names and scenarios are consistently used in examples. As for what the book explicitly teaches, the issues of bias are not adequately discussed. It is more important than ever that instruction on bias (recognizing it in others and identifying one's own) is a key part of information literacy learning.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"My department has used this book as the core textbook in our Introduction to Academic Library Research (LS 101, 1 credit) course since 2014. We use just chapters 1, 5, 2, 3, 6 - in that order - along with a good amount of supplemental materials and hands-on units, in alignment with our course learning outcomes and the way we teach our course. It has served us well and we haven't felt the need to transition to a new textbook despite it being over 6 years old at this point. I would recommend that anyone teaching an information literacy course give this book serious consideration when evaluating the currently available openly licensed textbooks/OER.","created_at":"2021-01-10T15:52:53.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-01-10T16:18:13.000-06:00"},{"id":5014,"first_name":"Sharon","last_name":"Cotman","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Thomas Nelson Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The Information Literacy User's Guide: An Open, Online Textbook is comprehensive and focuses on The Seven Pillars Model of information literacy.  This textbook can be used in any discipline to learn information literacy skills that meet the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Students are exposed to the following steps of research: Identifying the scope and need for information, accessing existing resources, developing a research strategy to gather sources, assessment of sources, organization of information, and presentation of findings in various formats.  At the end of some chapters, there is a bibliography or further readings.  URLs are provided for definitions and a glossary, but the URLs represent broken links, and there is no comprehensive bibliography, index or glossary included in the textbook that students can access while using the textbook.  While students can use the search feature in the online text for specific terms, inclusion of an index and glossary in the textbook would be helpful to students who are used to traditional textbook formats. There are some assignments within the chapters, at the end of the chapters, and at the end of the textbook. These assignments provide a framework for the instructor and can be modified to address the specific class requirements.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The textbook is written in an easy to read style, presents unbiased information and contains accurate content except for broken links.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is written and arranged in such a way that the general information literacy content remains current, but no mechanism is available to update broken links and content when changes do occur.  Therefore, the instructor has the responsibility of identifying broken links.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The content is presented in an easy to read format that is appropriate for higher education.  Clear explanations and definitions for information literacy terminology are included within each chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Chapters are presented in an appropriate order for a student to learn the standards of information literacy and proper order of the steps of action for a research project.  The text contains short easy to read chapters and they are generally written in a similar format.  The Seven Pillars of Information literacy are covered consistent with that model and the assignments reinforce the text content.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity along with the division of topics and sections is excellent for making reading assignments to students by chapter or page numbers.  Each chapter has subheadings and the short length of the chapters is suitable so that reading assignments are not overwhelming plus the focus is on one primarily on one of the Seven Pillars.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The arrangement of chapters is logical and easy to follow.  The topics within chapters has subheadings in addition to some relevant assignments to reinforce the content of the chapter.  The order of the textbook appears to be consistent and well thought out to assist students in learning the principles of information literacy using a practical and realistic methodology.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface of the textbook does not have any significant issues with image distortion.  The diagrams/charts are clear and easy to understand along with providing support for the chapter content.  As for navigation problems, students may be frustrated when they encounter the broken web links if they are reading online.  There are not any display features that distract the reader from the content of the textbook. There are several different ways the textbook can be accessed and this is helpful due to the different types of computers that students may use.  Some of the ways, it can be downloaded as a .pdf file, ebook, word file or print file.  There are still students who prefer a hard copy of textbooks.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Overall, there are a limited number grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors.  The type of errors do not impact the information literacy content and meaning of the text for the students.  It is recommended that students be provided additional external resources for creating accurate citations using the correct current format.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The content includes bias and cultural literacy discussions with limited examples and assignments to assist students in understanding bias and cultural literacy.  The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive as that is not the focus of the content.  There are not examples that are inclusive and focused on a variety race, ethnicities, or backgrounds.  This provides an opportunity for instructors to provide supplemental resources as necessary for the class requirements.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this textbook has been very helpful and is used in the Information Literacy course by undergraduate students at the community college level.  Students have positive comments about this textbook.  Ideally, it would be good if the textbook was updated every few years as necessary.","created_at":"2021-05-31T12:39:16.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-31T12:39:16.000-05:00"},{"id":5080,"first_name":"Darci","last_name":"Adolf","position":"Director of Library \u0026 Media Services","institution_name":"Oregon Coast Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The Information Literacy User's Guide was fairly comprehensive for my use as an instructor.  The text was written based on the British seven pillars model.  Each chapter covered a pillar, with the addition of a chapter on visual literacy and one on science literacy.  The seven pillars are:  identify, scope, plan, gather, evaluate, manage, and present.  I would use most of these chapters in an introductory research class. There was a good table of contents, but no index or glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content seems to be accurate, error-free and unbiased.  Each chapter provides steps in the research process and I did not see anything that appeared to be an opinion or false. For example, in the chapter on Managing, students learn about copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property.  They link out to credible websites, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Various scenarios are provided to supplement the ideas.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is up to date, and most of the chapters will not need constant updating.  The chapter on gathering resources talks about the various resources, such as blogs and Twitter, and this section would need to be updated more frequently.  Therefore it would be fairly easy to keep this text updated and relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook seems to use a lot of scenarios to walk students through the research process, therefore the language is straightforward and fairly free of jargon.  The terms students may be unfamiliar with, such as \"citation,\" were explained along the way.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text appears consistent throughout all chapters in the terms they use, along with writing style and overall framework.  The frame is developed around the seven pillars of information literacy, and then they've added visual and science literacies.  All of the chapters seemed consistent to each other.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text was divided into chapters based on the seven pillars, plus two additional chapters.  This makes it somewhat easy to pick and choose what you want to use in a course, without using the entire textbook.  I would've preferred to have had the chapters broken down even further into sub-topics.  For example, the chapter, \"Manage:  organizing information effectively and ethically,\" could have been split into sections on organizing materials and another section on handling materials ethically.  There was a lot of scrolling from top to bottom of this chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The textbook was organized along the seven pillars, and it flowed from one to another seamlessly.  The pillars don't necessarily need to be used in order, but it would be easy to pick the chapter you needed based on where you are in the research process. The chapter titles make it clear what would be expected to be included in the chapter.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text seemed free of any interface issues.  There were a few charts used throughout, in addition to self-check exercises, but they did not distract or take away from the text itself.  The text incorporated quite a few bullet statements throughout, in order to simplify the text and add some white space.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I spot-checked the text throughout the book and did not find grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text did not seem culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  However, there could've been more inclusive and diverse examples used in the various scenarios.   Also, I would've preferred to see some discussion of social justice and equity issues in information publishing and access included in the textbook.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The author used a running-scenario throughout the textbook, and I didn't particularly care for this style.  I would've like to have seen smaller, bite-sized examples used for each topic.","created_at":"2021-06-12T12:11:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-12T12:11:38.000-05:00"},{"id":34441,"first_name":"Jeannette","last_name":"Bruno","position":"Library Faculty","institution_name":"City Colleges of Chicago","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is based on the Seven Pillars of Information Literacy and is quite comprehensive in that. Not only does the text explain each pillar, but also includes worksheets and activities that can be used in class. The PDF of this text links to quizes and activities that take you to the web version of the text at Milne Open Textbooks. While I would use the PDF of the text, the links to the web version to take you to quizzes still work.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text describes information literacy and said skills in an accurate and unbiased way. And while the content of examples are still relevant, updating would be useful (see Relevance comment).","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This text was published in 2014 but the examples used still feel timely and relevant. That being said, examples within the text are not all still usable. The content of the examples are still relevant, but there are many links that take you to an error page (see Chapter 5: Evaluate). Either the text itself will need to be updated, or used as a guide to provide links that work.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is very friendly to read, it explains library jargon that is useful in a real life research scenario.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text follows the seven pillars throughout the book in a way that is easy to follow. The examples and discussions are similar throughout with case studies in each chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I find that you could easily pull individual chapters out of this text to use. While a different information literacy framework, it would be easy to use this text in the way that the chapters are laid out when using the ACRL's Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. That being said, within a chapter there are links to previous chapters that explain a concept in more or different detail, which can pose problems if using only some chapters.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text is organized logically based on the seven pillars framework and then there are added chapters for visual and science literacies.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read this text as a PDF and had no issues technically. I find the chapter and subchapter headings to be a little hard to find based on the font and bolded letters. Luckily though, each page lists the chapter in the upper right corner, otherwise while scrolling through the text it was hard to tell where I was.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I didn't find any insensitive or offensive content in this text. And as I commented previously, while I find the content of the examples are still relevant, you could easily supplement them (and will have to in cases where there are broken links).","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I especially liked the worksheets and activities provided in this text. The images are also great for displaying boolean operators and citations.","created_at":"2023-03-08T15:27:23.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-03-08T15:27:23.000-06:00"},{"id":35163,"first_name":"Kathryn","last_name":"Good-Schiff","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Springfield Technical Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book touches on all the main types of sources a college student is likely to encounter or need.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The overall, conceptual content about the pillars framework for information literacy is accurate, but some of the examples given were inaccurate (e.g. a recent newspaper article is said not to be a primary source) and some of it is out of date (such as the old 140-character limit for a Tweet).","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"At the time of this review, the book is 13 years old, so a good amount of it feels out of date. But I do believe it would be easy to adapt and update.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Most of the chapters are written very clearly and in an accessible style for beginning college students, but the Introduction and Chapter 1 have a more formal, academic, less accessible style. These are the chapters I'm least likely to share with my students, as they are more about metacognition and less relevant to first-year students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There will inevitably be some overlap in content with a book like this, but the editors did a good job of explaining either repetition or omissions and referring back to earlier or later chapters.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Much of the text is written in a way that it could be easily excerpted; however, the scenarios are woven throughout each chapter and would be harder to reuse. If I were to adapt this text, I would likely not use the scenarios.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The structure of the book and of each chapter is consistent and clear, but the text-heavy infographics at the beginning of each chapter are distracting and unnecessary.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Several of the external links are now dead links.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were a few grammatical errors, but not a large amount.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find anything offensive.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"As is, this book is out of date (10 years old at the time of my writing) but could be easily updated and adapted.","created_at":"2024-07-05T13:44:48.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-07-05T13:44:48.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/the-information-literacy-user-s-guide-an-open-online-textbook","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:31:26.000-06:00"},{"id":201,"title":"Instruction in Functional Assessment","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2014,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Instruction in Functional Assessment introduces learners to functional assessment (FA), which includes a variety of assessment approaches (indirect, observational, and experimental) for identifying the cause of an individual's challenging behavior for the purpose of designing effective treatments. FA is mandated by federal law and is a recognized empirically based approach to treatment of individuals with challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive, self-injurious, and aggressive behaviors). Instruction in FA is essential for students who will one day enter professions as educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors, or mental health professionals. The purpose of this textbook is to provide instruction in FA skills for pre-professionals in the fields of education and psychology. This supplemental resource provides the context, background, and knowledge to facilitate students' acquisition of the methods, decision-making, and skills involved in conducting FA. Each chapter begins with focus questions designed to promote reflective thinking and ends with discussion questions. To promote application of FA in diverse situations and teach important lessons, case studies of individuals with challenging behaviors, interactive activities, and opportunities for practice are embedded in the chapters. Moreover, the text includes the ingredients to facilitate students' role play and rehearsal of appropriate FA skills while working in cooperative groups and using performance-based training.","contributors":[{"id":2907,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Marcie","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Desrochers","location":"State University of New York","background_text":"Marcie Desrochers earned her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Manitoba with specialization in developmental disabilities, applied behavior analysis, and computer applications in psychology. She is a board certified behavior analysis at the doctoral level (BCBA-D). Dr. Desrochers is an Associate Professor of Psychology at The College at Brockport, State University of New York. Marcie Desrochers has conducted research on teaching functional assessment and evaluating the effectiveness of a computer simulation program called Simulations in Developmental Disabilities. Marcie has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and supervising students and practitioners in the field."},{"id":2908,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Moira","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Fallon","location":"State University of New York","background_text":"Dr. Moira Fallon earned her Ph.D. in Educational Foundations from the University of New Mexico with specialties in cognitive development and special education. She has over thirty years of experience in the field of special education in public schools. She holds certifications from several states in learning disabilities, behavior disabilities, early intervention, and assistive technology. Dr. Fallon has published widely in issues of inclusion and advocacy for individuals with disabilities. Dr. Moira Fallon has been a leader in developing learning communities, promoting school leaders for continuous improvement, and identifying research based, supportive resources for improving professional skills. She is a Professor in the Department of Education and Human Development at The College at Brockport, State University of New York."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":26,"name":"Elementary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LB1555","visible_textbooks_count":14,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/elementary-education"},{"id":28,"name":"Secondary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":10,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/secondary-education"},{"id":42,"name":"Psychology","parent_subject_id":9,"call_number":"BF121","visible_textbooks_count":51,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/psychology"},{"id":9,"name":"Social Sciences","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"H1","visible_textbooks_count":285,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/social-sciences"},{"id":43,"name":"Sociology","parent_subject_id":9,"call_number":"HM586","visible_textbooks_count":35,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/sociology"}],"publishers":[{"id":126,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:36:47.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":181,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/instruction-in-functional-assessment-pdf-pdf/?tmstv=1672320892","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":182,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/instruction_in_functional_assessment-epub-epub/?tmstv=1672320892","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3275,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/instruction-in-functional-assessment/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":12,"reviews":[{"id":1522,"first_name":"Ben","last_name":"Bryan","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is terrific. It covers not only the specific details of conducting a functional assessment with a variety of populations and contexts but also an explanation of the various theories that are important to understandint the functional analysis itself. This means the reader doesn't have to have extensive prior knowledge.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"As a psychology instructor, the psychological concepts are very accurate. There are no concerns about the accuracy and I would feel comfortable using this text. For example, noncontingent reinforcement is explained without any bias (which can be challening).","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Since many of the theories are classical psychological concepts, those will never 'get old' or outdated. This may be the point and I missed it, but... the ideal user of this text seems to be someone entering the field of using FA's in their line of work. It seems there could be an 'application' section to using it in non-work enviroments. i.e. benefits and challenges when using this at home.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is very clear. Despite covering a relatively technical topic and 'soft science' it is clear and I don't think any college student would have trouble understanding the material and learning objectives.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"No concerns about the consistency of this book. There are many technical components to FA's, and this book seems to cover them without bias.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book could be used in modules, however there wouldn't be much application beyond a full class on FA. I suppose if you were talkinga about some of the background theories and wanted an application to FA that would be effectie (behaviorism for example). The introduction would also be relevant in any hands on human servies program. I also don't know if modularity should be a goal for this text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"No concerns, seems great.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I got lost a little bit here. This feature may exist and I don't know how to use it, but I didn't understand the role of the fillable discussion forums or quizzes. Is there an easy way to share this with other students or for instructors to get the responses? I suppose someone could print pages or screen shot them, but this wasn't clear to me. \nThe embedded hyper links to both the assignments and then the content area's were slick though. So the lower score may be my fault for not understand the instructor interface that well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors noticed.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Cultural was addressed as something to be aware of, however there were minimal applications to how cultural differences may actually affect the FA results themselves. A concrete example of \"In hispanic culture, this behavior would imply a deficit in a certain area, whereas in African-American culture it would not\".","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall seemed great! I would use it in my class for sure. I may actually request to teach a FA class just so I can  use it","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1847,"first_name":"Jeannie","last_name":"Golden","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"East Carolina University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Very comprehensive review of functional assessment. Includes information about developmental and intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviors which is very helpful as well. I love the case examples, exercises, practice activities, templates, focus and discussion questions, graphs and tables.The literature review is also very thorough. I recommend including the concept of replacement behavior in the glossary.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is very accurate in describing the most important concepts related to applied behavior analysis and functional behavioral assessment. One thing I might make more clear is the concept of a replacement behavior serving the same function as the problem behavior. The authors use an example of on task behavior as a replacement behavior for off-task behavior that serves the dual functions of peer attention and escaping demands. Technically, on-task behavior is not a replacement behavior that serves the same function. Requesting peer-attention or a break by asking for it would be more accurately considered a replacement behavior. This does not mean that the intervention that is suggested in the book is not appropriate. I am just concerned about the accuracy of the description of replacement behavior.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe that many of the examples, case studies, activities, and cited literature make this book extremely relevant and that it will remain up-to-date or could be updated fairly easily.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is very well written and easy to understand. It presents many difficult concepts in very clear, tangible ways so that the reader can grasp the concepts. Also, all the case studies, focus and discussion questions, and activities will help the reader to apply these concepts in real-life settings.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is highly internally consistent in terminology and framework. I believe the authors provide equal attention to all the aspects of functional assessment that are important for the learner to understand and apply.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity of the book is excellent. Each of the chapters can stand alone and have sections that are clearly delineated. Also, each chapter has its own activities, questions, sample forms that can supplement the learning of the content.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well organized and flows in a logical sequence. The authors began with the types of disabilities and challenging behaviors that would warrant the use of functional assessment, provide an overview of applied behavior analysis and functional assessment, and then more in-depth instruction of the types of functional assessment as well as the methods of implementation leading to interventions.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book is free of interface issues. The highlighted terms and activities are very helpful and overall the book is very easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The focus question at the beginning of chapter 3 \"What treatment approaches challenging behaviors and increase appropriate\nbehaviors?\" does not seem to be grammatically correct. Other than that, I did not notice any grammatical errors in the book.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Under ethical considerations, the authors reference the importance of being non-discriminatory in terms of race, culture and language. However, they did not elaborate on this point or give any examples. They also mentioned the difficulties for teachers when English is a secondary language or behavior is influence by trauma experiences, but they did not explicitly provide ideas for assisting teachers in these areas.\n","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I am excited that I have found this open textbook. I thought that the authors wrote an excellent, useful and thorough text on the subject of functional assessment. I teach a graduate class titled \"Behavior Assessment and Intervention\" and I plan to use this open textbook in that class.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2025,"first_name":"Crystal","last_name":"De Kam","position":"Human Service Faculty / Counselor","institution_name":"Century College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text cover more in depth than I had anticipated with regards to Functional Assessment.  The breakdown of Functional assessment is easy for individuals to understand and the later chapters are helpful for individuals who will teach the topic in the future.  I appreciated case examples, exercises, practice activities, templates, focus and discussion questions. The Glossary has a nice “return” feature which will bring the reader back to the point in the text where the word was.  I liked the additional materials in “Resources for Team Members of Interdisciplinary Professionals” which included syllabi ideas, and DVDs related to the topic. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I would feel comfortable using this text and have used several chapters.  The material appears accurate from a counseling and psychological perspective with no noticeable bias. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The research and content is up-to-date and the material covered is relevant to students entering the workforce.  The material appears to have longevity but as research continues could benefit from a renewal in 4-5 years.  These updates should be easy and straight forward to implement.  The examples given were accurate and meaningful and should have longevity to them. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"No concerns for clarity were noted. It appears easy to read for individuals new to the topic by describing new words and terms as the text progresses.  Students in an entry level course expressed no difficulties with the clarity. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"No concerns for consistency were noted.  It appears easy to read for individuals new to the topic by describing new words and terms as the text progresses.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I have used smaller reading sections with no issues in the past for human service courses.  The first few chapters can make great standalone readings especially with the study material and questions at the end of the reading. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The books organization is logical, and it flows well.  No concerns were noted. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The book’s interface appears professional with no noticeable concerns and no distracting problems. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors noted.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Cultural concerns are addressed but mildly.  Examples from instructors outside of the text would most likely be beneficial. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I particularly appreciate the first several chapters \" Challenging Behaviors of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities\" \"The Methodology of Functional Assessment: Process and Products\" and \"Treatment Implications Based on the Functional Assessment\" as modules in the human service courses to develop foundational knowledge about Functional Assessment. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2231,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"McKenzie","position":"Assistant Professor of Special Education","institution_name":"Southern Utah University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The clickable glossary is very useful, especially the function of the reader being able to return directly from the glossary entry to the place it is used in the text. The literature base is solid and the reference list give good resources for further inquiry.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The authors’ choice of extant literature used in the text is very thorough and accurate. One inaccuracy noted is the authors’ assertion that functional assessment (FA) is a requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) of 2004. IDEIA includes provisions for the use of functional behavior assessment (FBA) for students with disabilities whose behaviors impede their learning or the learning of others. Assessment is used more in educational settings, as it is not as intrusive as the more experimental “analysis”, in which conditions are manipulated to produce changes in behavior in order to determine the behavior’s function. The authors describe functional analysis, but readers may confuse the different topics when reading research outside of the text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Functional analysis and assessment have been used and researched for several decades without significant modifications to the methods. This text will be applicable for several years without the need for significant updates, except to add new literature with additional populations of students.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The clarity of the text is excellent for educational practitioners. Chapter one has a significant amount of content that would need supplementary instruction for students who are new to Behaviorism and behavior change principles. The exercises at the end of each chapter help with this, though, by focusing the reader’s attention to important concepts and giving an opportunity to practice new knowledge and skills. The case study activities and blank forms at the end of the book are excellent and could be used as a resource for teacher trainers. \n\nAs a reader, I am a bit confused by the intended audience of chapters 5 and 6. The book’s initial chapters are written, it seems, for an audience of students who are new to the field of Behaviorism and functional assessment. Chapters 5 and 6, however, are clearly written for teacher educators in an attempt to help them teach college students about functional assessment. While this might be of great benefit to teacher educators, these chapters seem out of place.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text holds firm to the principles of Behaviorism and to the consistent use of correct functional assessment methods. As a scholar of the field, I found that some inconsistencies with the terms used may lead to confusion. For example, functional analysis is the long accepted term associated with the abbreviation “FA”, but the authors use functional assessment and use the abbreviation “FAn\" for functional analysis. These two terms are not the same and should not be used interchangeably, as analysis is an experimental approach and assessment is not. \n\nAlso see the comments above regarding chapters 5 and 6.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is actually broken into much smaller segments of text than most textbooks, making it easier to digest the information in smaller units. Most of the chapters and activities could be arranged to fit a course in functional behavior assessment without undue disruption to the reader.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented logically, beginning with an overview of the behavioral principles and building toward the complete understanding of using those principles to determine the function of behavior. \n\nAlso see the comments above regarding chapters 5 and 6.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is one of the strengths of this text. There are many good examples of behavioral principles and the tables add to the reader’s understanding of the concepts and are well placed in the text. It is visually appealing and easy to follow.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is professionally written and there were no noticeable grammatical errors in the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The authors incorporate relevant citations for literature that has included racial diversity in the studied samples. It has been well documented in the literature that principles of behaviorism apply across race, ethnic origin, and gender.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This text as a whole would be an appropriate text for students studying low-incidence disabilities, such as the specific developmental disabilities mentioned in the text. Part of the book, such as chapters 1 - 4 would be applicable to a more general population studying behavior change principles.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2361,"first_name":"Shannon","last_name":"Hall-Mills","position":"Assistant In","institution_name":"Florida State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers the basic tenets of functional behavior assessment with children, including a review of challenging behaviors that children with developmental disabilities may exhibit, methods for assessment and assessment driven treatment, pedagogical approaches to teach knowledge of functional assessment and clinical-decision making, training based on real cases, and resources for interdisciplinary teams. The text is written broadly enough for direct application in a variety of professional training programs, including programs in Communication Science and Disorders (CSD) preparing future speech-language pathologists (SLPs). For students pursuing a career in speech-language pathology, functional behavior assessment is an important component of a comprehensive evaluation model to address communication difficulties of children with a range of disabilities. Instructors can take the format of the case studies presented in this text to develop and embed additional case examples based on CSD clinical cases. The text provides an adequate base text to which instructors may provide supplemental material specific to the communication underpinnings of behavior to augment the main text. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The functional assessment strategies presented in the text are empirically-based and rooted in theories of applied behavior analysis.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text addresses a gap in the literature for school-based CSD students. Behavior challenges of children is the #1 challenge reported by graduate students and their supervisors. The content is relevant to current and future practices. When additional or emerging evidence arises for specific functional behavior strategies or techniques, the structure of the text lends well to incorporating updates as needed.  ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a clear, concise, and well-organized manner. The level of the language is appropriate for advanced undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and professional level students or trainees. Given the specialization of the topic, there are many technical terms and concepts throughout the text. However, the authors provide a comprehensive glossary of terms to aid the reader. My only suggestion for further enhancing the clarity of the text would be to incorporate a list of the necessary prerequisite knowledge and skills recommended for readers to have prior to reading this text. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The framework and terminology are consistent throughout the text. The types of behaviors and the need for functional  behavior assessment extends beyond the developmental disability categories listed in chapter 1. For example, in addition to children with intellectual disability, autism, cerebral palsy, and medical conditions such as epilepsy, children may present with different diagnostic labels but with similar challenging behaviors, such as children with speech and/or language impairment. Speech-Language impairment can be a primary disability, but it may also manifest as a disability secondary to other disabilities, and is the most common disability among young children and school-age children. It would suffice to add more developmental disability categories to Table 1, and then refer  broadly to \"developmental disabilities\" except for case-based examples. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It is feasible to incorporate individual sections of the text as separate modules, either within a single course or across courses. The chapters can stand alone in this way, and be organized for different courses based on the student/trainee level and scope of the course. The text can be flexibly packaged for different courses. I also foresee the text lending well to professional development courses for experienced educators and clinicians. The interdisciplinary focus of the text supports interdisciplinary or interprofessional education. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Each chapter begins with reflection questions that can be used as a pre-reading strategy but also setting the climate in the classroom for discussion. Each chapter ends with a series of discussion questions. These can be used as a post-reading comprehension strategy for students in their independent reading, but also for highlighting key ideas during class meetings. Some of the discussion items can be prompts for written projects. Some of the reflection questions can be used for reflection journal stems. \r\n•\tCase studies provide many opportunities for contextual illustration and in-class practice of FA strategies\r\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate, images are clear, and visual features are used to aid the reader. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The cultural context of functional assessment is addressed briefly in chapter 2. Instructors and students of multiple disciplines, including CSD, which focus on culturally relevant and culturally responsive practices, will need to augment this text with additional content for this purpose. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-11-05T16:51:38.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-05T16:51:38.000-06:00"},{"id":2895,"first_name":"Rodger","last_name":"Bufford","position":"Professor, Graduate School of Clinical Psychology","institution_name":"George Fox University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Focused on individuals with developmental disabilities and disruptive behaviors, Instruction in Functional Assessment provides an overview of applied functional analysis. It begins with a clear review of behavior theory and a description of common forms of developmental and behavioral difficulties that may be encountered.  Functional analysis/assessment is then introduced as the tool for identifying the characteristics of the problem behaviors and their controlling conditions. Treatment planning and implementation come next, along with assessing outcomes. Next, practical materials and case studies for training in functional analysis skills are provided. The book ends with a list of resources for and several blank templates that can be used to support practical implementation of functional analytics skills. Training materials, references, and an extensive glossary complete the volume. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Concepts and processes related to functional analysis are accurately and concisely presented. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The review of literature related to functional assessment is current and extensive. Functional assessment is an established field that began with work in the 1960s, so it is anticipated that looking forward the pace of change will be slow and revisions can be incorporated as needed. Public school classrooms are a focus of the material, but suggestions for adaptation to other settings are provided. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"In general concepts and processes were carefully and clearly explained; a glossary was also provided. However, a couple exceptions to such clarity were encountered. Also, coding symbols used in Table 20 were not explained and may pose a challenge for readers; this occurred in a couple of other places as well. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Contents were generally consistent. An exception is that on page 51 a question is posed about “five ways to determine if treatment is effective.” It appears to refer to a list of five aspects of treatment effectiveness listed on page 45. The lack of conceptual/linguistic consistency seemed confusing.  ","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Because the goal of this volume is to facilitate development of the knowledge and skills of functional analysis, most readers will likely wish to use all of this short text. However, those who possess either pertinent knowledge or skills may find the counterpart materials helpful by themselves. The resources may also be of use on their own. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Progression of the material from knowledge to skills and application is clear, as noted above.\r\n\r\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No difficulties were encountered. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar and English usage were excellent. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The primary domains of diversity addressed here is those of developmental disability and disruptive behavior. Disruptive behavior involves patterns of behavior or psychological distress commonly found among the mentally ill, persons diagnosed as mental disorders. Because children who manifest developmental disability and disruptive behavior are often placed in public school classrooms, school applications of functional analysis are emphasized. Cultural differences are addressed briefly on p. 28 as well. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Focus questions precede and discussion questions and practice exercises follow most chapters. Numerous charts, diagrams, figures, and recording sheets are provided. \r\nEthical considerations are also addressed. \r\n","created_at":"2019-05-09T11:59:22.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-09T11:59:22.000-05:00"},{"id":2992,"first_name":"angela","last_name":"whalen","position":"Clinical Associate Professor, School Psychology","institution_name":"University of Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provides an overview or introduction to (1) functional assessment and (2) teaching functional assessment to others. It provides a good amount of detail to provide working knowledge for teachers and other school staff who may participate on school teams that are conducting FBAs and/or using FBA results to develop behavior intervention plans. It probably does not have the depth needed as a text for training individuals (e.g., school psychologists, behavior specialists) to conduct FBAs or lead school teams in this process. This text could provide a foundation for knowledge-building, which could easily be supplemented with additional resources for further skill development.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"There is good coverage of the technical aspects of functional assessment. I found Chapter 3: Treatment Implications Based on the Functional Assessment to be one of the greatest strengths of this text - full of great information and resources for intervention planning.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this text is highly relevant to anyone working with children who demonstrate challenging behaviors. Chapters 1-3 are appropriate for individuals involved with assessment and intervention for challenging behaviors in schools or other settings. Chapters 4-6 are relevant for individuals who teach functional assessment to others, or supervise novice practitioners.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The authors use language that is accessible to the lay person or education professional, while also presenting the technical terms commonly used in ABA and other fields of psychology. Some sections, especially related to single-case design, may be a bit technical for readers who do not have a background in that area. There are links to a glossary of terms throughout, so readers can quickly obtain more detailed definitions of terms used in the text. The inclusion of many examples and case studies to illustrate concepts, along with opportunities for the reader to practice, make this useful for teaching graduate students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Overall, there was good consistency with the writing and terminology used. A few times, I would have liked the authors to be more precise with their use of ‘functional assessment’ and ‘functional analysis,’ but this was a minor issue.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This almost seems like two texts in one. Chapters 1-3 could stand alone as an introduction to functional assessment. Each chapter could provide a nice \"unit\" of learning. Chapters 4-6 could stand alone as a resource for teaching functional assessment or supervising novice practitioners. Chapter 7 includes a variety of useful resources such as forms that can be used for observations/data collection or for teaching basic functional assessment skills. These resources would be helpful as stand alone materials, as well.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The online text is easy to use and navigate. Chapters can be viewed individually, which helps reduce the amount of scrolling. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors noticed in the text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Although not a primary focus of the text, cultural considerations for using functional assessment with individuals with disabilities are present throughout.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-06-15T14:28:38.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-06-15T14:28:38.000-05:00"},{"id":4910,"first_name":"Jody","last_name":"Siker","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Northeastern Illinois University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book focuses on defining functional assessment and functional analysis and covers this topic well. There are resources and case studies throughout. I also appreciate the guiding questions at the beginning of chapters and the questions at the end of chapters. The organization of the text could be improved as could the targeting of information to the intended audience. Although the authors target practitioners in their introduction, the text seems to be targeted to university instructors who prepare those practitioners. The quality of case studies and resources is high as is the glossary, which is easily navigated by clicking on a red word and being able to return to the same spot in the text after reading the definition. The intended aim at practitioners is also missing a real explanation of working with families, especially those from non-dominant communities. In addition, the description of disabilities in chapter one is cursory and not comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text is clearly research-based and has a deep coverage of functional assessment and functional analysis. There is also a very clear description of behavior analysis and definitions therein. The flow chart in chapter 2 is very helpful in understanding the functional assessment process and there are many opportunities to practice skills using detailed cases. This approach of behavior analysis is aligned with practices of BCBAs and so it has the biases of focusing on those practices as the only way to approach behavior analysis. The dominant culture is strongly represented in the description of these practices and the language used in the book. There is one paragraph about collaborating with diverse families, but the rest of the book is about using these specific practices or teaching others how to use them. These family considerations pop up in chapter 2 (which is otherwise about different approaches to assessing behavior) for one small paragraph and the idea of “culture” is there, but it’s a very dominant approach to the idea of families and focuses on a disconnect, a deficit view of families who have different beliefs. The authors mention that practitioners must understand families, but the section is short and doesn’t have practical strategies or mention systemic inequities that leave families out by design.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant to current times and practices because these concepts of behavior analysis are currently the gold standard in place across settings. Collecting and using data to understand behaviors and then being proactive and/or teaching replacement behaviors is the current process (and best process) in place. If the audience is university faculty or professionals who train practitioners, the later chapters (3-6) are relevant. Chapter 3 covers treatment for behaviors, which is helpful because after you have assessed behavior, it’s time to teach replacement behaviors and/or be proactive in preventing target behaviors to occur at all. Chapter 4 talks about how to teach FA (e.g., BCBA programs, online programs, simulation) which isn’t contextualized and basically switches the intended audience of the book from students learning to work with students with challenging behaviors to their university instructors. I do like the examples and cases at the end. Chapter 5 is about teaching Functional Analysis in different ways. The role-play method draws on Gardener, which is a pretty dated reference. In chapter 6, the author’s present a new way of teaching FA, the FACT approach. This uses case studies to teach about FA. All of this is good information, but it is unclear who the audience is.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"There are a lot of clear and detailed case studies and materials in the book. The examples and activities are wonderful, but the text is mostly written for advanced audiences, perhaps professionals who are already BCBA certified. For the intended audience, the writing is too advanced and full of jargon. There is a lot of technical language required when trying to understand behaviors, but this text is not approachable overall. The cases and examples are highly approachable, though. It's the chapter content that skews too technical.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is consistent in the language and approach to FA and FAn. The structure of the book is clear and predictable. I appreciated the glossary where you can click on words, read the definition and jump back to that point in the book. I like the additional links included and peer review is evident.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text is organized in a logical way to be able to assign one chapter at a time. The materials to assess if students did the reading and understand the concepts are all present in the book. There are fillable forms for answering questions about content and also engaging more fully with the case studies. I can envision activities in class that would use the materials provided within the chapters and at the end of the book in the \"resources\" section. The first chapter is less effective in terms of modularity and needs more visuals. Each chapter improves on availability of visuals and examples. If I were using this text in a class, I would probably skip chapter 1 because I don't like how it covered disability. I would start with chapter 2 and supplement that chapter with articles about working with diverse families. The rest of the chapters are fine on their own.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The organization within chapters and between chapters needs work. I can see the intent to start big-picture and move to a more detailed approach of the FACT model, using case studies to teach functional assessment. The organization of the first chapter starts with disability definitions and then moves directly into defining and measurability of behavior and methods. Then it jumps back out to prevalence and risk factors. Chapter 4 talks about how to teach FA (e.g., BCBA programs, online programs, simulation) which isn’t contextualized and basically switches the intended audience of the book from students learning to work with students with challenging behaviors to their university instructors. The overall organization needs work because it is unclear.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is a strength of this text. I like the fillable forms used for questions and assessment protocols. I also like the glossary and how you can jump back to where you were reading because every word as a \"return\" button. Images and charts are clear and not distorted or distracting. I prefer chapters (e.g., 3-6) with more visuals and examples. It might have helped to use appendices more so that case studies and examples don't interrupt the text, but I like taking breaks from large blocks of text to consider and application of what I just learned.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is clear and technical, but grammar is intact.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Family considerations pop up in chapter 2 (which is otherwise about different approaches to assessing behavior) for one small paragraph and the idea of “culture” is there, but it’s a very dominant approach to the idea of families and focuses on a disconnect, a deficit view of families who have different beliefs or who are from non-dominant communities. The authors mention that practitioners must understand families, but the section is short and doesn’t have practical strategies or mention systemic inequities that leave families out by design. The book is not inherently offensive, but it whitewashes diverse voices and opts out of a real consideration of cultural diversity.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Although I'm not sure who the intended audience is and I didn't like chapters 1-2, I did appreciate the rest of the book. The case studies and examples are wonderful and there is a real overview of the terms and concepts needed to assess and understand behavior.","created_at":"2021-05-11T16:49:08.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-11T16:49:08.000-05:00"},{"id":33348,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Walker","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Mary Washington","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The table of contents is presented with a helpful, clickable option to find information in the text. In addition, the table of contents has a drop down option where an overview of the contents is provided. The book covers a great deal of information about functional analysis and includes several other resources. Each chapter starts with focus questions, contains additional resources, and ends with discussion questions and exercises for the reader. While templates are provided as a resource, these are downloadable, creating some challenges with internet security. The references are extensive and up to date and the glossary provides a lengthy list of terminology. These terms are easily accessed by clicking on red words that take the reader directly to the definition. Overall, it is difficult to discern if the targeted audience are practitioners or those who prepare these practitioners.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The authors used up to date and relevant literature to support this text. In chapter two, the authors note that one reason to use a functional analysis (FA) is because it is required by federal law. This is not an accurate statement and may confuse readers since the law specifies the use of functional behavior assessments (FBAs), not FAs, which are different processes. While the content appears correct from a behavior analyst perspective, it is not completely accurate from an educational standpoint. It may be helpful for the authors to shift the references from the Council for Exceptional Children to High Leverage Practices.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this text would be relevant and helpful to anyone working with students or children with behavioral needs. There is a foundational component to the text that describes terminology and basic principles as well as more in depth \"how to\" chapters. While the intended audience is somewhat unclear, this text can benefit both practitioners and those who teach these practitioners. While the text may require small updates as it relates to research based practices and law, little will likely change in the next several years.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The information presented in this text is straightforward and clear for readers. Terms are defined in an easy to understand format that doesn't require extensive background knowledge in behaviorism. The discussion questions and case studies require the readers to home in on the key components from each chapter, which is helpful. In some sections, it would be beneficial to have more concrete examples to ensure understanding. Much like the case studies are written, having a scenario to ground the terms and processes would be a welcome addition.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework of this book is extremely consistent, using the same format throughout. There are some inconsistencies with terminology, specifically FAs, FBAs, and FAn, leading to confusion. Overwhelmingly though, the book flows logically and builds upon knowledge from previous chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easy to read and contains a sufficient amount of charts, tables, graphs, and subheadings. The sections are clearly delineated with headings, creating bite-sized readings. Chapter 1 has less of these visual breaks, but it is still divided into sections. If this text were used in a course, it could be easily parsed out by chapter or section as a stand alone instructional unit. In particular, chapters 4-6 would be an excellent way to teach functional assessment. In addition, the resources provided in chapter 7 could also be used independently of the book, or in conjunction with case studies and discussion questions.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well organized and is written in a progressive format (overview of principles to determining functions of behavior). The chapter order is logical and clear. No concerns noted.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is presented in a professional manner and uses consistent text font, size, and headings. Each chapter can be viewed in its entirety individually. There are several graphs embedded in the text and each of these are easy to read and understand. Terms are highlighted and these are easy to click on and review. The only challenge with this text is the resources, which are downloads. It would be my preference to be able to view these documents first, and then download them if I was interested.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted in this text.  The text is professionally written.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text includes a section on the family's contribution to the assessment of the individual's challenging behavior, which includes a section on understanding culture. The example provided is helpful for the reader and inclusive of cultural differences. It would be nice to see this woven throughout all of the chapters, with reminders or examples about how culture may impact or influence behavior. The authors do include literature as references, but these instances are concentrated and minimal. Given that cultural differences may influence the results of the FA, additional examples would be beneficial.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, this text is a great resource when teaching about functional analysis. The format is straightforward and easy to read by novice practitioners, which is so important! I will definitely return to utilize portions of the book as well as the discussion questions and case studies.","created_at":"2021-07-13T19:06:19.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-07-13T19:06:19.000-05:00"},{"id":33719,"first_name":"Ben","last_name":"Bryan","position":"Adjunct Faculty, Social Science Department","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book seems totally comprehensive. It does a good job of bouncing between clinical definitions, assessment tools and explanations which creates academic credibility from page one. For example, it highlights the differences, strengths and weaknesses of the indirect, observational, and experimental format of assessment. May academic tests focus only on observational and experimental structures as they are the most academic.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"My familiarity with Functional Assessment comes from a master’s level social work perspective primarily with chronic and persistent mental illness. From this perspective, the content in this textbook is completely accurate, unbiased and error free.  The theory, rationale and effectiveness is explained an thorough manner and addresses any counter-intuitive points well.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date and as its assessment based, the content is timeless and could easily be adapted to remain contemporary. It would be fascinating to keep older examples in as behavioral norms change. It uses examples from current situations to illustrate the points and learning objectives.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text is appropriately clear, it is helpful that there are embedded definitions, assessment tools and links to the glossary. This makes it easy to find more information about a topic without being distracted or easily losing your place. In addition, it is clearly written such that both students new to the idea of functional assessment can follow the material while more experienced readers can incorporate what they already know to deepen their understanding.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.\tThis book is 100% consistent. As it is academic and addresses the same tools throughout each chapter there is a risk it could contradict itself as some other books do. However, the theory beyond the interventions remain consistent throughout the application to each special-needs application.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text does rely on itself as the cases build in complexity towards the end of the book. However, it does not seem possible given the content to drastically change that. With that being said, it is organized into coherent, reasonably paced chunks. In addition, as it is organized by population, some content could be left out if this text was being used in a specific program (teachers vs therapists for example).","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a clear and concise manner. Theories are introduced alongside their intended applications which makes their use grounded and easy to understand. Each chapter is divided into intuitive sub-chapters or modules that progress in a logical manner.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"This text is in a relatively standard e-book online format. The interface isn’t complex, but it is effective and there are no errors or barriers to use present in what I reviewed. \r\nI didn't give full points because it would have been nice to have the Chapters divided into smaller modules with clickable links through the table of contents","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors. Sentence structure, grammar punctuation and cadence are all professional and college level.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"This book is not culturally incompetent, however, examples of how cultural diversity could affect functional assessment were noticeably absent. The word ‘culture’ was only used three times in the entire book. The passage below discussed differences exist in culture, but does not provide insight into what those may be or how the assessor should approach people different than themselves. \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\nUnderstanding the family and their culture is necessary when assessing an individual’s challenging behavior. Cultural differences may involve any combination of age, race/ethnicity, social class, sex, language, religion, sexual orientation, ableness (special needs), regionality, and nationality. For instance, a family may come from cultural contexts with very different viewpoints about education and appropriate child behaviors and this may be involved with the occurrence of the individual’s challenging behaviors. The more different the cultural background of the family, the more likely that the individuals involved will face cultural conflicts resulting from those differences (Brown, 2010). This is especially true when sensitive topics or cultural incidents occur. Understanding the family and the cultural context of the family is critical to a comprehensive assessment and treatment. Professionals must ensure that families are part of the process and strive to build a positive, strong partnership with the family.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2022-03-07T13:50:18.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-03-07T13:50:18.000-06:00"},{"id":34373,"first_name":"Kristen","last_name":"Humphrey","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Pittsburg State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text starts with foundational information about challenging behavior.  It then explains what a functional behavioral assessment is and various methods of collecting information for the assessment. Then, development of a behavioral plan is addressed.  These were the topics I was most interested in utilizing, but the text also addresses how to teach this content to others.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found the content to be accurate and consistent with what I know about functional behavioral assessments.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date and it is appropriate for those wanting to conduct FBA and develop behavior intervention plans for children served in special education. Further, it has relevance to other settings where individuals may present with challenging behavior.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The content is presented in an easy-to-understand manner. I plan to use it with undergraduate students and feel confident that the content will be accessible to them.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text was consistent in regard to terminology and style of presentation throughout the chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The content will be easy to assign to students in manageable sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical order with foundational information first and higher concepts as one moves through the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text displayed appropriately in the online link, in the downloaded pdf, and in the Kindle app for iPad.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I appreciated the respectful language regarding people with disabilities and the ethical considerations that were addressed.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I appreciated the discussion questions, worksheets, and assignment ideas included.","created_at":"2023-01-16T23:20:02.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-01-16T23:20:02.000-06:00"},{"id":34972,"first_name":"John","last_name":"Romig","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas at Arlington","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides a thorough explanation of Functional Assessment and its applications in a wide variety of settings addressing diverse behaviors.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I found no errors in the book.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The citations are current to when the book was published (2014). Supplementing with more current citations may be useful, but the content of the book does not feel dated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The glossary is very helpful for explaining technical language used in the book. The book is written at an introductory level for beginners in functional analysis and the writing reflects this intent.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book used technical language consistently throughout and consistently applied the functional analysis framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is quite short overall. It could easily be included as a module within a larger behavior modification course or assessment course. Within the book, it is also easily divided into smaller modules. It is not overly self-referential (although the material logically builds on previous sections). \r\nThere is a chapter on teaching functional analysis, which might be especially useful to break out into a separate module for behavior analysis supervisors, doctoral candidates, or other advanced users of functional analysis.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The content of the book logically builds on each previous section.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I found no navigation problems. All links worked. \r\n\r\nA couple things could be improved related to interface: 1. when clicking on links to the glossary, it would be nice if the hyperlink opened a textbox with the definition on screen where I am reading the text, not going to a separate glossary page. 2. some of the tables were difficult to read. It wasn't always clear what information went with which row.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find any material in the book that was culturally insensitive or offensive. However, given that the focus of the book is functional analysis and reducing some behaviors, I know some people find this concept offensive. I think this is an idea that needs to be roundly rejected in our field, but nevertheless, it persists. The book does not deal with these ethical objections some have to the idea of reducing or eliminating some behaviors.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2024-04-01T09:26:49.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-01T09:26:49.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/instruction-in-functional-assessment","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:36:02.000-06:00"},{"id":221,"title":"Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning","edition_statement":"2nd Edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Teachers, instructors and faculty are facing unprecedented change, with often larger classes, more diverse students, demands from government and employers who want more accountability and the development of graduates who are workforce ready, and above all, we are all having to cope with ever changing technology. To handle change of this nature, teachers and instructors need a base of theory and knowledge that will provide a solid foundation for their teaching, no matter what changes or pressures they face. Although the book contains many practical examples, it is more than a cookbook on how to teach. It addresses the following questions: is the nature of knowledge changing, and how do different views on the nature of knowledge result in different approaches to teaching? what is the science and research that can best help me in my teaching? how do I decide whether my courses should be face-to-face, blended or fully online? what strategies work best when teaching in a technology-rich environment? what methods of teaching are most effective for blended and online classes? how do I make choices among all the available media, whether text, audio, video, computer, or social media, in order to benefit my students and my subject? how do I maintain high quality in my teaching in a rapidly changing learning environment while managing my workload? what are the real possibilities for teaching and learning using MOOCs, OERS, open textbooks? In summary, the book examines the underlying principles that guide effective teaching in an age when everyone, and in particular the students we are teaching, are using technology. A framework and a set of guidelines are suggested for making decisions about your teaching, while understanding that every subject is different, and every teacher and instructor has something unique and special to bring to their teaching. In the end, though, the book isn't really about teachers and instructors, although you are the target group. It's about you helping your students to develop the knowledge and skills they will need in a digital age: not so much digital skills, but the thinking and knowledge that will bring them success. For that to happen, though, your students need you to be on top of your game. This book is your coach.","contributors":[{"id":3631,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"A.W. (Tony)","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Bates","location":"University of British Columbia","background_text":"A.W. (Tony) Bates graduated from the University of Sheffield, U.K, with a B.A. (Hons.) in psychology in 1962, obtained a post-graduate certificate in education from Goldsmiths College, the University of London, and a Ph.D. in educational administration from the Institute of Education, the University of London."}],"subjects":[{"id":24,"name":"Curriculum \u0026 Instruction","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":44,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/curriculum-instruction"},{"id":25,"name":"Distance Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC5800","visible_textbooks_count":10,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/distance-education"},{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"}],"publishers":[{"id":160,"url":"http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/","year":2019,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-29T11:28:04.000-05:00","name":"BCcampus"}],"formats":[{"id":418,"type":"Online","url":"https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":419,"type":"PDF","url":"https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":25,"reviews":[{"id":275,"first_name":"Franziska","last_name":"Wilcox","position":"Senior Instructor","institution_name":"Colorado State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book is very comprehensive, and includes an effective index and glossary. One can navigate with ease through each one of the twelve chapters, which are broken down by sections. Having \"key takeaways\" from each chapter at both the beginning and the end is a plus. The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject matter thoroughly, and there is a logical progression from general background information and an overview of the content to greater details and specifics towards the end of the book. There is an activity at the end of each section, which leads one to internalize the material and reflect upon the subject matter. Four appendices are also included, which provide additional information to educators with great tools and resources. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Accurate information was presented in the book, which was supported by several references from a variety of sources. The references are integrated very well into the text and cited at the end of each section. The book is also error-free and much attention was given to not only the content, but also the formatting and layout, which in turn gives great fluidity to the text. The book is unbiased. Different points of view are given, and many questions are asked throughout each chapter, which leads an instructor or student to come to their own conclusion based on the information provided. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and relevant, and the longevity of the book is great, because it focuses on various types of instruction with the primary focus being rooted in technology-based instruction. This type of instruction in blended, hybrid, and fully-online formats is becoming more and more prevalent, and the book should therefore remain relevant for quite some time. It helps instructors understand the benefits and challenges that integrated technology brings with it. This technological era, in which we live, is advancing rapidly. It is important to keep up with these advancements, and make adjustments to instruction and delivery methods as needed. This book does a really nice job on giving instructors the tools on how and to what extend to do so.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides great definitions and examples of technical terminology (for example, MOOCs) as related to integrated technology within various delivery methods.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in terms of terminology and framework. Consistent use of terminology, such as various learning styles, delivery methods and instructional formats, and the educational framework as a whole is integrated nicely within the book. Its framework is logical, progressive, and fluid. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book's modularity is great. The text is organized into chapters, which are organized into sections. Each chapter has a purpose statement, a summary, and key takeaways at the beginning, as well as main conclusions and key takeaways at the end. Each section has a clear subheading, and an activity at its conclusion. The text is therefore easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections, which can be assigned at different points within a course. However, this text would be most resourceful to instructors, as well as students enrolled in pedagogical courses, since the subject matter focuses on the benefits and challenges of instructional formats and delivery methods integrating technology, and thereby benefiting instructors and students who are restructuring and/ or creating their own courses.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book's organization, structure, and flow have already been touched upon within some of the previous categories. To reiterate, one can navigate with ease through each one of the twelve chapters, which are broken down by sections. Having \"key takeaways\" from each chapter at both the beginning and the end is a plus. The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject matter thoroughly, and there is a logical progression from general background information and an overview of the content to greater details and specifics towards the end of the book. There is an activity at the end of each section, which leads one to internalize the material and reflect upon the subject matter. Four appendices are also included, which provide additional information to educators with great tools and resources. Its framework is logical, progressive, and fluid. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book has a solid interface. It is free of navigation problems, distortion of images and charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader. All of the links within the table of contents and hyper links within the text function. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is free of grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant, in that it is inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. The images used throughout each chapter,as well as the people selected for giving feedback to the activities at the end of each section, represent people from various cultural backgrounds. There is a section in chapter 1 which addresses the increase in student diversity.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I would highly recommend this book to instructors who are seeking to restructure their own courses by integrating a few or various forms of technology, and/ or creating blended, hybrid or online courses. It would also benefit those students who are in the processes of becoming educators, since there are many factors to consider when designing a course. ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":286,"first_name":"Eric","last_name":"Milholland","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is quite comprehensive.  Not only does it cover the current topics in Educational Technology, it does a fantastic job of reviewing exactly how and why we arrived at this point in time.  After all, it is important to understand how past technology led to what is currently employed.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text does a nice job of really exploring the many facets of Educational Technology.  There are so many different components of this topic, from in-class devices like clickers to asynchronous technology utilizing MOOCS, flipped classrooms, and discussion boards.  This text does a great job of identifying these technologies and also examining the peer-reviewed literature as to their teaching efficacy.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This book is currently relevant, and does a great job of investigating the many components of Educational Technology.  The only reason I gave this text a review of 4 in this category is because the longevity is limited.  That is much more a function of the changing world of this type of technology than a criticism of the author's efforts to present relevant information.  It is certainly relevant now, but would need to be updated quite frequently to ensure longevity.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text does a really nice job of explaining concepts very clearly.  Having a PhD in education, most of the terms presented here are quite familiar to me.  That being said, the author does a fantastic job of explaining or defining key terms and ideas to make this text very approachable to anyone who is teaching or guiding others.  I really appreciate this because the average instructor is a subject matter expert in their field, but they may have very little formal training in education theory and techniques.","consistency_rating":1,"consistency_review":"Well written, and very easy to read and follow.  The structure of each section is basically the same: what is being presented, why is it important, and what should the reader expect to learn/know at the conclusion of reading that specific information.  The text follows this format throughout each section, meaning a reader could easily explore any topic and gain valuable information.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of things I really enjoyed about reviewing this text is the modularity.  Each topic can stand alone as a unique learning module, and even the subtopics of these areas are presented as standalone modules.  This means a reader could consume a few independent ideas that would make sense on their own, but could also read the entire text to gain a more complete understanding of Educational Technology","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I really enjoyed the structure of this text. The information is presented in easy to digest \"chunks\".  This allows the reader to review a few select ideas or take the time to really learn and understand the plethora of Educational Technology that exists today.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"In the .pdf version of this text, a few of the images were either blurry or difficult to see in their entirety on a computer screen.  Overall, the information in the pictures and text were relevant, but there were times the image resolution was distracting.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Great grammar in this text.  I absolutely love textbooks written in a conversational format.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I feel like this text actively attempts to include a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds.  There are numerous examples of how the information would be used in a variety of cultures, and not all of these are Euro-centric.  While the author writes about their personal experience in the UK, Canada, and the United States, the text intentionally uses examples of teaching and Educational Technology in other regions of the world.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed this text and thought it did a tremendous job of presenting the past and present Educational Technology, especially as it pertains to how those things impact the current and future trends in the field.  I really like the presentation style of short but informative sections within a chapter/topic.  This made the text very easy to read and follow.  I also thought the questions at the conclusion of each chapter were a great way to challenge the reader to investigate the applicability of these ideas.  These questions are designed to really implore the reader to explore the personal relevance of each topic.  ","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":324,"first_name":"Lana","last_name":"Fornes","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Valley City State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book would provide useful information and support for college and university faculty, as well as for some K-12 teachers; as they consider how best to effectively engage and support student learning for \"digital natives\" and others seeking knowledge and education in this information- and knowledge-based era. Traditionally, college and university faculty are hired for their knowledge and expertise in their content areas, but the vast majority lack formal training in being effective educators or expertise in and knowledge of how students learn. This book is an appropriately comprehensive guide providing background in understanding the most common theories regarding learning and how it is impacted by an instructor's pedagogy and epistemology. \n\nThe author progresses from providing essential background to wading into the weeds regarding multiple aspects, to help readers understand the important considerations for determining desired student outcomes, determining how those might be best supported in how a course is offered (e.g. face-to-face, hybrid, fully online), to considering the usefulness and reasons for using various technologies and media; and how instructors might team up with other institutional members in making decisions about course development and changes that adapt to current and future conditions and resources. The Table of Contents provides an excellent overview of content -- faciitiating finding those sections the reader may want to refer back to in future. The author has included numerous online links to additional content throughout; and informs the reader that there will be ongoing updates and additions to the content. \n\nChapter 10 provides especially useful and very current content regarding Open Education Resources (OER) -- something very much in discussion today as instructors in higher education seek to reduce educational costs to students, while improving their  access to quality educational resources and course materials.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Overall, the accuracy of the information presented seems to be right on target and especially current today.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Besides providing essential background in important considerations in meeting the needs of diverse learners as they develop the  knowledge, competencies, and skills required by varying disciplines; the author also provides essential discussion related to current issues in education. Because of the way the book was progressively created, the author has provided a format that will lend itself well to addition of updated information in the future. \n\nBecause of the evolving nature of the technologies and media currently being used for educational purposes, it is expected that this book would need to be updated to maintain its relevancy and longevity. However, the shared perspectives and discussion of pedagogy and epistemology would be useful long after the specific cited technologies have evolved to something else.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author's use of terminology and jargon is appropriate and well disseminated in professional educational literature. However, this reviewer also found the content to be easily read due to the author's conversational tone throughout his discussion. Reading this book felt like a conversation with a well-informed colleague.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in its terminology and remains true to the framework set out in the Table of Contents and in the introductions provided for each chapter. At the beginning of each chapter, the author clearly and concisely defines the purpose of the chapter and lists what the reader should be able to do after completing the chapter. At the end of each chapter, the author also provides a concise listing of the important take-aways from the chapter. There are also reflective writing prompts throughout the book --  providing opportunities for immediate application of the concepts being discussed by the author.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Although, the chapters build a successive body of knowledge, the contents would not have to be exclusively read in order or in total. The reader could pick those chapters most applicable to the moment. In each chapter, the author also directs the reader to other portions of the book directly related to the discussion at-hand.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a logical and clear fashion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This reviewer read portions of the book directly from the website, as well as from a downloaded PDF. Both versions seemed to be identical and there did not appear to be any distorted images, or problems with the book's presentation. Links to comments and accompanying podcasts seemed to work effectively.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This reviewer did not notice any typos or grammatical errors until one of the later chapters; and those only consisted of what seemed to be a couple of missing words --- not spelling or grammar issues.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text did not appear to be culturally insensitive or offensive. The illustrations seemed to do a good job of representing a diverse population in terms of race and gender. And throughout the text, the author emphasized the importance of instructors knowing their students and being aware of their needs as learners, as well as their needs for specific knowledge and skill development for the world of work.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The author's personal professional experience has been split between the UK and Canada. However, even though there are plenty of experiential examples from those two areas of the world, he provides applicable information for what has been and is occurring in the USA and other places in the world. The informatio, topics, and considerations in the book are likely applicable regardless of where the reader may be located, even though the resources available to an individual instructor (because of their location) may be very different.","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":339,"first_name":"Rick","last_name":"Harper","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Massachusetts","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Teaching is a huge topic, but the text does a thorough job covering subject areas; extensive appendices that include teaching scenarios, definitions and further resources.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The Text's content is error-free. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The Text's content is up-to-date, but thanks to the electronic format the text may be updated more readily than a hard copy only and helping to prevent against making the text obsolete.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This resource is generally written in a straightforward manner...there are some uses of context-specific jargon AND some of the scenarios are a little \"fluffy\".","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is generally written in a consistent manner.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is readily divided up and proceeds in a logical fashion from chapter to chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text's twelve topics are presented clearly and logically.  The appendices are a little \"rambling\" or lengthy.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text interfaces well with the reading audience.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is well-written and free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text takes important measures to maintain its cultural relevance/sensitivity by discussing the issue of diversity head-on.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"A valuable resource!","created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":406,"first_name":"Kathi","last_name":"Inman Berens","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Portland State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"While the scope of _Teaching in a Digital Age _ is comprehensive, its failure to cite, link to or engage most scholarship of digital pedagogy produced since 2000 means that the author is responsible for a wide range of material that he can treat but superficially.  I like that the book's format is participatory, and that readers have offered comments on individual chapter sections.  But lack of engagement in scholarly discourse hampers the book's credibility and usefulness.  Most citations are superannuated.  For example, in chapter 6.6 on Media Richness, all the citations are pre-Web (1977-1987).  Chapter Seven on pedagogical differences among platforms' media-specific affordances doesn't incorporate experiments by innovators like Howard Rheingold and Cathy Davidson, or compelling collaborative pedagogy projects such as HASTAC,DMLCentral, KAIROS (the first multimedia academic journal in rhetoric/composition, now celebrating its 20th year) or the relatively new _Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy_ and _Hybrid Pedagogy_, both founded in 2012.","accuracy_rating":2,"accuracy_review":"Bates accurately conveys aspects of distance learning, and provides overviews of different teaching methods and media through which those methods can be practiced.  But the book's lack of awareness of field developments hampers its accuracy, since only the most broad assertions resonate, such as the indisputable assertion that learners must \"develop the type of knowledge and the kinds of skills that they will need in a digital age,\" in chapter twelve's introduction.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Bates is an innovator in distance learning, and there are many things to admire about his work in the field.  His assertion in chapter ten that \"“OER, MOOCs, open textbooks and other digital forms of open-ness are important in helping to widen access to learning opportunities\" is wisely tempered with a more nuanced take on what constitutes practical access.  Bates continues, \"[B]ut ultimately these are enhancements rather than a replacement for a well-funded public education system, which remains the core foundation for enabling equal access to educational opportunities.\"  Comments like these and others demonstrate Bates' awareness of how different dyads between traditional and networked learning produce tension that any learner or institution must navigate: open v. proprietary content; unfettered access v. ability to learn with little mentorship or guidance beyond interface prompts; media innovation v. inevitable obsolescence.   These are all relevant notions; but as I observe above, lack of dialog with the ample and vibrant scholarship about these and other issues relegates the book to a generalist's overview at best.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Yes, the book is clear.  Its information is organized well to promote skimming, browsing, and deeply immersive reading.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The book consistently applies its terms.  However, lack of engagement with scholarship limits the range and scope of its terminological relevance.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Information is very well designed.  Many reader-friendly aspects of interface promote smooth reading, such as learning objectives for each chapter, helpful summaries at the end of each chapter, and (occasional) hyperlinking to relevant resources.  Bates has also imbedded audio podcasts, which allow him to offer a deeper explanation of his authorial method and intentions, such as the one explaining why he decided to include a chapter section on learning methods [2.1].","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Yes.  My comments above disclose specific examples.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text invites interactivity and features images, links and embedded podcasts as alternatives to text.  Most images are decorative rather than evidentiary.  Links to external sources work.  I like very much that Bates has made an Updates and Revisions log so that readers revisiting the text can see changes listed out for them.  This also suggests that Bates takes seriously the reader's experience of his text, which is also evident in the friendly exchanges in comments on each chapter subsection.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no errors but I did not read it with a copyeditor's eye.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"_Teaching in a Digital Age _ is participatory but not scholarly.  The book's relevance is mostly as a measure of pre-Web 2.0 e-learning and distance learning methodologies, for its chapters about social media and MOOCs are not at all engaged with the scholarship of the field.  Chapter five on MOOCs, for example, cities popular press (_The New York Times'_Thomas Friedman) and Disruption-guru Clay Christensen of the Harvard Business School rather than the scholarship of MOOCs by Jesse Stommel, Sean Michael Morris, Audrey Waters and others.  The book does not cite scholarly blogs, which are ground zero for emerging scholarship of digital pedagogy, for example the work of Miriam Posner, Brian Croxall, Mark Sample, Tressie Mcmillan Cottom, Henry Jenkins, Cathy Davidson, and especially Howard Rheingold, whose two decades of pedagogical experiments in online learning are a must-read for anyone in the field.  Regarding Bates' racial and cultural sensitivity, the work welcomes learners of all backgrounds.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-01-07T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":432,"first_name":"Kathi","last_name":"Berens","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"As a longtime consultant to distance learning programs around the world, author Tony Bates is an innovator at the level of system implementation.  He is not a teacher, so this book’s title “Teaching in the Digital Age” raises expectations that the book can’t quite meet. The scope of _Teaching in a Digital Age _ is comprehensive, and it provides a good if somewhat dated overview.  The book’s ambition to deliver insight about many aspects of teaching in a digital age, from classroom platforms to theories of education, might be grander than its capacity to fulfill a broad mandate.  The book's vantage on digital pedagogy scholarship is limited to focus on work produced mostly before 2000. This means that the author is responsible for a wide range of material on his own without benefit of work on the latest developments in the field.  People seeking to learn what distance education can offer might be satisfied with this book.  Teachers looking for specific techniques for online learning might be disappointed, and even policy makers might find the book out of step with the current practices.  For example, there’s no mention of the role of textbook companies in driving change in distance learning from the model Bates sketches here to a profit-driven one. _Teaching in a Digital Age _ ties together a constellation of issues related to teaching and learning online.  The book’s strength lies in its cohesion.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Bates accurately conveys aspects of distance learning and provides overviews of different teaching methods and media through which those methods can be practiced.  But the book's underreporting of field developments hampers its accuracy, leaving only the broadest assertions, such as the one that learners must \"develop the type of knowledge and the kinds of skills that they will need in a digital age\" [introduction to chapter twelve]. That’s a fairly obvious observation, and it's not clear why it comes so late in the book.  If the book is aimed at those who are new to distance learning, it provides a solid overview.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Participatory but not scholarly, the book's relevance is mostly as a measure of  e-learning and distance learning methodologies before Web 2.0.  Readers have offered comments on individual chapter sections; however, these comments tend not to take the text in new directions or explore under examined aspects that a scholar in the field would be more likely to catch.  One wishes, for example, for discussion of collaborative open archives of digital pedagogy experiments such as HASTAC, DMLCentral, KAIROS (the first multimedia academic journal in rhetoric/composition) and the relatively new _Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy_ and _Hybrid Pedagogy_.  Inclusion and discussion of current resources would enhance the comprehensiveness of Mr. Bates' book.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Yes, the book is clear.  Its information is well organized to suit several types of use, from fully-immersive careful reading to quick summary for facts on a particular topic.  Mr. Bates' prose is accessible.  His friendly tone welcomes comments and participation. Further, information design is optimally presented so that the reader is always oriented in the text and knows what s/he should be learning in each chapter subheading.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The book consistently applies its terms.  Mr. Bates' keen awareness of how tensions between traditional and networked learning produce tradeoffs that any learner or institution must navigate is handled well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Information is well designed.  It would be simple for an instructor to assign sections of chapters or disparate parts of this book.  Many aspects of this book’s reader-friendly interface promote smooth reading, such as learning objectives for each chapter, helpful summaries at the end of each chapter, and (occasionally – one might wish for many more of these) hyperlinked resources.  Bates has also imbedded audio podcasts into some of his chapters, which allows him to offer a deeper explanation of his authorial method and intentions, such as the one explaining why he decided to include a chapter section on learning methods [2.1].  One has the sense Bates reserved audio podcasts for topics that might have been digressions in the printed text.  These various techniques make a text that would be ideally adapted into several types of courses or teaching styles.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Since my comments above (in responses to questions four and six) have extolled Mr. Bates’ book organization, it isn’t necessary to repeat those observations here.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text invites interactivity and features images, links and embedded podcasts as alternatives to text.  However, most images are decorative rather than evidentiary.  Links to external sources work.  Mr. Bates made an Updates and Revisions log so that readers revisiting the text can see any changes in the book listed out for them.  This also suggests that Bates takes seriously the reader's experience of his text, which is also evident in the friendly exchanges in comments on each chapter subsection.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no errors; nor did I read with a copyeditor's eye.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"_Teaching in a Digital Age _ is a general overview of online teaching and learning. Its strength is the way it aids university administrators and higher education officials in thinking through the stakes of online and distance learning.  Teachers drawn to this book by its title looking for disciplinary-specific tips or strategies will not find them in this book. Its chapters about social media and MOOCs are not engaged with the scholarship of the field.  Chapter five on MOOCs, for example, cities _The New York Times'_ Thomas Friedman and Harvard Business School’s disruption guru Clay Christensen but not scholarship of MOOCs.  The book does not cite scholarly blogs, which are the best place to find emerging scholarship of digital pedagogy in non-academic language.  Often such blogs are written for an educated lay public.  Regarding Bates' racial and cultural sensitivity, the work welcomes learners of all backgrounds.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":454,"first_name":"Carrie","last_name":"Miller","position":"Instructional Designer","institution_name":"Minnesota State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Teaching in a Digital Age is a a comprehensive text for anyone thinking about moving forward with adopting technology into the classroom or with changing the delivery method of their course.  While this text is not a \"cookbook on how to teach,\" as the author mentions, it does provide the framework for readers to begin a critical analysis of why they might want to start integrating technology and how to go about doing so.  The author covers the major categories of technology integration in addition to the primary considerations and challenges often facing faculty who strive to increase their technology usage in the classroom.  The text also includes a brief section on learning theories and the author encourages instructors to take a deep look at their own epistemology in regards to teaching and learning in order to define how technology fits into that view.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This text covers an accurate if broad range of technology issues in teaching and learning.  The information is well supported by references and in general is unbiased.  The author's experience does shine through in the organization of the chapters and the example scenarios.  The nature of the content does impact its accuracy, simply due to the rapidly-changing nature of technology. There are multiple areas of current technology that aren't covered in this text, however, the intent is of the text is not to be a treatise on every available technology but rather a guide to a shift in pedagogical thinking.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The intent of this text is to guide instructors in considering and designing for technology integration.  Therefore, in general, the longevity of this text is excellent.  While the technologies themselves continually change, the structure and framework for beginning the journey of integration remains the same.  The challenges and strategies for integrating technology are consistent no matter what individual tool is chosen.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is very clear and concise.  Any technical jargon or term is fully explained.  The scenarios illustrate the concepts nicely and the prose is accessible even to the novice technology user.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book is very consistent in terms of both layout and content.  Each chapter is laid out in a logical and consistent fashion so the reader knows what to expect for each section of reading.  Key terms or ideas are spelled out in every chapter.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text is extremely easy to use in its entirety or broken up into stand alone chapters.  The sections of each chapter are of manageable length and can also be selected for individual readings.  The scenarios and audio selections can also be used on their own or as a complement to the readings.  In addition, the materials included within the appendix would be useful when combined with the text or as a stand-alone exercise.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The topics in this text are presented in a largely logical, clear fashion.  I do think it would make more sense for Chapter 9 to precede Chapters 3 and 4, and as an instructional designer, I believe it would be efficacious to begin the discussion on quality teaching earlier.  However, for the intent of this book as stated by the author, I think the structure of this text is organized appropriately.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Both the PDF version and the online version are free from navigation, interface or display problems.  The text is easy to use and access and the hyperlinks take the reader to the appropriate audio clips.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"This author does an exceptional job at addressing cultural sensitivity in the examples and scenarios of this text.  The author's personal multicultural experiences are very illustrative and he attempts to integrate more global perspectives and issues within the body of the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, I think this is a great resource and I would love to see something like this for K-12 teachers.  I am currently using various chapters from this book for a Technology in Education course I am teaching and I am excited both for the savings to the students but also for the access to quality information about technology and teaching.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":590,"first_name":"Liz","last_name":"Hardy","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Rogue Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The content of this book is very comprehensive.  The author provides very useful information to consider about the teaching in a digital age. It really helps you to understand more about how to help your students to develop the skills for a digital age.  Because technologies are advancing rapidly, we must keep up with these advancements, and we need to be prepared to make adjustments to instruction. The author of this book does a really nice job at giving instructors the tools to help the transitions to technologies.  Chapter 10 especially provides a useful explanation about OER (Open Education Resources).  The author has a lot of experience and knowledge on the subject.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book seems to have accuracy in the information presented.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The author provides important discussions related to education issues that are present in our current system therefore it is relevant to all of us.  The author also presents solutions for future education adapting the new technologies to our teaching.  Because of the fact that technologies are constantly evolving, this book will need to be updated in order to maintain its relevance and longevity.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book presented the information in a clear way. It was easy to understand the ideas the author was trying to present.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is very consistent. It really stays focused on the table of contents. The author creates a section called purpose of this chapter which really helps the readers to understand the purpose of the chapter. At the end of each chapter the author presents a list of important take away points from the chapter which really summarizes the chapter. Another plus for each chapter is the fact that the author presents an activity at the end of each section, which helps you to reflect on what you just read.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book presented a good modularity. The author organized the book into chapters that are organized into sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This book is very organized. The structure and the flow are consistent thought the book.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book has a good interface. Links to podcasts and websites worked.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors were found in the review of this book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is culturally relevant.  The author included a variety of people from various cultural backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend this book to any instructor. I like the way the author presented the book and how he included these 3 points in each chapter: purpose of this chapter, key takeaway from the chapter, and the activity section.  The author of this book seemed very knowledgeable and the information presented in this book will be very useful to me in my teaching and use of technology.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":770,"first_name":"Norb","last_name":"Thomes","position":"Learning Systems and Services Coordinator","institution_name":"Winona State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covered the subject very well. I feared the text would be yet another \"10 Best iPad Apps\" rehash, but that was not the case at all. The reader was stepped through the entire teaching process through a pedagogical lens that makes the pieces fit together cleanly. The organization of the materials and the text itself made it easy to navigate and find the desired information. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text gives an accurate representation of the topic. It follows conventional wisdom on teaching and includes viable, though-provoking insertion of technology into the formula. Cites and references help to validate the accuracy of the materials. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Since this is a book on the use of technology, there is always the need for updating. The author spells out the uses and benefits of technology in education without getting too hung up in the tech du jour. I am hopeful that Mr. Bates remains vigilant in supplying updates as major turns on the road are encountered.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text was very clear and concise. No issues at all. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book remains consistent to its overall theme and to it form/layout throughout. Mr. Bates begins the process by explaining the teaching and learning and then spells it out in more detail as the reader advances through the text. I appreciated the consistent format of the individual chapters with each beginning and ending with outcomes and takeaways. It gave me a good sense for what I was to get out of the chapter and then a good review of the content as I finished it. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters were well designed and completely self contained. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellent. See my comments above.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book was well designed from concept through implementation, It is an easy read and follows a solid flow. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find any insensitivities or offenses. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was pleasantly surprised by this book. As I stated earlier, I feared this to be another app review but it turned out to be much. much more. I fully recommend this book for all teachers and instructional designers.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":861,"first_name":"Tian","last_name":"Luo","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Old Dominion University ","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I think the text covers a wide range of topics regarding the topic, teaching in a digital age. I believe the content is comprehensive, current, and appropriate.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I believe the content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I think overall the book is very relevant. Topics covered in this book such as MOOCs and social media tools often appear in our day-to-day conversations when speaking about technology integration in this day and age. I’d suggest adding a broader selection of technology-related topics such as simulations, gamifications, virtual worlds to the extant pool so that Web 2.0 and social media doesn’t appear to be the predominant type of technology being used in teaching and learning.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and easy to understand. The writing style and language used is extremely friendly to educators across all levels, including K-12, postsecondary, and graduate education. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent across all chapters within the body of the text. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I don’t see any issues with modularity. I think the content is finely chunked into small segments which definitely helps with understanding and the headings and subheadings appropriately signal the content. I like the incorporation of purpose statements, what is included, and key takeaways appearing consistently across all chapters, which makes the book extremely user-friendly as a textbook. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The twelve chapters are presented in an organized and logical manner.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I like how the interface looks. I also like the audio podcasts embedded in some of the chapters. Incorporating varied types of media took a differentiated approach of teaching and perfectly reiterates ethos of teaching in a digital age.  I was reading the web version so I particularly appreciate the Table of Contents on the side, which helps me navigate the content much more easily and swiftly.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.\n\n","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book illustrates a few story drawn from the author's personal background and multicultural experiences. I think the author attempts to integrate a global perspective when discussing certain topics and issues.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reading this book and I found it to be a valuable resource. I will consider using it in my own course on online learning. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":902,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Dempster","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Nicholls State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers a comprehensive list of topics related to Teaching in a Digital Age. Each topic is clearly labeled  in the Index. The author provides information and suggestions for each topic covered in relation to education in a digital world.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text is accurate throughout and presented in an unbiased manner.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Teaching in the Digital age is not a topic that will go away for the forseeable future. The content itself encourages readers to stay as up to date as possible with the latest technology trends in order to effectively use technology in education. The transition of traditional courses into online formats continues to be a problem for universities. It is so important to understand that simply migrating information and assignments to an online format is not the best practice. As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that our students are able to succeed in the courses we teach. There are many aspects of online education that factor into ensuring success among online students. The content of the text will remain relevant until digital education is at a place were all courses utilize and implement technology in a way that will ensure the success of students in a specific course as well as in their future careers. Future updates will be easy to implement as current technology is updated and new technology is created.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in easy to understand terminology. Although the content covers many technology topics, individuals who are not technology-savvy will be able to understand the topics covered. Terms that may be unfamiliar to readers are explained so that they may continue reading the text and are able to understand new topics introduced.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text remains consistent in terms of terminology and framework throughout each chapter. The author provides an overview of each chapter as well as what the reader can expect to learn from each section of the text. Throughout the text, readers are asked to reflect on what they have read in order to ensure they have learned the topics covered.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could easily be divided and read by chapter or smaller sections within each chapter. Although each chapter is related in some way, sections of the text could be read without the need to have read a previous chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are organized in a logical way and are presented in a clear fashion.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate in both the PDF and online version. Hyperlinks allow the reader to easily locate the appropriate chapter or section or send the reader to the related audio clip. Images and other features enhance the topic rather than distract.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There were not insensitive or offenses found within the text. Examples include a variety of races, ethnicities, backgrounds, etc.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I was glad to see that there were some online textbooks relevant to my field of study. Although digital education has grown rapidly over the past few years, there are still some educators who shy away from the use of technology in the classroom or are unable to provide students with a quality online learning experience. I appreciate the fact that the author covered such a comprehensive list of topics relevant to digital education and that the information provided will help educators to create better online learning environments for students in this digital age.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":904,"first_name":"Elizabeth","last_name":"Blankenship","position":"Coordinator, Center for Teaching Innovation","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text addresses not only the practical area of tools and skills employed in digital teaching and learning but raises discussion around current questions about the role of digital education in a changing market, where universities and community college are pressured by government and business forces to produce workers, while those institutions endeavor to maintain their enduring mission to create and transmit knowledge. That frame provides the book's structure through chapters on theory and practice, methods, media and delivery. From there the author looks forward to developing trends, including Open Educational Resources, and ends by grounding the text in a discussion of practices that ensure supportive faculty development and quality teaching. The text does not do much to address questions of universal design and accessibility, though, and faculty who are coming around to using online and classroom technology in their teaching need to be made aware of those issues at every stage as they plan and implement lessons.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Keeping in mind the book's recent publication date of 2015, this is a fast-moving subject area, with change and disruption being the norm. Happily, what the text covers is does so with accuracy and in the spirit of inquiry, providing not only information but critical questioning. The unit on MOOCs, for example, provides a fair overview of the purposes and successes of the model, and at the same time is direct in assessing its limits and challenges. The book does not seek to be a tutorial or how-to on using specific technologies, but a pedagogical tool for thinking about teaching and learning in a digital age.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Because the text is strong on pedagogy and discusses technologies as examples of attaining learning outcomes, it should have a substantial shelf life. The economic and cultural issues raised by digital teaching and learning are only now coming into focus, and this book integrates those topics into each unit's focus. There is a table of contents heading for updates and revisions, where currently it reflects that the author has added brief audio podcasts to the first six chapters.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Bates is a fluid and natural writer, who communicates effectively with his audience. The opening \"Scenario A\" immediately makes a connection with most faculty and establishes Bates as a knowledgeable peer, one who is adept in using humor and empathy as he provides insight. The more technical sections of the text are understandable and he explains terms and concepts thoroughly, keeping in mind an audience that likely is not as experienced in digital teaching and learning as some of their peers. The \"takeaways\" at the end of the chapter act as summaries that aid in understanding.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms are used consistently throughout, in the fields of technology and of pedagogy.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The design is very user-friendly. The audio podcasts provide presence and an opportunity for the author to connect with his audience. The introduction provides a helpful overview of each chapter, and each chapter is framed with objectives and takeaways, and ends with a bibliography. There are case scenarios throughout that ask readers to engage with the content and questions raised by the issues surrounding digital teaching and learning. Much of the text is hyperlinked, enough to make for a reader's learning to continue outside of the text. The book could be used in its entirety, or an instructor could narrow in on specific topics with little difficulty.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The flow is logical and follows a basic development from overview to theoretical background, before approaching methods, examples of technological practices and tools, to their use and application. The book ends with a look at trends, which might allow it to become dated quickly, and a summary of quality measures. The four appendices are lengthy, but contain material which, while important and useful for reference, would clutter the main narrative.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no navigation issues. The hyperlinked table of contents is useful; pages are kept to manageable length, and chapters are easily paged through with previous and next arrows. The book can be accessed as a web document, or downloaded as a PDF.  Accessibility is good, with images and charts being labeled, and if applicable, their content explained in the narrative.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is well-written and cleanly edited.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book addresses diversity throughout, and its repeated attention to the cultural and economic drivers of digital education maintain focus on the need for an inclusive approach as universities and colleges integrate digital teaching and learning into their mission. For example, the chapter on MOOCs considers how free, massively open courses might affect public higher education, and uses in its end of chapter scenario the issue of aging and mental health. Throughout, Bates asks readers to keep in mind the demographics of their students, and their needs.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I see this as being a useful resource for my work in faculty development. It will help me bridge the gap between technology and pedagogy, and assist faculty in taking on new challenges both in the classroom and online.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1140,"first_name":"Oksana","last_name":"Zavalina","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of North Texas","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers in its 12 chapters and on over 500 pages all important aspects of teaching in the digital age and knowledge-based economy. This includes review of theory and practice of knowledge and learning; various teaching methods, modes, and techniques; educational technologies and media; institutional, economic and other contexts of modern-day teaching etc. While each of the areas covered could be explored in more depth, this is beyond the scope of the \"Teaching in a Digital Age\", and the references to other works in which separate topics are discussed in detail are included in extensive list of references for any interested reader to continue exploration. Thorough bibliography consists of more than 250 works spanning from 1762 to 2015. Four appendices are also included. The book has no glossary but the index is included, in which an interesting and quite effective approach is used: pointing to chapters and sections/subsections of the work rather than to specific pages the numeration of which may differ in different formats in which this work is available. In author's own words, the index included in this book is under construction, and I think the fully-developed index, once completed, will greatly benefit the reader, making this extensive work more searchable (it is already very browseable due to its thoughtful structure)","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"In my reading of this text, I did not discover any inaccuracies or errors. The author strives to avoid bias (e.g., he intentionally does not take sides in the discussion of relative advantages and disadvantages of different epistemological approaches although expresses a personal preference for more constructivist-based approach).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The books covers both historical and modern perspectives. Where the modern perspectives are discussed, the text is up-to-date, both in terms of content (for example, current or recent statistical data is cited whenever possible; newer phenomena such as MOOCs and use of social media in education, as well as open education movement, are discussed) and based on the analysis of bibliography, which includes substantial proportion of works published in the latest decade (2010s). Due to the fluid and constantly evolving subject matter of this work, frequent updates will be needed to maintain currency and longevity. However, because of the high modularity of this text, it will be relatively easy to implement necessary updates.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This work is written clearly, in a very accessible and engaging way; the use of jargon is minimized, and all the terminology is clearly explained, with the use of examples, among other tools. I am particularly impressed by how easy-to-understand, for  readers of varying educational levels and coming from different disciplines, is  the chapter on epistemology, which is  normally not an easy topic.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"In my reading of this text, I did not discover any inconsistencies in terminology. The framework-based consistency is hard to evaluate in this case and might be irrelevant to this particular text. If the epistemological perspective is viewed as the framework,  then consistent reliance on just one of them is clearly beyond the scope of this work -- the author himself states in the opening chapters that epistemological approaches can and should differ across and within disciplines and often change even within the same course by the same instructor, as students progress through the course material.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is written with the idea that each chapter (and perhaps even each section within a chapter) can be read/assigned on its own at different points in time. Each chapter opens with a scenario, includes a statement of its purpose, its own table of contents and key takeaway points, and each section within a chapter includes its own bibliography and often an activity associated with it. Although there are some self-references (one or more other chapters of the book are referenced in most of its chapters), it would not be disruptive to the reader if the chapters/sections of this book are reorganized to fit the needs of the the specific course.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The overall organization of the book is very logical in my view. Within the chapters, the flow is clear and uninterrupted. I am a bit unsure though why one of the appendices (Appendix 2 Questions to Guide Media Selection and Use) is not integrated within the main body of the text: it looks like chapter 8 could be a better home for it.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The only interface issue that I have encountered is blurriness of some images which is probably an artifact of a PDF -- the format in which I downloaded and read this book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"In my reading of this book, I did not observe any grammatical issues; the only typographical errors I noticed are the misspelling of the year numbers in the Bibliography section (e.g., \"2104\" instead of \"2014\", etc.)","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant and contains no cultural insensitivities. The examples used are drawn from a variety of different countries and cultures. Particular attention is given to diversity in education, including variety of racial, ethnic and social backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The interactivity of the text is impressive, even in a print version. In addition to common for textbooks activities or exercises, the scenarios are found at the beginning of each chapter. These scenarios are drawn from real-life situations and sometimes exaggerated to emphasize the main point of what would be discussed in the chapter. I find this mechanism very engaging for the reader.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1191,"first_name":"Antonio","last_name":"Causarano","position":"Assistant Professor of Education","institution_name":"University of Mary Washington","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is a systematic introduction to what it means to teach in a digital age. It takes into account the changing nature of the students in higher education-the digital natives discussed by Prensky more than a decade ago-and now part of the pedagogical landscape of US higher education. The author does not take for granted that everybody knows the complexity of teaching in a digital age. He explains and demonstrates what it means to teach in a world where students learn from different sources and not form the printed culture as it used to be. Also, the author analyses important ramifications between the academia and the global economy where new skills are needed to succeed thus opening to critical understanding of what it means to rethink pedagogy in a digital age. Finally, the theoretical underpinnings presented in chapter 2 of the book allows the reader to become aware and understand that teaching in a digital world is a continuum pedagogical endeavor rooted in the idea that individuals continuously evolve in their idea of  knowledge acquisition and application with the changing nature of their sociocultural environment.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate in presenting the whys and hows of how to redesign curriculum and instruction in a digital age. In particular, the chapter4 and 5 prepare the reader to understand how a new design is necessary to teach effectively in a digital age. The chapters of thsi book are written in a way that each chapter builds on the other in a logical way. the reader does not need previous knowledge to understand the content of the book. Also, the technical lexicon used in the book is always clarified and discussed in the book. One chapter that  stands out in the book is chapter 12 where the author lays out the blueprint to help professional educators to acquire the digital pedagogical culture to teach a new generation of students. Also, it makes the case for resources to train teachers and instructors to meet the challenges of a new way of teaching and learning.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe that this book is a very good introductory text to digital teaching and learning. It will need-as any book on the subject-constant updates due to the rapid changing nature of digital pedagogies. I foresee that the book should be updated every two-three years to offer the reader/instructor new insights in digital pedagogies.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The language of this book is not only clear but is user friendly for the novice who want to understand the nuts and bolts of digital learning. The author does not take for granted that the reader knows the jargon of digital pedagogies. The author clarifies the terms and the discussion on the different dimensions of digital pedagogies is always presented in a clear and specific way.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent with the goal to offer and systematic introduction to digital learning and teaching. For instance, the author provides in the appendixes models to apply in designing digital pedagogies. I noticed an alignment not only in the language throughout the text but also and more importantly every chapter builds on the other giving the reader the ability to see the unfolding of digital pedagogies and design models and their applications for teaching and learning.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text can be easily used without being read from the beginning to the end. If the reader is interested in a particular design, he/she can choose to focus only on one part or chapter of the text. Also, the text has opportunities for expanding is initial scope and goals. Chapter can be removed and new can be added to further versions of the text without affecting the original goal and scope of the text. For instance,  Chapter 5, MOOCs and Chapter 7: Pedagogical differences between media can be remodularized or expanded according to the changing landscapes of digital pedagogies and media. In turn, the text present that flexibility that an open book must possess to continuously engage the reader in the area of digital pedagogies.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is systematic in presenting the topic from the principles of digital pedagogies to the how the models to design effective digital pedagogies instruction.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I have not encountered any interface problems when reading the book for review.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The language is grammatically correct. After having read the book several times, I can conclude, to the best of my knowledge, the the text is free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This is a text that adds an important conversation to the research and instructional area of digital pedagogies in the 21st century. The text can be used as a systematic introduction to digital learning and as a springboard to delve into more complex components of teaching and learning in a digital age.  The cultural relevance of the text is also found in the author's background and profound knowledge of the field.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"In conclusion, this book is a must-read for the reader/scholar interested in beginning to understand how digital culture is affecting teaching in the 21st century. The text is not only an introduction to the culture of digital learning but also and more importantly is an invitation to start a critical conversation on the impact and ramifications of digital learning and pedagogies that will have a significant impact on the generation of students and instructors in the years to come. Enjoyable reading!","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1605,"first_name":"Kimberly","last_name":"Rogers","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Bowling Green State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has 12 Chapters, which are effectively separated into clear topics related to perspectives on teaching, methods for teaching in this technology-rich culture we live in, and scenarios related to some of the topics within the book that effectively set up or highlight major issues related to a given chapter. In these ways the book is comprehensive on this topic and I appreciate the author's addition of podcasts. A small area of improvement: the index says it is only completed through section 6 of Chapter 3, which is about 1/4 of the way through the book.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I did not notice any errors and found the language used in the book to be unbiased--a balanced discussion of different perspectives on teaching and means for using technology to interact with students in-person and virtually. Some of the scenarios (e.g., Scenario D) are written in a way that the characters within the scenarios have explicit biases or perspectives on teaching and we jump into hear about some conflict or disequilibrium they are experiencing. So in this way, the scenarios provide a window into one perspective so that the author can then present some similar and dissimilar perspectives in light of the scenario.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content is up-to-date and the integration of podcast links makes it feasible that future updates should be relatively easy and straightforward. I could imagine, that every couple years the author may want to make sure there are not new forms of technology or means of interacting with students around technology that do not need to be integrated or highlighted or refined.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I really appreciate the layout and prose of this book. Although the chapters build on one another, I also was able to easily hone in on a particular chapter before digging into details of previous chapters. Also, the sub-sections of each chapter are not so lengthly that the material drags on. The concise but well-written sub-sections hang together well and are clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found this book to consistently use terminology throughout. The structure of overview for the chapter, then sub-sections expanding on this theme, and integration of scenarios at some point in the chapter, occasionally, is maintained throughout. Also, readers are given many opportunities to reflect/respond/process for themselves what they have been reading from particular chapters. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"In courses I teach where new instructors are reflecting on their teaching practices and teaching beliefs, I can easily see ways to take certain chapters from this book to use at different points in these courses without expecting my students to read the entire, 12 chapter book. The integration of visual representations, headings and sub-headings, and activities for the reader within each chapter are some of the features that aid in the readability of the smaller sections of the book if one decided to just use portions of it.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I realize that I integrated comments about this in other sections of the review already. So in summary, the topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion and the author included helpful overviews to guide the reader as to how earlier chapters may relate to later ones.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"In general, I did not experience any navigation problems or interface issues. I really appreciate, in fact, how the table of contents is hyperlinked so I can go directly to a sub-section very easily when using the digital version. A few figures that have a lot of text looked a little pixelated (e.g., Figure 7.7) which was only noticeable because the surrounding text was clear--the text in this Figure 7.7 for instance is still completely readable just noticeably pixelated. This is not a persistent issue, just occasionally. And interestingly, when I clicked on the figures for which there was some pixelation in the PDF, the image itself that opened all on it's own was very clear, so it might just be something in the PDF-creation process. Hence I still rated this a 5, since images can also be opened separately and are then very clear.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Scenarios and examples incorporated include a variety of backgrounds and diverse issues. I did not encounter any text that was culturally insensitive or offensive.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a valuable resource for individuals and groups in academics who want to consider and reflect on their own teaching perspectives, practices, and response to our digital environment.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1834,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Bishop","position":"Dr, Dean of Students","institution_name":"Staffordshire Univeristy","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a broad, complex area.  It does so in a really accessible way, with a clear introduction and chapter splits.  Easy to read all the way through or to dip in and out of.   It covers a wide variety of topics all of which are both key and core to the subject in a lively way","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"This is an everchanging subject, inevitably over time there will be changes that are not included which make the breadth less than comprehensive/accurate.  However, the author has addressed this through updates - podcasts for example - which are clearly signposted in the contents page.  This approach means the book can continue to be accurate.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and this is because the updates have been used to ensure that it remains so.  The topic is so fast changing that there is a continual threat to its relevance/longevity but the author has successfully defended against this through the approach to updates.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The author has a readable, accessible style, breaking down concepts, illustrating with examples, identifying key takeaways.  The book offers a lively read.","consistency_rating":1,"consistency_review":"The text was internally consistent both in its use of terminology and framework, it was readable throughout and allowed the reader to dip in and out without feeling 'lost' when returning to it.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book began with a series of blogs.  This is really appropriate to the nature of the subject and the style invites the reader into illustrations and situations, with sufficient context/theory to understand in a  way that is relatable.  The layout is good, the length of sections/chapters feel right.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"Well organised and structured.  The structure is also nicely explained at the beginning and the flow feels very natural.   It is a broad topic with many challenges but they feel approachable..","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no interface issues.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The grammar, style of writing was of a very good standard.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The cultural relevance of this book felt appropriate.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This is a very lively accessible read.  It does 'what it says on the tin'.  It is also well worth noting that this is an author that publishes through creative commons and role modes the underpinning principles of creative commons - chapter 10 really demonstrates this.\nOverall a book worth reading!","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2139,"first_name":"Margie","last_name":"Massey","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University-Pueblo","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has a very inclusive list of topics that support Teaching in a Digital Age well. The table of contents is clear and allows the reader to jump to the specific topic they are interested in. There is additional supportive information that the author supplies to the reader on the topics.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate in the topics that were listed. The way that the author has provided different twists to engage the audience is \"catchy.\" For the most part the book is error-free and seems to provide an unbiased opinion on the topics that are covered in the text.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date now however, as technology is ever-changing the content will soon age and updates will be necessary to be current in today's technological landscape.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book provides terminology that is appropriate and in line with today's terms. The author has used his own personal terms e.g. Old wine in new bottles, which does provide an insight into the author.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author has maintained a consistency throughout the text which is appropriate for education, theory and practice while combining the technological integration that are necessary to tie them together.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"The text is divided into many small sections which work well for the reader to take pieces that apply to their interests. However, I think at times it is also distracting to the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is sequenced in a rationale and logical sections. The reader can go through the sections and see how they build off each other.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The only negative comment on the interface is the length of the text. This could be two-three textbooks.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no obvious errors in the tex.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text offered a diverse scenarios that were not culturally insensitive.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I found this text valuable and plan to use sections for some of the courses I teach. It will assist educators in planning and using technology.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2326,"first_name":"cheryl","last_name":"harder","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"MnSCU- FDLTCC","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The index is superb. the book follows a logical sequence of learning objectives.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"To my understanding, the content is accurate.   I noticed no typos and it did not appear biased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Although the book is already a couple of years old, it is still relevant - interesting since this had to do with technology, which is an ever changing field.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Easy to understand, and where technological terms were used, they were thoroughly explained.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"To my understanding, the text was consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text could easily - and logically - be broken into modules","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I loved the sequencing in this book.  It took me from the \"beginnings\" of higher education and what were the norms at that time, up to the present and the chages in the university structure as well as expectations for both student and educator.  It then went on to offer different styles of utilizing technology in the classroom","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no problems navigating through this text.  All graphics, links, and other features were clear and easy to use.\r\n(Unlike this review - which kept tossing me out requiring me to log back in and re enter informationthat I had already entered...)","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't notice any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Although I cannot speak to specific uses of inclusive language, I didn't find it to be insensitive to anyone.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"My field of expertise is Corrections, specifically Evidenced Based Practices in Corrections, and this book was a view into utilizing different technology.  Leading me from what was, to what is, to what could be, was a wonderful journey for me to take.  SInce I was unfamiliar with most of the emerging trends in the digital world, this book was a wonderful introduction into what can be used, and how to decide what works best for the population of students that I teach utilizing in the different learning/teaching styles.  I am motivated to look further into the digital world - not just recording lectures or putting powerpoints on D2L,  Since I was not raised in the digital world, there is a learning curve that I need to take, but due to reading this book, I am ready to take the plunge.  Thank you.","created_at":"2018-10-06T12:33:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-10-06T12:33:43.000-05:00"},{"id":2389,"first_name":"Chelsey","last_name":"Bollinger","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"JMU","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is comprehensive and provides an effective index.  Bates begins with a discussion of how education has changed and continues to change teaching and learning in the digital age, continues with a discussion on epistemological and philosophical position as educators, includes various methods and trends used in teaching with technology, and ends with a discussion of the need for quality and support for educators incorporating technology into their teaching.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is accurate and unbiased. With any technology focused text, it’s difficult to stay on the cutting edge with the ever-changing landscape of technology, but Bates does a nice job of including the big ideas that stand the test of time. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text content is up-to-date for the most part.  One topic not as relevant today is MOOCS. However, with an electronic/open-source format the text is easily updated by the author. Bates indicated that he will be updated the text in 2019.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clearly written in an accessible tone. Its information is organized to promote skimming, browsing, and deeply immersive reading.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"In terms of both layout and content the book is consistent. The reader can expect a specific format for each chapter: a scenario, subsections which include reflection questions, and a summary.\r\n","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"If used for a course, this text could be read/used in a non-linear fashion.  Hyperlinks in each chapter make it easy for the reader to pick and choose which content to read.  Currently, most hyperlinks open in the same window. I’d suggest the author revise this feature so that hyperlinks open in new tabs to avoid the reader from losing their place in the text.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are well organized. Each chapter begins with a scenario to get the reader thinking about the content in the chapter.  Each chapter has between six to eight subsections.  The author does a nice job of creating different ways the reader could interact with the text. These interactions include: self reflection questions,  responses from the author to these questions, podcasts from the author, and related youtube videos.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"During my first read through, the textbook offered the option of interacting in a comments section within various chapters.  However, after checking with the publisher and the author of this text, the comment section has been disabled.  The author commented that over his objections, BCcampus justified this decision,  \"because all their open text books (including this one) were being adopted on different courses with different instructors, and they believed instructors would not want to 'share' comments from students on other courses.” However, the author plans to review the book next year and update it with a plug-in that will allow for more interactivity between readers.  \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't find any grammatical errors within the text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"An entire section is devoted to “Greater diversity of students” which discusses the continued efforts of recruiting a more diverse student population in higher education. In addition, the author discusses the importance of higher education teachers to focus on teaching methods that meet the challenges of a diverse student population, some methods of which include the use of technology.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Bates makes good use of the affordances of an open-textbook format.","created_at":"2018-11-16T08:31:04.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-11-16T08:31:04.000-06:00"},{"id":2490,"first_name":"Adam","last_name":"Barger","position":"Director of eLearning Initiatives","institution_name":"VIVA; College of William \u0026 Mary ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is robust and thorough in terms of the overall breadth of the content. It is very well organized and the flow of information from early chapters through the end allows readers to easily build on prior knowledge. The depth of the content of the comprehensiveness of addressing current trends and related research varies from chapter to chapter. Most often, this is positive aspect (i.e. Chapters one and two are not overly referenced). However, some chapters could benefit from a more thorough analysis of recent literature (i.e. Chapter 9). ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Book contents offer a fair and measured approach to the content area without undue bias or distracting errors. Some content could be updated, and therefore more accurate to trends in the field, but this does not take away from the efficacy of the overall text or the foundational principles of teaching and learning weaved throughout. For example, when discussing the ADDIE model of course design, the author does not give a comprehensive history or explanation of the approach or present its phases on their entirety. However, such examples are minor and not distracting. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Given the ephemeral nature of the digital teaching and learning field, the author expertly presents content in a relevant and practical form. This is most helpful in the various scenarios and examples throughout. Additionally, update records and recent thoughts from the author are available in the text and linked to outside resources.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is a well-written and logically organized text. The author writes in a simple and clear conversational tone. Clear objectives and summarized “Key Takeaways” in each section are especially helpful in this regard. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text shines in terms of a learner-friendly framework  and consistent approach to terms and practical applications. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is modularized and readable as a resource for both comprehensive or pinpoint reference. Given the complexity of the field, cross-chapter connections do have to be made, but they are appropriately cited and linked for ease of use. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"As noted above, this text is well-organized and flows easily from chapter to chapter. Some learners may find the breadth of the text to be daunting, but organized by topic and subtopics for easy navigation. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No significant issues or errors noted. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No significant issues or errors noted. However, American English readers may note slight differences in grammatical cadence and tense that differs from other textbooks. This does not distract from clarity in most cases. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"In the opinion of this reviewer, such declarations are not in my purview and the ideological assumptions inherent in the category of “culture” are premised on a narrow view of learner utility. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This text is very impressive in both content and presentation. I envision this to be a useful resources for formal courses as well as faculty development programs at colleges and universities. The author effectively presents a vast and ever-changing field in way that is anchored in educational theory yet practical in a variety of applications. I am most appreciative of the author's personal flare and interaction with the learner through ongoing updates, multimedia resources, personal podcasts, and openness to feedback. ","created_at":"2019-01-04T15:49:28.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-01-04T15:49:28.000-06:00"},{"id":2720,"first_name":"Yassine","last_name":"Rfissa","position":"Lecturer","institution_name":"University of Nebraska - Lincoln","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I think the textbook is very a comprehensive resource that covers a wide range of topics related to teaching in a digital age, and \r\nit is smoothly divided into twelve chapters and also into sections, and includes an effective index and glossary.\r\nI like the participatory format of the book, though there could be scholarly discourse involvement.  \r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information provided throughout the book seems accurate to high degrees. The content seems coherent and cohesive. I did not notice any errors \r\n","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book's content seems very relevant and and up to date. As educational technology is developing and changing very fast, the content is recommended to be under constant review and update.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clear and engaging content. Easy to understand and the terminology explanation is usually supported with examples. \r\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Impressed by the consistency of the content of this book. The chapters, the sub-sections, the framework, the terminology and the scenarios are all put together in a consistent manner. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I like the smart design of the chapters and sub-sections. They seem to be designed in a way that they can be used in connection to other chapters or can be used/read/taught independently.  \r\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I can say that the textbook is very well organized. The structure and the flow are consistent thought the book as i mentioned above. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"the book seems almost free from interface or display issues; However, spacing between the lines could be reviewed and unified especially around the titles and subtitles, and some photos are blurry such as the one on page 117. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not encounter any grammatical errors.\r\n\r\n","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The examples and the scenarios that this textbook contains are diverse and they do not seem to be culturally insensitive or offensive.\r\n","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I'm impressive by the professionalism, integrity, and the high standards of this book. The real life scenarios and the engaging nature of the book makes it teaching/learning driven resource. \r\n\r\n","created_at":"2019-03-31T22:05:22.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-31T22:05:22.000-05:00"},{"id":2941,"first_name":"Colin ","last_name":"Stapp","position":"Learning Technology Facilitator/ Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book covers a wide range of digital technologies but the comprehensive nature stems from also including foundations of educational media, learning theory, and delivery methods for instruction. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The textbook does include personal experience implementing technology in instruction but is unbiased in that it does not sway the reader one way or another in decision making. The text also incorporates science and research-backed methods for supporting instruction and includes independent reviews of the book.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant to current teaching practice and technology integration and regular revisions and updates are being made to keep it up-to-date.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is free of unneeded technical jargon. All technical terms are relevant and include descriptions to help all levels of instructors make sense of a variety of technologies. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is written and organized in a very consistent format. Each chapter includes \"What If\" scenarios, Learning Activities, and Key Takeaways.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is written so that it can be read in linear order and follows a sequence, or can be broken into sections that are most relevant and used more as a guide. The text also includes activities which can support core teaching methods.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The overall sequence and flow of the back are clear and logical and each chapter builds upon one another, but can also be read out of order.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The layout of the text is clear, logical and easy to follow.  The text is available in a variety of electronic modalities including PDF, so is clear of technical issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is free of grammatical errors and has been well edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text includes a section about Culture and Learning Environments and provides detailed information for the reader to consider for creating an inclusive learning environment.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-05-23T13:03:33.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-23T13:03:33.000-05:00"},{"id":4203,"first_name":"Kathleen","last_name":"McAleer","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text offers the reader a substantive overview of everything needed to get started with online teaching.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error-free, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is particularly useful to instructors who are seeking a comprehensive source that addresses contemporary challenges such as COVID-19. While not specifically addressed, there is substantive discussion about the utility of online learning in a changing and unpredictable world.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Bates takes pains to explain content in a way that is accessible to learners of all levels.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The content is scaffolded so that skill building proceeds logically and sequentially. The terminology and framework are consistent throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The textbook design is divided into sections that can be easily assigned at different points within a course. The material is so engrossing, one might prefer to read the text from beginning to end. The textbook is organized in a manner that can easily be realigned to suit different course goals.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Bates writes with clarity and authority having clearly mastered the subject matter.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no problems with interface at all. The textbook is easily navigated and sections are punctuated and summarized by the author using brief recordings in his own voice.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Bates addresses barriers to students' meaningful engagement in online learning and invites the reader to reflect on factors contributing to student challenges. Bates discusses learning differences among individual students and describes best practices in teaching non-traditional students, students for whom economic challenges limit access to reliable technology, and he offers a meaningful discourse on both cultural and racial considerations.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book was an eye opener for me. As I begin online teaching in earnest, I know I will return to this text as a reliable reference.","created_at":"2020-06-30T19:28:31.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-30T19:28:31.000-05:00"},{"id":33423,"first_name":"George","last_name":"Watson","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is appropriate and includes a substantial amount of material on the subject.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text fully analyzes, defines, and explains the topics covered accurately and in an easily understandable writing style.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is current and delves into current issues with technology in instruction.  I particularly liked the discussion concerning MOOCs and their place in the educational realm.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the material easy to understand and written in a way that students can easily grasp the concepts being presented.  The material was well organized and sequential in nature.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology is accurate and correct for this field of study, and is presented in a very thoughtful manner with regards to previous knowledge of student knowledge and organization.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I thought the text was logically organized and fairly well divided into sub-components that would allow ease of instructor use, even when the instructor may choose a different progression of material presentation.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well organized, though the I admit the Feedback on Activities seemed either incomplete or not necessary.  I could not decide if the author added that with regard to specific questions he had received or if he didn't believe answers were needed for other chapter activities.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found no issues with moving through the materials.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The author did not specifically use examples that incorporated race or culture, but I did not see where this particular topic would need a lot of it.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, I was very pleased with the book and would recommend its use.  It is well designed, thorough, and accurate for the topics represented.","created_at":"2021-10-21T15:15:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-10-21T15:15:18.000-05:00"},{"id":35337,"first_name":"Alejandro","last_name":"Garcia","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"\"Teaching in a Digital Age - Second Edition\" by Anthony William (Tony) Bates is a  resource on online teaching and educational technology. The book covers a wide range of topics, from fundamental changes in education to emerging technologies, providing both theoretical foundations and practical guidelines. It addresses various teaching methods, media selection, open education trends, and quality assurance in digital teaching. Bates offers a global perspective, incorporating examples from universities worldwide, and caters to a diverse audience including teachers, educational planners, and researchers. The second edition updates content on new technologies like gamification, virtual reality, and AI. Available as an open-source textbook in multiple formats and languages, the book combines depth of analysis with practical applicability, making it a valuable tool for educators navigating the digital age.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Bates,  presents theoretical foundations and practical strategies for effective teaching in a digital context. The book is grounded in current research and incorporates up-to-date examples of emerging technologies such as gamification, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, ensuring relevance to contemporary educational practices. Additionally, the author has included feedback from educators and students, which enhances the book's applicability and accuracy in addressing real-world teaching challenges. Overall, its comprehensive coverage and evidence-based approach solidify its status as a reliable guide for educators navigating the complexities of digital learning environments.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book addresses crucial contemporary issues in education, including the impact of technology on teaching methods, the changing needs of diverse student populations, and the challenges of increasing class sizes Its coverage of topics such as media selection, open education trends, and quality assurance in digital teaching makes it an invaluable resource for educators navigating the complexities of modern pedagogy.The book's relevance is further enhanced by its regular updates, with the third edition released in 2022 to reflect the seismic changes in online learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. By incorporating emerging technologies like gamification, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, Bates ensures that the content remains current and applicable to the latest developments in educational technology.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The author employs a straightforward writing style, complemented by numerous practical examples and case studies, making the content easily digestible for readers from various backgrounds. Furthermore, the book's well-organized structure, with clear chapter divisions and subheadings, enhances its readability and allows readers to navigate effortlessly through its comprehensive content.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The author maintains a coherent framework for discussing various educational technologies and pedagogical approaches, ensuring that concepts introduced early in the book are consistently applied and expanded upon in later chapters. This consistency is further evident in the book's uniform structure across chapters, with each section following a logical progression from theoretical foundations to practical applications, making it easier for readers to follow and integrate the information presented.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The book's well-structured chapters and subsections enable educators to focus on particular topics, such as specific teaching methods or emerging technologies, without necessarily reading the entire text sequentially. This modular approach is further enhanced by the inclusion of self-contained activities and reflective exercises throughout the book, making it a flexible resource that can be easily adapted for various professional development contexts or course curricula.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book is divided into distinct chapters that progress from foundational concepts to more advanced topics, with each chapter further broken down into clear subsections that facilitate easy navigation and comprehension. This thoughtful organization is complemented by consistent formatting, including the use of headers, bullet points, and summary sections, which allows readers to quickly locate specific information and grasp key concepts efficiently","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"he book is available in multiple formats, including online, downloadable PDF, and printable versions, allowing readers to access the content in their preferred medium. Its well-structured layout, with clear chapter divisions, subsections, and interactive elements such as activities and podcasts, makes navigation intuitive and encourages engagement with the material.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The author's clear and precise writing style reflects careful attention to sentence structure, punctuation, and word choice, enhancing the book's readability and professionalism. This grammatical precision contributes to the overall clarity of the text, allowing readers to focus on the educational concepts and strategies presented without being distracted by linguistic errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The book emphasizes the importance of creating inclusive online learning environments that respect and accommodate different cultural perspectives, as evidenced by the author's conscious effort to foster mutual respect and openness to differing views. Furthermore, by tackling questions about effectively teaching diverse student populations and engaging students in technology-rich environments, the book provides culturally relevant guidance for educators navigating the complexities of teaching in a digital, multicultural world","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"The book's open-access nature and availability in multiple languages significantly enhance its reach and impact, making it an invaluable resource for educators worldwide.","created_at":"2024-12-10T19:22:44.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-10T19:22:44.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/teaching-in-a-digital-age-guidelines-for-designing-teaching-and-learning-for-a-digital-age","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:04:45.000-06:00"},{"id":235,"title":"Comprehensive Individualized Curriculum and Instructional Design: Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorders","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"This open textbook addresses the population of individuals with disabilities that experience complex lifelong needs across multiple areas in their lives. Drs. Sennott and Loman drafted this book (along with the help from some friends) with the hope of providing pertinent, practical, and current resources to future special educators who plan to serve individuals with complex disabilities.","contributors":[{"id":3701,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Samuel","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Sennott","location":"Portland State University","background_text":"Samuel Sennott, PhD, is an assistant professor of special education. He completed his doctorate at The Pennsylvania State University and is the co-creator of the original Proloquo2Go, the popular iOS application that helps people who have difficulty speaking due to a range of disabilities such as autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities. Proloquo2Go has been featured on the front page of the NY Times, by ABC News, and on 60 Minutes. Dr. Sennott's clinical, research and development, and advocacy work focuses on assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), language and literacy, and universal design."},{"id":3702,"contribution":"Author","primary":false,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Sheldon","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Loman","location":"Portland State University","background_text":"Sheldon Loman, PhD, is an assistant professor of special education. Dr. Loman received his PhD in special education from the University of Oregon, with the focus of his work on instructional practices for people with severe disabilities, educational systems change, and positive behavioral interventions and supports. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Hawaii and a master’s degree in special education with an emphasis on moderate/severe disabilities from San Francisco State University. His interest areas are inclusive education, instructional practices for individuals with significant disabilities, Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA), Assistive Technology (AT) and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), and educational systems change."}],"subjects":[{"id":24,"name":"Curriculum \u0026 Instruction","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":44,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/curriculum-instruction"},{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":26,"name":"Elementary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LB1555","visible_textbooks_count":14,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/elementary-education"},{"id":28,"name":"Secondary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":10,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/secondary-education"}],"publishers":[{"id":132,"url":"http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/13340","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","name":"Portland State University Library"}],"formats":[{"id":191,"type":"PDF","url":"https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/pdxopen/5/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2156,"type":"Online","url":"https://content.library.pdx.edu/files/PDXScholar/sped/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4","textbook_reviews_count":14,"reviews":[{"id":495,"first_name":"Brittany","last_name":"Joseph","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"The University of Toledo","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The comprehensiveness of this textbook addresses a variety of areas within the study of Autism Spectrum Disorders.  While the book does not include an index or glossary, the chapters all relate to the title of the textbook.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, error-free and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders changes due to the increased prevalence of the disorder each year but the authors included relevant statistics and facts.  If updates were made, it would be easy to implement those changes.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The textbook is clear and concise.  It does include technical terminology related to Autism Spectrum Disorders and interventions utilized to support individuals but it is done so in a way that is understandable to professionals working in the field.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the textbook could be improved in terms of the framework.  For example, the textbook covers a wide range of specific topics related to Autism Spectrum Disorders in Curriculum and Instruction but it does not address all areas.  The chapters on Applied Behavior Analysis and Augmentative Alternative Communication are well written but maybe too specific of topics to cover in a textbook related to Curriculum and Instruction.  It would take extensive training to implement both Applied Behavior Analysis and Augmentative Alternative Communication, neither of which could be learned from simply reading this textbook.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity of this textbook is good as I can assign smaller reading sections at different points within the course to my students.  The chapters are of an appropriate length and provide a good overview of the content covered.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics are addressed in a logical, clear manner.  The content flows well and is organized for the reader.  The benefit of the textbook is the accessibility for readers to complete their reading on a variety of devices and using screen reader technology.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface of the textbook is appropriate and there are no issues with navigation, distortion of images or charts.  Everything within the book appears clearly and without distraction.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way.  It describes individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other disabilities in an appropriate way.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book will be an appropriate textbook to assign in small chapters for my students to read in an online Understanding Autism course at The University of Toledo.","created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":503,"first_name":"Roger","last_name":"Ideishi","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Temple University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook provides a good overview of instructional strategies for students with autism and special needs. The chapters provide nice overviews of each areas. The chapters on technology are particularly comprehensive with clear descriptions and examples of application. The chapters on behavioral strategies are adequate and not as clear as the technology chapters. Many links in the chapters were not accessible or were no longer available online. The section on UDL was particularly good. The video instruction and lecture was excellent. There are many good resources for the student to use to extend learning and generalize to a variety of settings.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content was accurate and straight forward. The references in some of the chapters could use updating with more current literature and evidence particularly the chapters on behavioral strategies. The technology chapters were up to date.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"As stated above, many links were not usable or unavailable. The references in some of the chapters could use updating with more current literature and evidence particularly the chapters on behavioral strategies. The technology chapters were up to date.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The chapters were clear and straight forward. At some points in the behavioral strategies, further descriptions and bullet summaries might be helpful to reinforce overall concepts. There were many sample blank templates which were good. Some of the templates had completed samples, others did not.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text covers the current state of practice and instruction for students with autism with consistent language and models that a practitioner would be exposed to.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapter lengths were perfect so the textbook did not seem overwhelming. The various links (the ones that worked) were very helpful to elucidate concepts, provide examples, and extend learning to a variety of contexts.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Each chapter was organized well with basic introduction of concepts, specific descriptions of major aspects of concepts, rationale and evidence for concepts /models, examples and resources. In addition to the concluding paragraphs, a summary using a bullet, outline format may help to reinforce particular areas for the reader.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Some resource links were not usable or unavailable.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No significant areas noted.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text was respectful of diversity language in both culture and ability.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2016-08-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":776,"first_name":"Stephanie ","last_name":"Kurtts","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of North Carolina at Greensboro","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Comprehensive Individualized Curriculum and Instructional Design: Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorders is a practical text that is grounded in theory and provides a wealth of examples of instructional and behavioral strategies to support students with complex and involved disabilities within a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework. While targeting curriculum design and effective instruction for students with developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, the extensive and comprehensive collection of strategies and approaches for student-centered services, effective communication, behavior management, and use of technology, including AAC, can be applied to a diverse group of students with learning and behavioral challenges. The text contains numerous examples of tools for observation of student behavior and performance, including data collection and progress monitoring. These sample data collection tools are able to be immediately applied to practical use in the classroom and with families and other professionals serving individuals with complex and involved disabilities. iOS8 accessibility, with numerous visuals depicting features and how to use the features as support for effective learning with mobile devices using this technology, is very beneficial as Apple products are used by many school systems.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text is well-supported with current research from the field. There appears to be no errors and the extensive research and evidence-based practices throughout the text that are clearly referenced support this. There is no bias, although there is the chapter on accessibility of Apple products by an Apple Distinguished Educator. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text is highly relevant as the number of students identified with ASD continues to increase and educational professionals are constantly challenged to effectively meet the instructional and behavioral needs of these students in the classroom and in community settings. The arrangement of the text would certainly ensure that updates can be implemented easily. This is important, as factors such as changing legislation can impact service delivery options and accountability for this group of students.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is well-written and free of educational jargon. The reader needs to be familiar with the categories of disabilities addressed, ASD and developmental disabilities, as there is little actual description, definitions, or characteristics of these areas of disability. There is extensive description of the instructional strategies and behavioral interventions, along with data collection methods, that provide excellent examples of materials and resources for implementation.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in professional terms and conceptual framework addressing effective and inclusive instructional practices and behavioral instruction for students with complex and involved disabilities. Professional terms are defined with ample examples. Some chapters end with a \"conclusion\" and some chapters end with a \"summary\" although that doesn't detract from a review of the main ideas of the chapter.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"In reference to the modularity of the text, the content can be assigned at different points in a course. While the chapters do complement one another (see Organization/Flow/Structure) any one of the six chapters could serve as an excellent resource for the topic addressed, such as guiding principles for comprehensive instruction for students with complex and involved disabilities and learning and behavioral challenges, AAC, applied behavioral analysis (ABA), functional interventions and assessment (FBA) and effective us of technology tools.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The content of text is structured clearly and logically. The chapters are written to complement one another. There is no table of contents at the beginning of the text and that does lead to the reader needing to scan through the entire text to find relevant information within the topics. With frequent use of the text, the reader would eventually be familiar enough with the content to know in which chapters certain information is presented, but a table of contents would help.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"While the text is free of any major interface issues, a few of the website links would not open. Another issue, while not too distracting or cumbersome, is that several charts are in the \"landscape\" page orientation, but sideways, so the reader must turn the computer to the side to read the charts or tables. Videos all appeared to work and provide specific information and examples  to support skills and concepts addressed. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is highly relevant to understanding the most effective research-based strategies and interventions to support students with ASD or with developmental disabilities thus is sensitive to the nature of the disability. Students with complex and involved disabilities will come from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and having a strong foundation in the most appropriate and effective strategies and interventions to serve these students will greatly assist with service delivery models.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This is a very practical text that provides many examples of how to implement and collect data on the use of evidence and research based strategies and intervention to support instruction and behavior management with students with complex and involved disabilities within an inclusive context. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1637,"first_name":"Abigail","last_name":"Allen","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Clemson University","comprehensiveness_rating":2,"comprehensiveness_review":"While the six chapters cover some important aspects of instruction for this population of students, I'd appreciate a more comprehensive view of developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorder. Some introductory information with definitions, prevalence rates, etc. would be helpful as well as some broader context on inclusion for students--when is inclusion appropriate, what are the goals, etc. There are some great tools and resources in the book about assessments and tools for self-determination, inclusion, ABA, AAC, FBA etc., but there's never an explicit connection or discussion about why these particular areas are important specifically for students with DD and ASD. I think students would benefit from having some discussion around how and why we make these decisions about students rather than just presenting the tools. I'm also left wondering why are there no chapters about academic interventions, when and how to target academic vs functional outcomes, how to approach writing IEP goals in various areas, etc. yet there is an entire chapter on iOS 8 Accessibility.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information presented is accurate, it's just not directly tied to students with developmental disabilities or autism.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The relevance/longevity is great. The authors included up to date tools and resources that can easily be updated over time.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The text itself is clear and does not overly rely on jargon. What's not always clear is why the chapter topics were chosen (see Comprehensiveness section of this review). I think a clearer presentation of the overall framework for the text would be helpful to the reader. For example, why is augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) given its own chapter? Why is AAC important for students with DD and ASD? It's never actually explaned that, for example, students with autism have communication impairments, that a hallmark of autism is deficits in communication and social skills, therefore communication devices are often necessary. Same for the other chapters--why are these topics critical for these disability areas?\n\nAdditionally, the text reads as if each chapter was written for a separate purpose or publication and compiled together under a title about DD and ASD. The chapters present important and accurate information about each individual topic (e.g., applied behavior analysis), but there's no clear connection to why each particular element is key for students with these disabilities (e.g., WHY do students with DD or ASD need applied behavior analysis?). Chapters 2-6 could have been written for any other textbook on any other disability. ","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"While the terms presented are consistent across the text, the writing styles, framework, and organization of each chapter are not consistent and do not blend. For example, the first chapter is very straightforward while the second chapter opens with a personal vignette from the author. It makes the text seem inconsistent overall.\n\nAnother issue is that the terms intellectual disabilites and autism spectrum disorder are never actually defined. Even though the purpose of this text appears to be about instructional planning for kids with DD and ASD, a brief statement with some introductory information about the disabilities (what are they, how do they manifest in people) would be helpful to provide some level of consistency across the text as a whole.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book can easily be split up into smaller sections for reading assignments. The text is broken up with logical and understandable headings and subheadings.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"Overall the topics are presented in an organized way, but, as stated previously, an introduction would be helpful before jumping into the first chapter. What are DD and ASD, prevalence rates, why these two disabilities are often grouped together, how they manifest, etc. Also, the justification for the chapter topics is not clear and the flow from one chapter topic to the next is not overtly logical (see Comprehensiveness and Clarity sections of this review). As stated in other sections of this review, presenting the reader with some overarching framework or organizational structure showing key information about these disabilities, why the included topics are important for these disabilities, and how the chapters are related would improve the text's organization.\n\nAdditionally, some of the chapters include great and helpful subheadings (Chapter Objectives, Defining Characteristics, Summary--all in Ch. 3 on ABA) but not all of the chapters follow this format. Each chapter is like its own paper on a specific topic and they were compiled together to make a textbook.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is fine. The graphics are great and there are helpful pictures and figures to add to the reader's understanding.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar is adequate.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"There are no explicit references or examples relating to diverse populations.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Each chapter itself presents quality information but the overall organization and flow of the book is very disjointed and confusing. There is no explicit definition of developmental disability or autism spectrum disorder and no justification for the inclusion of the chapter topics. (Why is there a chapter specifically on iOS 8 Accessibility? Why not just assistive technology or accessibility features of common devices?) There is no direct connection in any chapter (except Ch. 1) to DD and ASD--the chapters, while accurate and containing useful information, are not actually about DD or ASD. This book is essentially a collection of related topics that could be applied to students with DD and ASD.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1757,"first_name":"John","last_name":"McCarthy","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Ohio University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This is a wide spanning topic that could potentially lead to a lack of practical ideas in favor of extensive background material on individual considerations for different populations.  This book does a good job of ensuring each chapter has a focused set of recommendations for the major issues related to serving individuals with complex disabilities.  Further, each chapter is well referenced, with helpful figures, links and worksheets.\n\nThe book favors broader approaches that work for a wide number of children over distinguishing children with autism spectrum disorders having certain needs versus other children with other disabilities having other needs.  There is a balance of information related to behavior and communication, although I would say there is a little more emphasis on behavioral approaches to intervention.\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and is not biased for or against any particular approach.  I would note that Apple products are mentioned in one chapter exclusively and also in Chapter 2, but the products are not presented as the only workable technology solutions.  The information on AAC contains strategies that are manageable by a variety of communication partners, however there is some more recent work relative to Just In Time Programming and Visual Scenes that would have been good additions. Although only a minor issue, a discussion of multimodal communication would also have been ideal.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The principles are all good and many of the strategies are not tied to specific technologies or temporarily \"popular\" approaches. Unfortunately, with iOS updates happening more and more frequently (iOS 11 at the time of this review, but iOS 8 in the book), it’s challenging to keep up.  It would have been nice if the chapter author (who is very knowledgeable about topic) avoided use of words like, \"latest version” especially since a lot of the basics are still the same with some refinements. \n\nAlthough Youtube videos are quite helpful, there are some links that no longer work (p. 43, p. 89, p. 95, p. 99).  In the case of iOS accessibility, it’s not too big of a deal, you can easily find updated video examples based on the titles of the videos listed in the chapter. \n\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is highly readable even with the different authors for each chapter.  The Figures and Tables are helpful. Although there is an emphasis on practical solutions in the book the tone is clearly for more self-motivated learners or learners. Knowledge of children with disabilities is expected, but discussions could be read by any professional working within the educational system.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"The text was consistent in terms of having different visual supports.  I did find it distracting that at times figures and tables were embedded in each chapter, and in the case of Chapter 4 were all at the end.  Some chapters provided more case examples than others and the differences in the use of case examples is probably the largest weakness I could find in the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The entire book is not overly long and each chapter is easily readable within a single setting. Each chapter has a \"take away\" strategy that would work very well in a course format. The iOS Accessibility chapter is more referential than single intervention strategy based, so it would work as either something to reference in the context of intervention with a specific individual in another chapter or as a chapter to be used in conjunction with specific assignments to customize an iOS system for individuals with a variety of disabilities.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The high degree of modularity, means that there is less of a single narrative woven throughout.  One thing I will say is that each chapter quickly gets to applications quickly.  Chapters do not spend extensive time on historical context or competing trends.  The chapters are satisfying on reaching practical information quickly each time.  I only felt chapter 6 deviated from the focus on immediately addressing implementation of the strategy.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The use of external video links could mean a loss of one's place depending on how a user is reading the pdf.  If it is embedded in a browser and the links open in the same tab, this could be problematic.  I found it worked best when I opened videos in a new tab and this solved my issues.  The book doesn't have internal hyperlinks and does not have a table of contents. The references did include doi's when available.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not note any grammatical errors.  The technical quality of the writing is high while still being readable.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not actively biased against any group.  Since there are only a few photos with children, it is difficult to criticize the photos for being of white participants. No chapter attempts to highlight considerations relative to diversity. \nI will say that the strategies presented would work for a variety of cultural groups.  Although not mentioned, the AAC strategies that inform the ModelER intervention have been shown to work with a variety of different communication partners. I think this is true for the other strategies as well.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I enjoyed this book as a resource.  It can help to provide some practical ideas to speech-language pathologists or to special educators. I don't think it could be the sole resource I would use at the graduate level. \nOne thing I would look for as a supplement is more of a discussion of different professionals and how they can work together.  Chapter 1 helps in this regard.  At the risk of being overly expositional, I think a brief discussion of the roles and responsibilities of different team members (even as a glossary) would be a nice addition.  The information is present in other places and could be supplemented for classroom use.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2096,"first_name":"Candace","last_name":"Gann","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Oklahoma State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"While all of the content in the text is useful in instructional design for children with disabilities, this text is not a comprehensive text that I would choose to use in this type of course.  Rather, it would make a good supplement to other readings and multimedia resources.  The text would benefit from a table of contents, glossary, and index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content appears accurate and error-free.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Content within the text is relevant and will remain so over time.  Some of the links might not work over time and should be checked before utilizing the book for a course.  Further, the chapters that discuss AAC and the use of technology within curriculum and instruction will likely need updating in the future as technology progresses.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The authors used an appropriate reading level to ensure the content is accessible at the graduate level.  Technical terminology is used, but explained in such a way that the reader can apply the terms in a professional setting.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in the framework of each chapter and the level of terminology used.  The authors did a good job of ensuring the readability flowed throughout the text, even though each chapter was written by a variety of individuals within the field.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text would be great to assign separate chapters throughout a course, with some chapters able to be assigned out of order and others grouped to present a large body of information.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Each of the chapters were well organized in structure and flow.  Likewise, most of the chapters flowed from one to the next.  ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"All images, examples and embedded web links were clear and flowed well within the text.  The text's interface ensured the reader remained engaged with the text, providing opportunities to apply what was being learned to real-life situations.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text did not contain any grammatical errors; however, it did still contain a few directives for the editor of the text to complete references.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"While this text did not address culture specifically, the authors clearly encourage and support the reader in including family members in the curriculum design process, ensuring the cultural beliefs of the family are embedded within individualized programming.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"When I chose to review this book, I had assumed the topic coverage would focus on children with autism, as the book appeared to have been written for a graduate level course titled, \"Curriculum and Instruction for Students with Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorders.\"  However, this book was not specific to these disability categories.  Rather, the content is applicable across all fields within special education.","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2134,"first_name":"Gale","last_name":"Rice","position":"Professor \u0026 Dean","institution_name":"Fontbonne University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is based on IWDs in the context of a family which makes it inclusive.  It uses person-first language and is ecologically-based.  The sample forms and websites should be quite helpful.  \nSeveral assumptions are made with respect to the knowledge base the reader has acquired prior to the class in which the text is used.  While these are reasonable it would have been helpful to have them delineated in the introduction.  \n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the book is accurate and error-free, avoiding common conflicts among topics addressed addressed (e.g. AAC and ABA).  The material is presented in a neutral and unbiased manner.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book has current content, but it is general enough so that the text will not become obsolete very soon.  The exception to this might be the iOS8 chapter.  Even in that case, the information is modularized in such a way to make updates to a specific section relatively easy to do.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is quite clear and is effective at establishing context then using technical terminology in that context and applying it functionally.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terms are operationally defined early in the book or in each chapter and used consistently throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It would be very easy to assign just pertinent chapters of the book and not necessarily in the order in which they are included in the book.  ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The text is generally well-organized, although more of an introduction explaining the organization to the reader would be helpful.  While the idea of modules is helpful, at times opportunities might be lost to help students make connections (e.g. how might AAC be a tool utilized after FBA analysis).\n\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is very easy to navigate.  All of the links worked well.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were noted.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive and appears culturally neutral.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"An interesting approach.  It is well-balanced—informative, but not heavy. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3002,"first_name":"Staci","last_name":"Zimmerman","position":"Adjunct Professor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The comprehensiveness of this textbook provides many areas of Autism Spectrum Disorders.  It identifies the continuum of supports for people with ASD, in areas of instruction and behavioral needs.  It provides the challenges within the classroom, home, and community. The text provides effective instruction, strategies, for student-centered services.   The text explains the need for assistive technology to support students with ASD.  \r\n\r\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text is accurate and no errors.  The content is clear and well-supported.  There is no bias.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is relevant and current.  As the numbers of students with ASD increase, it is important to keep current with classroom strategies, supports, and instruction, which is supported within the content of the text. Information about technology is important and that is relevant. Information about data collection is helpful for the reader to understand the necessary importance of progress monitoring. \r\n\r\n","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clear and supports behavioral and instructional strategies. Terms are defined early in the text, which is helpful.\r\n\r\n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent and supports inclusive instructional practices and behavioral instruction. The general flow of the text was well-written and easy to follow. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The flow of the book supports the chapters supporting more information. \r\nThe length of the chapters is not too long and easy to follow along. Each chapter has its relevance.\r\n","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear, concise fashion.  The chapters flow well and is well-organized.  ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate and is not distracting to the reader. All examples were clear and well-thought out. \r\n\r\n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The textbook contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text respects cultural diversity.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed this book as another resource for special education.  There are practical applications, providing behavioral and instructional strategies. This text should be used as a supplemental resource, and not as the main text for a class. The text has great information.","created_at":"2019-06-19T20:41:18.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-06-19T20:41:18.000-05:00"},{"id":3343,"first_name":"Courtney","last_name":"Karasinski","position":"Associate Professor \u0026 Program Director of the MS in Speech-Language Pathology","institution_name":"Grand Valley State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book provides a thorough guide for developing an individualized curriculum for individuals with disabilities. It might benefit from a table of contents and an index to aid the reader in finding information. The guiding principles in Chapter 1 were particularly well-stated and provided a solid framework for the subsequent chapters. A number of tools were provided that will benefit students as they begin to work with individuals with disabilities. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information in this book was accurate, error-free, and unbiased. Person-first language was used consistently throughout the book. A positive attitude toward individuals with disabilities, their families, and educators was conveyed. High-quality research support was included for the practices discussed.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is current and fits well within current evidence-based practices for educating individuals with disabilities. The chapter on accessibility will be one that requires updating as technology advances, but these updates should be relatively simple to make. The step-by-step guides in this chapter, with pictures, will be useful for students. Similarly, Chapter 6: Using Content Acquisition Podcasts...\" may need some updating as technology advances and research on technology in the classroom advances, but these updates will be relatively simple to make.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook is clearly written and terms which may be unfamiliar to some readers are clearly defined. This textbook was written for students in the field of special education, but my speech-language pathology students also will be able to understand the content due to the clarity of writing. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The framework and terminology of this textbook is consistent. Although the chapters were written by different authors, they fit together well.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I appreciate the modularity of this text, and could envision myself assigning different chapters in different courses. Each chapter could stand alone and still be easily comprehended by the reader.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the topics is easy to follow. A table of contents would be beneficial, but the order of the chapters and the content within each chapter works well.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no interface issues. The figures were clear and helpful.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contained no grammatical errors and used a good variety of sentence structures that were neither overly complex nor overly simplistic. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There was no cultural insensitivity. Individuals with disabilities were treated in a positive, respectful manner, and there were no offensive statements regarding cultural or linguistic diversity.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This textbook is well-written and would be a valuable resources for students in a variety of professions. For example, I plan to use this book with my speech-language pathology students. The checklists included will be useful resources for students as they complete their education and venture into the workplace. ","created_at":"2019-12-03T13:48:23.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-03T13:48:23.000-06:00"},{"id":3596,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"McFarland-Whisman","position":"Assistant Professor/BCBA","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook does not cover all potential topics that one would expect for a course on curriculum and instruction; however, it does provide a solid overview of guiding principles, applied behavior analysis, and function-based interventions.  The text provides a refreshing perspective on how to include families and individuals with disabilities in the educational process through a discussion of person-centered planning and self-determination in the initial chapter.  There are links to additional resources, including helpful videos, in each chapter; however, some of the links are not functional and need to be updated.  \r\nGiven that the textbook includes a reference to learners with autism in the title, I was expecting more information connecting the topics covered to autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  Adding background information on the learning characteristics of students with ASD, how each topic relates to teaching this unique population, and case study descriptions would strengthen the textbook.   The chapters on AAC,  iOS 8 accessibility, and CAPS cover important topics and could be expanded to include a discussion of other tools/protocols special education teachers might need to best teach their students. For example, the chapter on iOS 8 accessibility could broadly focus on the use of technology to assist special education students in accessing the general education curriculum, and then provide resources such as the information on iOS 8 accessibility and CAPS as an attachment or link.  \r\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate and does not have any glaring errors.    While the focus of the textbook is narrow, especially as it relates to approaches to teaching (e.g., MODELER) and tools (Apple iOS 8), it does not imply that these are the only tools available to teachers.  Links to outside information are provided in each chapter for those interested in pursuing other approaches.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The textbook provides information relevant to today's classroom and can easily be modified to keep the material up-to-date.  Updates to the chapter on iOS 8 accessibility may have to be made frequently since technology is ever evolving.  As mentioned above, rather than focusing on one particular device, this chapter could be strengthened if it focused on how technology can be used to make the curriculum more accessible to students with disabilities in general.   The authors also have not made a clear connection between the content and why the topics discussed pertain to students with ASD.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The textbook is written in a way that is accessible to college students.  Technical terms are defined and explained within the text.  A glossary would further assist students who might not be familiar with specific terminology.  ","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"In general, the textbook appears to be written on the same reading level throughout; however, there are inconsistencies in how chapters are structured.  The first chapter could serve as a model for subsequent chapters as it is written in a straightforward, structured manner. This chapter includes a summary statement and main points at the beginning and a conclusion at the end.  The chapter on AACs and iOs 8 accessibility would benefit most from following this format.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"All of the chapters contain an adequate number of subheadings to break up text into manageable sections.  Topics addressed within each chapter appear to flow well and are logically arranged.  ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Chapters are organized in a logical manner and flow well.  Transitions between the chapters on guiding principles, principles of ABA, and function-based interventions are strong.   The chapters on AAC, iOS accessibility, and CAPs would be strengthened by following a similar format.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"It is easy to navigate the textbook and the charts/figures provide useful information and are simple to read.  The authors provided sample data forms which are particularly useful for special educators. The videos enhanced the textbook by providing “real world” examples for students.  Some links to resources are not working and need to be updated or deleted from the text.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are no major grammatical errors and the textbook appears to have been edited prior to being published.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The textbook was written in a way that is sensitive to individuals with disabilities, providing a discussion of the importance of including students with disabilities as active participants in their education.   It is apparent that attention was paid to using person-first language throughout the textbook.  It would be beneficial to provide some case studies as examples for pre-service teachers.  The case studies should pay particular attention to including multiple narratives that portray students with disabilities from a variety of cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"I think this textbook has the potential to be a useful resource for those teaching special education courses once it is expanded to cover more topics, contains clearer connection to ASD, and includes the addition of case studies.  I am considering incorporating the chapters on guiding principles, applied behavior analysis, and function-based interventions in my courses but feel I would have to provide further information about connecting the material to teaching students with ASD.  I would be interested in adding other materials from this book into my courses should new chapters, incorporating provided feedback, be written in the future. ","created_at":"2020-02-28T09:54:57.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-02-28T09:54:57.000-06:00"},{"id":33800,"first_name":"Almara","last_name":"Hutchinson","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"West Virginia University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text looks at a few strategies in each chapter and expands upon each in a very brief, surface level way. In order to strengthen the book's comprehensiveness, each chapter should focus on a more broad overview of the intended strategy and then dive further into 2-3 of the mentioned strategies. I have analyzed each chapter (in the my suggested order under \"organization,\") for comprehensiveness: \r\n\r\nChapter 1: Guiding Principles for Developing Comprehensive and Meaningful Instruction for Individuals with Complex Needs: This chapter is fairly comprehensive. To further strengthen this chapter, provide a brief overview of what each chapter will look at in the book. Also, define which type of population would benefit most from these strategies. If the text intends to provide strategies primarily for students with ASD, then this should be explicitly stated. If the text intends to imply that all strategies are effective for students with disabilities(SWD), then that needs to be made more clear. \r\n\r\nChapter 2: Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to Teach: This chapter was quite comprehensive and provided a broad look at Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and how to utilize this approach to improve student learning outcomes. The brief case study at the end could be modified to allow the reader to check their understanding of the material. For instance, the case could be truncated to present the problem to the reader, then allow the reader to think critically about how to \"solve\" the case and appropriately respond. The next page could define the \"ideal\" way to use ABA in the given case study. This could continue with an additional short case study to strengthen the comprehensiveness of this chapter. \r\n\r\nChapter 3: Developing Function-based Interventions: This chapter was very comprehensive and the charts/diagrams matched those that would be realistically utilized in a school setting for an IEP/ER/RR. \r\n\r\nChapter 4: Naturalistic AAC Communication Intervention: To increase the comprehensiveness of this chapter, Janice Light's areas of communicative competence could be explained, or at least defined with a reference for the reader to access more information. Touching on how to address these areas with an AAC device may also be beneficial. This could be accomplished with the addition of a case study. \r\n\r\nChapter 5: iOS 8 Accessibility: To improve the comprehensiveness of this chapter, the chapter should be reworked to look at several aspects of technology, how this relates to AAC, and how technology can be utilized to assist a variety of different learners. \r\n\r\nChapter 6: Using Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) to Improve Vocabulary Instruction and Learning for Students with Disabilities and Their Teachers: This chapter comprehensively looks at one strategy (i.e., CAPs). To increase comprehensiveness, a more brief view of CAPs could be provided with resources that include the details. Further, 2-3 additional strategies could be explained. \r\n\r\nChapter 7: With the addition of a seventh chapter, this would allow the reader to digest how to utilize all aforementioned strategies with a few case studies. The case studies could be presented to the reader with questions to help guide the reader's reflection. Next, the text could present the \"ideal\" way to handle the case and assist the student in their academic and behavioral objectives.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content written in the text was accurate when it was written in 2014. Chapter 5 on iOS8 was accurate and relevant at the time of publishing; however, this information is no longer accurate for current iOS devices. Apart from Chapter 5, the other chapters appear accurate and relevant. As noted in another review's review the book's scope of learning is small and there are few curriculums/strategies described; however the descriptions are still fairly accurate.","relevance_rating":2,"relevance_review":"The text presents many resources that are outdated and not able to be utilized. There are several links throughout each chapter that do not work. Consider the following breakdown: \r\nCh. 1: 6/11 links are usable\r\nCh. 2: 2/9 links are usable (The link on page 27 is incorrectly entered and leads the viewer to an inappropriate website)\r\nCh. 3: 0/1 links are usable\r\nCh. 4: 0/6 links are usable\r\nCh. 5: 0/4 links are usable\r\nCh. 6: 5/10 links are usable \r\n\r\nCh. 5 which refers to iOS8 Accessibility was relevant when the chapter was written (i.e., 2014); however, this information is now outdated. When attempting to replicate some of the directions on my own iOS device, the instructions did not match the visuals I was viewing on my device. Currently, the most recent iOS is iOS 15.4.1 resulting in the chapter's information being obsolete. \r\n\r\nThe text could be strengthened by updating the links for consideration and updating Ch. 5 to match the current iOS capabilities. However, the authors may consider updating Ch. 5 in a way that does not specify how to work a certain operating system but rather provides an overall look at different types of technology and their ability to help SWD.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The written text is clear throughout. The rating of 4 indicates that there are some areas where jargon could be reduced or explained further for the reader. The text and vocabulary are generally easy to read and understand throughout each chapter. In Chapter 3, there are some areas that refer to jargon that are undefined. For instance, \"backward chaining\" is mentioned but not defined and could be considered confusing or unclear to a student reader. One way to remedy this situation may be to include a glossary with important terms. This would prevent certain terms from having to be explained in each chapter and create more clarity for a students in higher education.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"In terms of terminology the text is internally consistent; however, some chapters refer more to students with ASD and some refer more to SWD. The chapters also follow different structural formats. The first chapter is very well structured and has a nice introduction and summary. The chapter on AAC is written very differently from the writer's point of view and includes anecdotal evidence, whereas the other chapters do not include this type of evidence. To improve consistency, a standardized structure for writing each chapter should be defined for each guest author.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections throughout each chapter. Enormous blocks of text without subheadings are generally avoided throughout the text. The way the chapters are organized as a whole decreases the modularity overall. Overall, topics within each chapter flow well; however, chapters seem to operate independently and topics throughout the entire text do not flow well into each other.","organization_rating":1,"organization_review":"The chapters are organized in the following manner: \r\nChapter 1: Guiding Principles for Developing Comprehensive and Meaningful Instruction for Individuals with Complex Needs\r\nChapter 2: Naturalistic AAC Communication Intervention\r\nChapter 3: Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to Teach\r\nChapter 4: Developing Function-based Interventions\r\nChapter 5: iOS 8 Accessibility\r\nChapter 6: Using Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) to Improve Vocabulary Instruction and Learning for Students with Disabilities and Their Teachers\r\n\r\nEach chapter is written by a different author with a different style of organization. When reading the text, this makes each chapter feel as though it is its own separate entity, rather than being a chapter which strengthens the overall message of the text. \r\n\r\nSuggestions for strengthening the organization throughout the text include: \r\n1. Determine a standardized way of writing each chapter and have all authors abide by this standardization. For example, Chapter's 1 \u0026 2, start by offering references/figures/models that are embedded within the text and allow the reader to view the visual directly after reading the explanation. In Chapter's 3-6, there's a mixture of embedding visuals/diagrams and including the visuals at the end of the chapter, only. Consider embedding all visuals to increase ease of understanding and reference for the reader. \r\n\r\n2. Present information in a more logical manner. For example, each chapter reads as its own separate entity. The chapters are written differently, organized differently and there is a lack of \"flow\" throughout the book itself. This could be remedied by providing a transitional page or explanation that helps the reader understand the purpose of the next chapter and how it relates to the previous chapter, and book as a whole.\r\n\r\n3. Reorganize the chapters within the text and add an additional chapter for cohesiveness: \r\nChapter 1: Guiding Principles for Developing Comprehensive and Meaningful Instruction for Individuals with Complex Needs\r\nChapter 2: Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis to Teach\r\nChapter 3: Developing Function-based Interventions\r\nChapter 4: Naturalistic AAC Communication Intervention (Include more information in this chapter about communication for SWD)\r\nChapter 5: iOS 8 Accessibility (Rework this Chapter to include various types of devices and relate this to AAC)\r\nChapter 6: Using Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) to Improve Vocabulary Instruction and Learning for Students with Disabilities and Their Teachers (Consider focusing on more than one learning strategy (e.g., CAPs) and provide a more broad introduction for approximately 3 learning strategies.)\r\nChapter 7: Add a chapter here, that summarizes all information and provides 1-2 case studies that demonstrate how to integrate the information in the previous chapters. \r\n\r\nAs a final note, it should also be determined whether the text is focusing on SWD as a whole, or students with ASD. The title eludes to ASD, however, this is mentioned in Ch. 1 and the AAC chapter and then seldomly mentioned throughout.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"See notes under \"relevance\" for specific details regarding the interface issues. There are various interface issues throughout the text. Approximately 69% of the included links are not usable. Some of the visuals and diagrams are presented at the end of the chapter which makes it difficult for the reader to refer to the diagram, then refer back to the text discussing the diagram.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"In Chapter 6 there are a few grammatical errors and formatting issues. These are very minor and do not impact the reader's view of the text as a whole. Overall the writing is technical, yet easy to read and appropriate for a college student level.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"As a whole, the text is culturally relevant. Examples provided are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. Examples of photos/videos often show caucasian students; however, there are few video examples in general, so it is difficult to say this alone would make the text insensitive. Names used in examples appear to be comprehensive of multiple races, ethnicities, and backgrounds (though not all are included).","overall_rating":6,"overall_review":"The purpose of this book is to provide current, pertinent, and practical information and resources for future special educators. With the way the book is currently written, I don't believe this goal was accomplished. There are several modifications that need to be made prior to utilizing this text in its entirety. \r\nIn order to improve the text's organization and relevance the chapters need to be reworked and additions/deletions should be made. As it is now, I could see each chapter being considered its own small \"vignette\" lesson for students to read after listening to a more broad lecture and if given multiple additional resources. Overall, the text has promising potential but the chapters do not work together to form a text that's cohesive and comprehensive. If the framework is expanded to include a standardized organization, additional strategies, more case studies, a summarizing final chapter, and relevant/current links to resources, this open educational resource will be much more beneficial and I would be more likely to utilize it/recommend others utilize it in the classroom.","created_at":"2022-04-21T17:20:23.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-04-21T17:20:23.000-05:00"},{"id":34012,"first_name":"Meera","last_name":"Mehtaji","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Virginia Commonwealth University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook has several key components of the curriculum and Instructional design for students with Autism. However, it is not comprehensive, and the content is limited in serving students with significant needs. I liked that the authors had links to some EBP resources to provide additional details and strategies. This book cannot be used as the only textbook for a class, but chapters can serve as reading materials, with additional supplemental resources or lecture notes. The textbook dives straight into the principles of providing instruction. However, there needs to be a section or introduction to define what the authors mean by \"Individuals with complex needs.\"","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Authors curate the chapters with significant knowledge and skill in their areas. Changes in the field and an increase in EBP and teaching strategy are missing in the book in 2015. There is a need to update the content and broaden this textbook's scope.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"Some chapters provide good introductory concepts that are essential for basic understanding. However, this textbook needs to be updated to incorporate current teaching practices.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"I wish the textbook had an index and used headings and subheadings to organize the chapter. Some content and concepts can be easily missed, as they are not highlighted in the chapters and can be skipped by readers unfamiliar with the content.","consistency_rating":2,"consistency_review":"This textbook is more like a compilation of pre-reviewed or in-press articles, and thus, the cohesion looks forced.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"I wish the book had more subheadings and key terms were clarified and explained in greater detail.","organization_rating":2,"organization_review":"The chapters jump and make it challenging to teach instructional planning step-by-step. It does have several components required for instructional planning, but it is difficult for novice readers to connect.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"It does not have an index or glossary, and some links do not work. However, several embedded videos are good for explanation.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"Clean copy for reading.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"Does not discuss DEI.","overall_rating":5,"overall_review":"This book is a good starting point for open source textbooks in instructional planning for students with disabilities. It needs to be updated, and additional chapters may help make it more comprehensive.","created_at":"2022-09-01T10:24:28.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-09-01T10:24:28.000-05:00"},{"id":34029,"first_name":"Serra","last_name":"De Arment","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Virginia Commonwealth University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The subject of individualizing curriculum and instructional design for students with disabilities is quite vast, and while this text provides a good deal of information across each of 6 chapters, readers/users would benefit from further curricular and instructional resources to supplement this text.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Contributing authors provide accurate information throughout the text, given what would have been current empirical evidence and current technology-based applications at the time of publication. Use of research citations throughout, bolstered by hyperlinked video exemplars or visuals (tables, figures, and other images) further supports this evaluation. Revising the text to update research evidence, fix broken web-links, and update iOS Accessibility information (chapter 5) would boost content accuracy for current readers.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"Overall, the content of this text is very relevant to the work of supporting students with disabilities. At the time of this review (2022), relevance is affected by the passage of time since the text's publication. This text was originally published in 2015, but has since been updated in 2018 according to the copyright page (page 2). Updates are not explicitly identified by the editors/authors, but it appears that no updated citations were added in the intervening years. Web-links provided across chapters are frequently broken, and thus not usable for readers. In some instances (chapter 2), links to YouTube videos block access to content that is now deemed \"private\" or videos have been deleted altogether (chapter 5). Chapter 5, while comprehensive in presenting the accessibility features of iOS which was current at the time of original publication (2015) needs updating to align with current iOS versions and would benefit from similar content being explained for Android-based devices and perhaps Google-based apps. Technology has taken on a new, more ubiquitous and flexible role in educational contexts given the COVID-19 pandemic and without checking this text's publication year, it is readily evident it is pre-pandemic.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This text is likely most suitable for college/graduate students within teacher preparation programs in special education as some language and concepts are technical in nature and might not be readily understood without background knowledge or experience. (For example, the special education law, IDEA, is mentioned briefly by acronym only in chapter 6 which implies that the reader would already have strong knowledge of the law.) In-service or provisionally/conditionally licensed special educators might also find this text to be accessible given real-time experience working with students with disabilities. Though there were stylistic differences among authors, each chapter was written with clarity.","consistency_rating":3,"consistency_review":"Chapter 1 sets the stage for the text, using the phrase \"individuals with complex support needs\" then later simplifying to \"individuals with disabilities\" or \"IWD\". Other chapters focus more specifically on students with autism spectrum disorder (chapters 2 and 3) while chapter 6 is again more general, describing one particular instructional strategy for use with \"students with disabilities\". Contributing authors are not consistent in the style and organization of chapters, with some writing from a personal rather than third-person standpoint, some providing clear chapter objectives and summaries and others not. While all chapters included supplemental visuals to break up sections of text, placement of these was inconsistent (embedded in-line with text vs. in an end-of-chapter appendix). Overall, each chapter stands more on its own than in tight cohesion with the others, though there is some cohesion among chapters for general concepts (e.g., universal design is mentioned in chapters 1, 2, and 5).","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"Chapters in this text could readily stand-alone as assigned readings. Noticeably missing are a table of contents and index of key terms  which would help support modularity and student/reader navigation across the text.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Chapter 1 is clearly introductory and presents a framework that could easily set up an organizational structure for the five chapters that follow. However, chapter 1 does not directly reference those chapters, nor do chapters 2-6 refer back explicitly to the framework established in chapter 1. Each chapter feels isolated from the others. The text would benefit from a concluding chapter that ties all chapters back together in line with the text's overall purpose and points readers to what's next in their learning about curriculum and instructional support for individuals with disabilities. General organizational features across chapters (figures, tables, examples, etc.) are effective and support each chapter's internal organization.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Text, figures, images, and tables are displayed in a format that is accessible, and the text is available to view online or in a downloadable PDF format. Many web-links are broken, which presents an interface issue. Hyperlinks spelled out in full rather than embedded directly in meaningful text make the reading experience a bit clunky and would likely sound clunky via a screen-reader or PDF reader. Users of this text who have disabilities themselves might find some accessibility issues and a future update should saliently address accessibility via this lens.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few minor errors throughout the text but these are not distracting for the reader nor do they negatively affect the text's readability.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"Cultural relevance is not explicit in this text and any inclusivity across race, ethnicity, and background appears more incidental than intentional on the part of the authors.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"This text's use of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license is one of its greatest strengths because readers and others have the opportunity to not only share the material in any format but to also adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material. Opportunities are endless to take this material and make it relevant and up-to-date in other open educational resources (OER). I see this text as valuable well beyond the SPED 510 course for which it appears it was originally intended. I also appreciate the editors' efforts as trailblazers in open educational resources the field of special education teacher preparation where even in 2022 so few open-access textbooks exist.","created_at":"2022-09-05T23:58:07.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-09-05T23:58:07.000-05:00"},{"id":34184,"first_name":"Janet","last_name":"Smith","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Saint Francis","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook provides an overview of many areas of curriculum and instruction for students. Content including environment, behavior, instruction and technology. The information provides a survey of the key aspects of design. The text lacks an effective index yet provides an extensive reference list within each chapter.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This textbook provides error-free and unbiased information for instructional planning.  Due to the continued updating of technology, the information is outdated for technology programming.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This textbook provides a framework for curriculum design that will always be effective.  The technology information, although outdated, is very relevant. The tools will update but the framework and idea of the tools will remain relevant. The text provides link to sources that may become outdated but are very useful and relevant.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written and easy to follow.  The text provides graphics that allow the reader to further understand the information.  Tools are available within the text that provide a guide and are immediately useable.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text provides a continuum of terminology and framework.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is manageable and divided into teachable sections.  Each chapter is easily transferable into course content units.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is clearly presented although lacks an index of easy to find information.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text provides links to outside sources.  The images are clearly placed within the text.  The tables are accessible and transferable.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is presented with minimal grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is written in person first format, recognizing the unique needs of all students.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2022-11-23T09:53:56.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-11-23T09:53:56.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/comprehensive-individualized-curriculum-and-instructional-design-curriculum-and-instruction-for-students-with-developmental-disabilities-autism-spectrum-disorders","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:31:28.000-06:00"},{"id":263,"title":"Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author's position in relation to her research subjects. The book brings together a brief history of first-person qualitative research and writing from the past forty years, examining the evolution of nonfiction and qualitative approaches in relation to the personal essay. A selection of recent student writing in the genre as well as reflective student essays on the experience of conducting research in the classroom is presented in the context of exercises for coursework and beyond. Also explored in detail are guidelines for interviewing and identifying subjects and techniques for creating informed sketches and images that engage the reader. This book provides approaches anyone can use to explore their communities and write about them first-hand. The methods presented can be used for a single assignment in a larger course or to guide an entire semester through many levels and varieties of informed personal writing.","contributors":[{"id":3793,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Melissa","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Tombro","location":"The Fashion Institute of Technology","background_text":"Melissa Tombro is an Associate Professor of English at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She is the recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work on a wide range of courses from Creative Nonfiction to Theatre Arts. Her research interests include autoethnography, ethnography, personal writing, creative writing and performance studies. Outside of FIT she runs volunteer writing workshops for at-risk and underserved populations through the New York Writers Coalition. In her writing, teaching and volunteer work, she encourages other writers to use self-reflection and community engagement as a way to create meaningful, informed, and inspiring prose."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"}],"publishers":[{"id":153,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:38:34.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":346,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/teaching-autoethnography-personal-writing-in-the-classroom-1-pdf/?tmstv=1672258195","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":347,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/teaching-autoethnography-personal-writing-in-the-classroom-1461611589-epub/?tmstv=1672258195","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":348,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/teaching-autoethnography/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":2127,"type":"Hardcopy","url":"https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Autoethnography-Personal-Writing-Classroom/dp/1942341318","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":15,"reviews":[{"id":809,"first_name":"Jill","last_name":"Zarestky","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is comprehensive in the sense that it includes everything an instructor would need to know to implement student autoethnographic writing in the classroom, but it is also very narrow and would not appeal to instructors who teach other kinds of writing or use autoethnography for other purposes. There is no index or glossary.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Content is accurate. It largely derives from the author's teaching practice, so as an original work, it is biased in favor of the author's work. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is very specific to one type of academic writing. It is relevant in that regard, and not likely to become obsolete.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written very clearly, with straightforward descriptions of activities and tasks. \n","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent.","modularity_rating":1,"modularity_review":"This text is not modular. While an experienced instructor could adapt sections for her or his own use, there is a clear scaffolding and interconnection in the content.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion that aligns with a usual course planning process and progression of complexity through a semester.\n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of interface issues. \n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This book is grammatically correct and free from errors. \n","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The tasks and assignments described are adaptable to a variety of student backgrounds and cultural environments. The author has included student work samples that appear to reflect a diverse student population.\n","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This book would best be used as an instructor resource or reference book rather than a course text. Reading the book is worth it for the beautiful examples of student work!","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":822,"first_name":"Deborah","last_name":"Thompson","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text's primary aim is to serve as a guide for instructors teaching \"autoethnography\" or \"personal writing\" in the (composition) classroom.  In a somewhat dry but thorough introductory literature review, Tombro surveys current conversations concerning personal writing as a valid classroom practice for teaching critical writing and thinking skills.  The strength of the book is in its outline of how such a course might be put together, including week-by-week topics and assignments.  After each assignment is a discussion of \"Results,\" which gives prospective instructors a preview of what to expect from the class's responses.  Finally, the sample papers for each assignment give a range of representations of the possibilities for these assignments.  Since the text is meant as an introduction and hands-on guide for instructors, it appropriately covers its subject and gives a useful bibliography for further readings.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text gives an accurate portrayal of the field.  It shows a fair representation of the benefits and problems of using personal writing in the classroom.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Since autoethnography and personal writing are increasingly used in composition classes, the book should only gain in relevancy.  The assignments have been developed from longer traditions of both ethnographic practice and creative writing instruction, so the text is timely but should wear well.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Clarity is a particular strength of the main body of the book, but less so for the introduction, which reads more like a literature review than an overview of the key controversies and cornerstones of teaching personal writing.  In the main body of the book, the voice is clear and examples are useful.  Sample student essays are also vey elucidating.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent.  The only inconsistency in terminology--\"autoethnography\" and \"personal writing\" are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes not--is an inconsistency in the field itself, and one Tombro takes pains to explain in the introduction.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is perhaps the text's greatest strength.  It can be used in its entirety, but it also offers individual assignments and modules that can be used separately.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Going hand-in-hand with modularity, its organizational structure is a great strength.  Assignments are very nicely designed to build on each other into a final project, even as they have merit if used individually.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors (except the \"errors\" found in the creative portions that serve the text).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text offers personal writing as a key way to empower students to explore the richness of their own ethnicities and subcultures, as well as a way to appreciate others.  Such inclusion is increasingly a goal in universities, making this project very culturally relevant.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book itself offers a useful and welcome auto-ethnographic engagement with classroom practice. It's refreshingly honest in its discussion of classroom misfires as well as successes.","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":978,"first_name":"Molly","last_name":"Gray","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, this textbook offers much utility in its approach to teaching thoughtful autoethnography in college-level writing.  \nThe author's approach is rooted and can be applied to many intersectional social identities, which is helpful in using this information to be aware of numerous issues of oppression in writing.  The author also provides thorough outlines for a number of in-class writing and other class assignments, and helpful examples of those assignments from multiple perspectives.  The questions for consideration under each of the writing samples offer clear examples of drawing forth more thoughtful pedagogical approaches.  Overall, there are areas that would have been helpful to draw upon at greater length, such as a deeper exploration of individualized feedback for at least some of the writing samples (rather than the same set of unanswered questions for each sample).  However, overall this is a solidly useful guide with much practical course application for first-year writing courses and beyond.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author presents well-grounded information that represents her rich experience in instructing college-level writing courses and offers best practices for teaching autoethnographic writing.  She discusses relevant ethnographic scholars and researchers to provide a framework for his approaches that culminate in an informed and critical teaching practice.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this book offers content that is a best practices manual for introductory autoenthnographic writing. It is general enough to provide both applicability for numerous instructional approaches as well as lasting relevance for writing assignments across disciplines and levels. It also aims to encourage greater cultural-reflexivity and competency in writing so as not to rely on racialzed (or other) stereotypes and offers the tools to broach this within the classroom by deeper examination of subjectivity in writing.  This goal is both timely within academia and the larger national climate, and is not likely to wane in importance or necessity for this critical intervention.  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author utilizes language that is accessible and clear in its communication.  The introductory chapters offer a useful background discussion of contemporary approaches to autoethnographic writing that provide a context for her instruction approaches and theoretical framework seen within the assignments presented in the rest of the book.  The writing and layout of the book is both straightforward and coherent.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in the presentation and layout of its information.  It replicates a pattern of assignments and corresponding writing samples from the same batch of student writers, offering the reader a uniform and helpful example of the applicability and utility of the author's teaching methods.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book offers concise and helpful modularity that can be easily applied throughout the course.  It offers a direct path to apply within a course and offers examples of stage-appropriate assignments that build upon one another and increase in difficulty and depth of writing assignment.  Conversely, individual sections could also be extracted from the larger set of examples and still have great utility as stand-alone writing assignments.  ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book presents a logical flow that is both uniform and clear in its organization. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book's interface is easily-navigabable and offers a straight-forward and consistently-designed format.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book's text did not present either structural or grammatical errors.  It is solidly-written and edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book's content focuses on approaches to autoethnographic writing that encourages greater awareness for subjectivity within personal writing, and actively works towards the eradication of cultural insensitivity.  It is an important topic that is timely and will continue to be a relevant and culturally-necessary intervention in college-level writing.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1045,"first_name":"Priya ","last_name":"Kapoor","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Teaching Autoethnography is a comprehensive book. The author is very familiar with extant and historical debates in the field of pedagogy (of writing) and qualitative research (ethnography and auto-ethnography in particular). Melissa Tombro is able to guide the reader in a way that the reader (most likely a college based instructor) can then design a writing class, or a course with a significant writing component, quite easily. She includes a sample syllabus. Given that writing is a requirement across curricula in all disciplines, this book provides the impetus to discrete disciplines to start examining their reasons for requiring certain forms of non-personal writing. Not all disciplines require self-examination in the process of writing but this work seems to ask the question—why not?\n\nThe student samples of individual autoethnography included in the text demonstrate that the task is indeed possible. These examples are well arranged and useful for designing one’s own assignments. \n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I believe the work is accurate. It forwards clear arguments and presents evidence to support those arguments. This book on auto-ethnography provides important insight and instruction to university instructors on how to value the pedagogy of inserting the “self” or “I” in student writing such that it does not become narcissistic, or a way to consume “the other,” in the highly materialistic society we live in.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The myriad examples of assignments and student writing that touch upon several different scenarios make the book relevant and current for a long time to come. This work examines the assumptions of research writing in academia and therefore it will remain cutting edge.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"A strength of this work is that there is very little technical terminology or jargon. Students and faculty would be able to decipher the concepts that the book introduces as those are clearly explained.If there are unfamiliar terms, those are prefaced and explained in detail by the author. This book is written for the practitioner. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":" The format of the book and the consistency of the terms provides a familiarity to the reader which makes the book easy to read. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"All chapters are marked and all student work clearly lists the name of the student-author. If I were to use just the introduction or another section of the book, I would be able to do that without the section seeming out of place or incomplete.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is arranged well into discrete sections. Each of the student examples are marked and the list of questions it answers is included so the reader does not lose their chain of thought. The assignments are arranged according to separate chapters. I find the flow to be smooth and each bit of information is properly placed in its order. The historical and academic context for the book is set in the introductory chapter that underscores the value of autoethnography in a student’s learning, especially research writing. The chapters that follow are clearly organized and explained.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This book is easy to navigate. The typeface is pleasing and the pages scroll easily from top to bottom. There are reasonable gaps within chapters and between chapters that give the eye relief if you are reading on-screen. I think the book will benefit from an index. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This book is about writing. The author is a faculty member and writing expert in an English program. There are no grammatical problems in this book.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Teaching Autoethnography is about recovering the “I” in writing for academia, and in culture. The book focuses on how to be self-reflexive, and through writing, become a member of the larger global community. Writing autoethnography is about the art of recouping our sense of connectedness with diverse human realities. I believe that the skills and philosophies that Teaching Autoethnography articulates, establishes it as a culturally relevant text. \n\nCollege students in universities around the world are a diverse body. When a college classroom is able to teach students how to articulate the “I” which is a powerful and unique position that questions diversity and marginality as we know it, and insert it in their research, it brings the students’ cultural world into the academy. That is a powerful position to hold for students who generally feel excluded or treated as clients rather than as active participants. \n","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I recommend Teaching Ethnography to all instructors in the Humanities and Social Sciences who value qualitative methods and research writing in the classroom; and want to make it accessible and relevant to their students’ lives. ","created_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1864,"first_name":"Joni","last_name":"Schwartz","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"City University of New York - LaGuardia","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Very comprehensive - beginning with ideas and suggestions for the first day of meeting with writing students to a well-thought out progression of instruction. Defining of terms and placing personal narrative and the \"I\" squarely in the context of qualitative research - ethnography and specifically autoethnography is smart and effective. A well laid out case for personal writing as an academic pursuit.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Cited the best in the field of autoethnography and the author clearly draws on her own experience in the writing classroom. The reader gets a sense that this author knows her students, has practiced her craft and that this book is a \"lived experience.\"","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"I would think that updating would be quite easy for this text as new samples, updated assignments and new research in the field could be easily included without losing the theme and structure of the text. For anyone who has worked with marginalized populations the relevance \"rings true.\" I will consider using this text with a prison writing group in the months to come. Only wondering about its relevance for racially diverse populations - not sure as yet.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clear -- concepts defined, assignments and suggestions for teachers laid out in a clear step by step progression.  The context of the field of autoethnography is helpful.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, internal consistent with a authoethnographic approach and framework - terminology consistent with that perspective and positionality on writing and research.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is what I particularly like about this text-- easy to pull out assignments, sections, chapters that are relevant at a particular time or for a particular set of students. Chapters and sub-headings make sense and can be used in isolation as needed.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Yes, this was highlighted in Question 4","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No major interface issues are apparent.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical errors not apparent","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"Not certain that the examples are diverse in terms of race.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I intend to use it for a prison writing group -- will use parts of it this winter and depending on how it goes, may use it this summer as a full text for the prison writers. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2012,"first_name":"Abram ","last_name":"Himelstein","position":"Professor of Practice","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book feels like a manual on how to run this kind of workshop for students- and it feels complete in this effort. I would say that it is comprehensive, anticipating the questions that will arise as teachers and students wrestle with the concept of autoethnography. The greatest strength of this text is the inclusion of many student-written exemplars. These bring the work into focus for the teachers and for students moving through the material.  ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is an act of advocacy- that autoethnography deserves time and focus in college writing courses. As a manual, it is well-thought through. As an act of advocacy, it is persuasive. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book feels like it will be relevant for years to come. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book builds out a language for using autoethnography, and, as such, is very accessible and welcoming. The use of students' writing brings home the concepts laid out in the chapters. \n","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This work is internally consistent, and builds a language and a practice that is useful and accessible. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The author has sequenced the work to build on past assignments, so excerpting parts could be problematic. The presentation of exemplar work from students, however, makes it possible to adopt particular assignments, and this increases the modularity of the text. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics of this book build upon each other, and seem to be well-organized. Whether this works with my students remains to be seen, but the author has made a persuasive case by including the work of her students in this. \n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The book is easy to use, and easy to navigate. I was accessing it on a Mac computer, and many of my students use tablet devices, but the PDF version was clean and very clear. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammar was standard, not distracting. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The greatest strength of this book is that is very very culturally relevant. The focus on autoethnography allows students to make this course multicultural, and almost assures that there will be more points of view represented than most of the courses taught at the university level (this might not be true if your university is very homogenous). The main idea of this methodology is to put students at the center of the curriculum, and in this process, begin to undo the colonial aspects of many university educations. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is a valuable manual for professors to use as they begin to approach asking students to produce autoethnographies. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3068,"first_name":"Jocelyn Wenona","last_name":"Armes","position":"Graduate Part-time Instructor","institution_name":"CU Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is intended as a teaching aid for instructors of college students to learn how to use autoethnographic composition in writing and research. To the extent that it is not a textbook for teaching qualitative methodology, or directed toward a student audience, it is moderately successful in conveying approaches to teaching ethnographic writing. Given that the audience is intended to be the instructors of such courses, more time could be spent addressing the epistemological/ontological positions inherent in this form of inquiry.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"Content is appropriate for the aims of this text. The assignments at the end of each chapter/topic are helpful, practical exercises for instructors to implement. The examples of student writing provided at the end of the book are very helpful.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"This topic is -- like many humanities texts -- not likely to become outdated in content.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in  accessible prose; the author seemingly intends to present material conversationally. This tone advances the purpose of the text: to utilize personal experiences in improving writing and communication skills.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is not specifically about conducting ethnographic/autoethnographic research. It is about instruction using these methodologies as vehicles for improving composition. The text is consistently situated in this framework.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The chapters are small and divided into consistent subheadings. The student examples are grouped separately from the main text, and in their own units. ","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The topics are presented in a a logical order; beginning with the internal structures of a course that might incorporate these techniques, then moving toward specific/practical exercises.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"N/A -- purely text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Grammatical errors were not observed.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The student work examples feature a diverse array of perspectives, identities, and experiences. These thoughtfully curated exemplars render the text a culturally sensitive and inoffensive resource.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-01T12:58:58.000-05:00"},{"id":3263,"first_name":"Roxanne","last_name":"Bourque","position":"Senior Instructor","institution_name":"ULL","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"In this textbook, M. Tombro presents the practice of teaching personal writing in the classroom as one way to motivate students to explore qualitative inquiry. This book can be used as a comprehensive guide to practice ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that is student immersive. Each chapter covers relevant English Language Arts content, methods of teaching, and strategies designed to engage college students in writing through the lens of qualitative study. There is an authenticity to note within documentation of experience and the art of culturally responsive understanding to make relevant human connections with course content for students. An index and/or glossary may be an added component for clarity of content for those who intend to use the book outside of the English Language Arts content areas.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Authenticity of expertise defines accuracy as the author takes the audience through her professional and personal accounts of practice as a writing professor.  Tombro takes the “anecdote is not evidence factor’ to a shift of mindful understanding and support that one cannot quantify learning within human interaction. She addresses bias towards qualitative study, or areas of negativity towards first person writing as outdated and judgmental. There is a need to see the importance of documenting oral histories and personal narratives for the simple reason that living content makes human connections. Although it may not be widely accepted in academia and easy to measure, there is much to gain and learn from collecting qualitative data.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Content relevance of this text is not questionable, nor will it ever become obsolete within time. There is much relevance to writing personal narratives in college coursework. There is also a need for college students to break into a comfort level of writing for future synthesis and response to academia and research in designated career pathways.  This textbook offers exercises that may be used partially or in full within many content areas as enrichment writing exercises for college classes.  The exercises are straightforward enough to be adapted through a method of qualitative study. One way to utilize this text is through the discovery of self-knowledge. Writing narratives leads to practice, exercises designed to work on writing “chops”, or discovery of voice, point of view, perception of events, and decision making. Interviews bring oral history to life to engage and invest learners in deeper understanding of purpose, life, and being.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This textbook may be adapted or modified within any higher education content area where undergraduate research inquiry is supported. Qualitative studies are one way to provide students an opportunity to respond to context while finding a voice in specific professional arenas. M. Tombro provides a wide range of collaboration of ideas and thought process through writing strategies, personal experience, and approaches designed to unify an easy to follow text for a first-year writing classroom.  Her approach integrates a multiple translation to qualitative inquiry with ethnographic pedagogical practice in a scholarly way.  She refers this textbook as one way to introduce translations or use as a “field guide and blueprint” to reframe the conversation that points one to decision making issues of life experience. Her point is that personal life has real connection to scholarly life, to introduce multiple methods of producing knowledge as students learn to document experience as participant-observers in community life.  Therefore, the text is written through experiential knowledge to offer a lucid, accessible prose, to provide adequate context for adaptation in many college courses.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"When reading this textbook, it is obvious that M. Tombro shares and guides the reader through her personal/professional experience as a writing professor. From the first day of class to choosing topics for auto-ethnography, she provides guidelines for exercises, readings for support, and possible results for review. Textbook chapters are laid out to be easy to follow, through a step-by-step process to unpack critical inquiry and the thinking process. Terminology flows from understanding of self, how self fits into the “big picture” to how to write and respond to essays and peer reviews. Author recommendations for exercises follow a semester syllabus lead within a university course.  A sample class schedule is provided within the text and additional resources. An appendix of class examples and student work with specific inquiry are offered to follow the chapters to support ideas and pedagogical practice.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Tombro offers a self-referential application within multiple models of writing exercises to support personal engagement of learners within the writing process. There is a great need to fill the gap of how to facilitate students into a deeper understanding of how personal writing might serve as the foundation for scholarly application, composition scholarship, and teacher training. This multi-use text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections. Tombro provides content within subheadings of the text that can be used in a university classroom in its entirety or sections/chapters may be selected to suit needs of individual course use.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This textbook is presented in a logical and clear fashion as an informative and user-friendly way to approach first-person research.  There is a need to explore student’s interests in this first-person approach to research in order to analyze the “why” of our very human existence with decision-making and interests. What a refreshing way to offer a uniquely designed college textbook to share professional experience and support for research possibilities? Tombro’s offering is not only interesting, it is quite engaging as her writing motivates the reader with a self-actualized approach to research design through autoethnographic study. She provides clear examples of student work to support her ideas and methodology. There is a need to motivate, engage, and invest in personal experiences in order to support interests, talents, and discovery in multiple research pathways.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text appears free of significant interface issues; it’s easy to navigate as a whole or in parts. There are no images or charts that may distract or confuse the reader. It is easy to follow for content and application in whole or divided into subparts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Within a through review, the book appears well written, edited, and free of grammatical error.  ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"When one utilizes a methodology for theorizing personal experience, it is difficult to find that a personal accounting of existence is offensive, for this is how one perceives life as it is lived. It is important and culturally responsive to find ways to allow students to relate and measure (assess) personal experience and ownership of learning and growth in college courses.  Documentation of social events, life as it is perceived and lived in communities is as important as existing—within race, ethnicity, and cultural events.  \r\nThere is a need to be authentic in voice, to use personal writing, narratives to inspire creative expression, voice, language/lexicon, within a specific culture. Authenticity of content and self-identity are critical and necessary to preserve the authenticity of life as one lives—through qualitative inquiry methods, creative writing, performance studies, interpretive self-reflection of cultural influences, and narrative composition.\r\nThis is how one documents living, through writing, storytelling, and experiencing life.\r\n","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"M. Tombro offers a refreshing approach to open the possibilities of incorporating autoethnographic studies into a cross-curricular approach to viewing the content and requirements of college courses. Benefits gained from this textbook out speak the discourse or bias towards qualitative studies.","created_at":"2019-11-09T12:04:22.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-11-09T12:04:22.000-06:00"},{"id":4081,"first_name":"Debra","last_name":"Hagan","position":"Visiting Lecturer","institution_name":"Massachusetts College of Art and Design","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is aimed at the liberal arts/English professor who is developing a writing course for students who will be analyzing and researching “the self” through a cultural lens. Tombro explains how lifestyle, culture, and belief systems impact an individual’s attitudes and behaviors.  Through various prompts and lessons, students learn to write personal stories that reveal individual views and concerns. As students read each other’s work, they see how beliefs and behaviors can be traced back to cultural roots. As students become more familiar with one another, they grow in cultural understanding and empathy. The text contains step-by-step instructions in developing such a course, which includes introductory writing prompts, activities, discussion questions, writing exercises, workshops, and ultimately a final project. The text thoroughly covers this subject and includes reading suggestions and detailed assignments. It would have been nice if the textbook included some, if not all, of the readings, so instructors could easily copy and distribute them to students. However, there is a handy bibliography at the end of the textbook.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Throughout the textbook, Tombro’s advice and direction consistency feels accurate and based on solid teaching experience. She addresses how to handle some of the more difficult complications that arise in first-person writing, particularly students over-sharing or presenting material that might be sensitive or embarrassing. Also, she discusses how to handle critiques and grading of personal writing so that qualitative feedback can be given without making students feel that their personal experiences are being judged and/or criticized.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As classrooms become more culturally mixed and educators strive harder to create more inclusive and diverse learning environments, the relevancy and importance of this course and its textbook only increases.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The tone throughout is clear and conversational--no jargon or dense passages.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author uses the term “autoethnography” to discuss how students explore and write about themselves and the ways culture has shaped and impacted them. This term is used consistency throughout the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This textbook is easy-to-use and adaptable. Chapters are short. Most of the writing prompts and assignments can be excerpted and modified for various purposes.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"It is well-organized and easy to use. After the introduction and overview, the text is set up like a week-by-week planning manual with assignments, prompts, workshops, and a final project.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate. Each section is clearly marked.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"While the text is professionally written and the author adheres to grammar rules, I did find a number of typographical errors in the main text (not the student writing).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The goal of the course, for which this textbook is written, is to broaden students’ awareness of varying cultural differences in traditions, views, and belief systems. Therefore, the text is sensitive to students of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I’m inspired by this textbook, particularly Tombro's practical advice and sensitivity.  She presents a number of ideas I'd like to try in my own classroom.","created_at":"2020-06-25T11:54:10.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-25T11:54:10.000-05:00"},{"id":4280,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Stringham","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"In context of its purpose (“to present a unified approach to using personal writing and qualitative inquiry, specifically autoethnography, in the first-year writing classroom”), this text seems comprehensive. (I offer that assessment with the caveat that I don’t teach first-year writing.) Readers who wish to explore a particular topic in greater detail could certainly do so through sources listed in the works cited list, or the “Additional Readings on Autoethnography” on p. 67. I particularly appreciated the range of material in this text (e.g., assignment prompts, peer review materials, discussion prompts, classroom workshop activities) and varied examples of student work. The text included a works cited list, but not an index or glossary; I felt that terms that might be unfamiliar to some readers were sufficiently contextualized in the text. I didn’t find myself missing a glossary or index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I am not a subject matter expert, but the text seems grounded in existing scholarly literature, other authors’ works, and this author’s practice as a college writing instructor. I did not sense biases other than those that might naturally occur from sharing from one’s own experiences.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content of this text felt up-to-date, with a number of sources from recent years. These newer sources seemed nicely balanced with work from established sources and well-known authors. The text seems to be constructed in a way that would allow updates to specific sections (e.g., “Brief History of Personal Writing in Composition Studies,” “Defining Autoethnography”) should elements become out of date.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the writing clear and approachable throughout. I have some training in qualitative research, but limited experience in teaching writing; I did not find any jargon or technical terminology that felt inadequately contextualized.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I found the text internally consistent in terms of both its terminology and framework. Additionally, I found the consistency of assignment presentation and discussion (e.g., green-shaded text boxes) throughout the text helpful.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is particularly well constructed in this regard. The various assignments could certainly be used for a complete course in the “Sample Class Schedule”; they could also be used individually (with or without student writing examples) in a more piecemeal fashion within any course.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I found the organization clear and the sequential presentation of assignments that might unfold over a semester to be useful. I could see many of these assignments and other activities (e.g., class workshops) to be useful independently as well as in the sequence prescribed in the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read the book as a PDF on an iPad and experienced no interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors while reading this text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I did not find this text to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. To the extent I was able to tell as a reader, the book used a variety of examples from published authors, scholars, and students; these seemed to reflect diverse backgrounds (that may or may not include diversity of races and ethnicities).","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed the opportunity to review this book, and anticipate using several of these assignments/activities in my work with pre-service teachers. I appreciated that the author both provides readings that have worked in her classes, AND encourages the reader to choose readings appropriate to their student populations. Additionally, the author helpfully addressed the range of thorny issues that might arise in personal writing projects (e.g., abuse, sexual violence, survivor groups, illegal drug use) and shared her experiences of talking students through these issues—including professional support resources—while leaving final decisions to the student.","created_at":"2020-07-31T13:26:47.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-07-31T13:26:47.000-05:00"},{"id":4430,"first_name":"Tommy","last_name":"Ender","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Excellent!","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Excellent!","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Excellent!","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Excellent!","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Excellent!","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Excellent!","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Excellent!","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Excellent!","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Excellent!","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Excellent!","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This book is an excellent introduction to the world of autoethnography.  The book allows the reader to consider the self, space, and memory as integral parts in developing and writing an autoethnography.  The book would serve well students in Education, English, Social Work, Anthropology, Sociology, and Cultural Studies courses at the higher education level.  It would also serve students at the secondary education level.","created_at":"2020-12-03T19:26:35.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-12-03T19:26:35.000-06:00"},{"id":5081,"first_name":"Matthew","last_name":"Chelf","position":"Adjunct Instructor","institution_name":"Portland Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found this text comprehensive in its treatment of autoethnography, writing about the ‘self’ through diverse narrative techniques, research, and a cultural lens. The text provides readings, prompts, and assignments designed to get students to reflect on their lives in a cultural context. Group work, such as peer review, helps students understand their own lives and the lives of others through this broader cultural lens and facilitates cultural awareness and conversation. The latter sections in the book provide numerous student writing samples followed by discussion questions, which is great for modeling and conversation.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is well situated and researched. In the introduction, Tombro takes care to situate us in a broader context of where autoethnography stands in the current academic environment. Peppered throughout the text are excellent quotes that illuminate the text’s core goal. For example, “We need to imagine ways of using experience critically: experience should motivate us to care about another’s differences and should disrupt the material conditions that have given rise to it” (Min-Zhan Lu “Reading and Writing Differences: The Problematic of Experience”). Tombro also pulls from a rich well of personal experience in the classroom as well as student writing. I also really appreciated the Phillip Lopate discussion of turning oneself into a character,  a hallmark of creative nonfiction.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This is one way to teach critical theory and cultural awareness in the composition classroom. By prioritizing student writing and student experience, students should feel more connected to their work and to classmates. Tombro’s work participates in a history of personal writing pedagogy and makes a worthy contribution to it.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found Tombro’s writing and organization lucid and clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Tombro builds upon the main ideas stated in the introduction through research, example, exercise, and elaboration. The text is cohesive. The larger sections do a great job of delineating topics. The student writing samples connect back to the pedagogical discussions.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is composed of seven different sections. The first of which is directed to teachers and how to teach autoethnography. The rest are student writings on particular topics and subjects. These latter six sections include discussion questions. They provide great examples to model student writing. It would be easy and fun to assign discrete readings from these sections for students.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Very good! (Related to the text’s modularity).","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"You can download the text as PDF or Ebook. You can read it online as HTML, which is what I did. The text flows in a top-down fashion. White background, black text. Sections will appear in friendly, disrupting colors.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This writing project is designed to get students to think about themselves and their cultural position in a creative, inviting way. It does so in a sensitive, safe fashion that makes difficult topics accessible.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"If you’re wondering what ethnography is, the author provides this definition in the introduction: “autoethnography is treated as personal writing in which the subjectivity of the writer is highlighted and experiences are understood through narrative exploration and storytelling, incorporating other voices, observation, participation, and larger cultural ideas.” \r\n\r\nI will certainly try this approach in a first-year writing course!","created_at":"2021-06-12T15:20:02.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-12T15:20:02.000-05:00"},{"id":34667,"first_name":"Miriam","last_name":"Gershow","position":"Senior Instructor II","institution_name":"University of Oregon","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The comprehensiveness of this text is its strength. It offers an abundance of resources for teachers and students, including a background of autoethnography in composition studies, a clear and comprehensive explanation/rationale of how Tombro teaches autoethnography in the classroom over a semester, and then over 200 pages of student examples of each writing assignment. As a creative writer who has been teaching composition for 20 years, the resources in this book make me want to integrate autoethnography into my classroom even without a specific ethnography background myself. Tombro has made a strong case for the value of autoethnography and also has made the resources accessible. It's been a long time (ever?) since reading a textbook has made me want to rethink my classroom approach so thoroughly.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Tombro takes pains to locate autoethnography accurately in composition studies, including the naysayers. The remainder of the book focuses on her specific experience in an in-person semester-long classroom in New York City.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I'm reading the book seven years after it was published and none of the information seems dated. Smartly, Tombro references the readings she assigned students, but did not include them here. She leaves it up to teachers to find the most relevant readings for their community.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Again, as someone outside of the field of autoethnography, the whole concept was explained well and thoroughly to me. I have taught a lot of descriptive writing and personal argument, and I can see how those could fit within autoethnography, something I hadn't previously considered.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology, framework, and design are all consistent.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Assignments can be lifted out, as can student examples of each assignment. What remains is essentially a teacher's guide, and a helpful one at that.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Well organized between the introduction that situates autoethnography in composition, then a move through the fifteen weeks' of Tombro's pedagogy, then 200+ pages of student work within that pedagogy.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface problems.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Text is error free.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The very idea of autoethnography is broadly inclusive of classroom diversity. The student examples offer a broad swatch of race, culture, and class experience.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I cannot overstate the strength of this book. Tombro makes such a convincing case for students considering themselves within their communities via writing autoethnography. The program I teach in has long embraced personal argument and is moving toward literacy narratives. Autoethnography seems to take the goals of each of those assignments - personal investment in a topic, self-reflection, critical analysis of self in the world - and elevate those. I'm excited to think about how to adapt Tombro's ideas to my teaching: remote classes in a quarter system on a campus that has more constraints around \"field sites\" than New York City.","created_at":"2023-09-02T18:09:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2023-09-02T18:09:58.000-05:00"},{"id":34952,"first_name":"Eleanor","last_name":"Binnings","position":"Adjunct faculty","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University of Denver","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I find the book comprehensive for as Tombro points out in the Introduction: \"We can combine writing intensive assignments with community engagement and analysis of positionality to create a holistic education model.\" Holistic education gives the student responsibility for their own learning, which is essential for strong writing skills. She notes that autoethnographic writing helps build community as students have the opportunity to read each other's points of view and build the concept of audience. Peer review is a major part of the process -- with always the question: \"Who cares?\" that gets students thinking more deeply about their stories.  She offers prompts for assignments, discussions, and classroom activities.  She provides several dozen student works that 1) let us see what's possible, and 2) provide examples for our students.  Teaching Autoethnography is for instructors, not a textbook for students, and she provides the pedagogy of qualitative research and how autoethnography relates to phenomenological studies in addition to composition studies.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Tombro shows her own thorough research into autoethnography in the classroom and provides numerous sources and resources that we can further investigate. If any bias, that would be her own classroom experience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"More relevant today than ever with the advance of AI writing!  Autoethnographic writing eliminates plagiarism as well.  Students must write from their own experiences and observations. This helps students develop their own voices. She provides her own experiences in the classroom and in her past, such as when she learned to interview effectively, an important feature for qualitative research.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"As various sources are discussed, any jargon is clarified. Prose is lucid and accessible. She clearly explains her rules for peer review, provides methods, and explains how students benefit, not just as the receiver of peer review but as the reviewer.  It would be quite easy to utilize her prompts.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Tombo remains consistent throughout the book. She discusses her sources and lays out the book so that instructors can easily follow her model.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Assignments and other prompts can easily be accessed and excerpted for class in any order and can be modified. Or we can utilize her format laid out for a 15-week course. Where self-reflection is involved, she furthers our understanding of the benefits of autoethnography.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Quite logical. We begin with a discussion of the topic complete with sources and moves toward incorporation in the classroom. We can utilize her week-by-week layout for a 15-week course with clear understanding of the process and goals.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Easy to read. The prompts and peer review guidelines use a colored background to make them stand out. No charts or images included.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors detected.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is never culturally insensitive or offensive.  Rather, the effort with autoethnography helps build cultural awareness. The student essays enhance student backgrounds and build community in the classroom.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The many student essay examples show the success of autoethnographic writing. I like how she points out how students may feel unconfident and hesitant yet move on to finding personal meaning, not only in their own writing but in their classmates' writing.  From the \"character\" and point of view to the environment and developing detail, students find their own subcultures and awareness that everyday life is actually more than something to take for granted. The writing can take the author from subjective experience to objective awareness. Students become prepared for ethnographic research.","created_at":"2024-03-23T14:56:19.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-03-23T14:56:19.000-05:00"},{"id":35650,"first_name":"Thomas","last_name":"Kneeland","position":"Assistant Professor of English (Tenure-Track)","institution_name":"Anderson University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I believe the text does a splendid job of framing auto-ethnography as a relationship between personal narrative/storytelling and cultural inquiry. The text positions itself to advocate for students’ voices, the topics of research they care most about, and their potential to contribute valuable insights to their own fields of study and expertise .","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I’ve taught the autoethnographic assignment in my course last spring, prior to reading this book. It’s great to know that the text is intentional about staying on track with both the sociological trends and also the ones that bring forth the critical and necessary conversations needed to adequately teach such a text.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Information like this will always be relevant, because the human experience is always changing. As we begin to understand each other on a basic human level, our collected stories should become more evergreen and, thus, always present no matter how much time has passed.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"From the reader’s perspective, the writing meets students where they are. The book isn’t just filled with theoretical concepts; it is also threaded along with teachable, practical moments for those who don’t just rely on tasteless examples and lowered expectations.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I would agree that the terminology and framework offered in this book mirrors much of what I’ve seen in previous semesters from different resources. I’m please that I’ve discovered an option that has it all in once place.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of the strengths of this book is that it can be read in order or outside of the presented sequence. This will be particularly useful if and when we need to take our time and slow down with teaching specific concepts.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I would agree that organization is a strong suit of this book. As I’ve mentioned, there is plenty of theoretical backing in each chapter, as well as actionable item and questions to help students craft adequate ethnographic and anecdotal research. Not only that, the book provides real examples of ethnographic writing which allows students to emulate what they see.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There were no problems to report regarding the interface. The online format is so well organized that I didn’t want to mess up the drop-down sections.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This text was written and edited with precision.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is intentional about necessitating the purpose of ethical observations, dialogue, and discourse, as well as making sure that diverse groups of people are justly represented in the process. It urges us to consider our individual privileges and exercise a level of cultural responsibility when engaging in ethnography.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2025-10-09T22:59:29.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-10-09T22:59:29.000-05:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/teaching-autoethnography-personal-writing-in-the-classroom","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:59.000-06:00"},{"id":265,"title":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice introduces instructional strategies linked to the most current research-supported practices in the field of literacy. The book includes chapters related to scientifically-based literacy research, early literacy development, literacy assessment, digital age influences on children's literature, literacy development in underserved student groups, secondary literacy instructional strategies, literacy and modern language, and critical discourse analysis. Chapters are written by authors with expertise in both college teaching and the delivery of research-supported literacy practices in schools. The book features detailed explanations of a wide variety of literacy strategies that can be implemented by both beginning and expert practitioners. Readers will gain knowledge about topics frequently covered in college literacy courses, along with guided practice for applying this knowledge in their future or current classrooms. The book's success-oriented framework helps guide educators toward improving their own practices and is designed to foster the literacy development of students of all ages.","contributors":[{"id":3792,"contribution":"Editor","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Kristen","middle_name":"A.","last_name":"Munger","location":"SUNY Oswego","background_text":"Kristen A. Munger, PhD, is Associate Dean in the School of Education at SUNY Oswego. Prior to becoming Associate Dean, she was a faculty member in the Counseling and Psychological Services Department at SUNY Oswego, where she taught graduate courses in academic intervention, emotional intervention, and research methods. She also taught practicum and internship courses in school psychology, as well as a course in assessment to preservice teachers. She earned her PhD from Syracuse University in Reading Education and MS in School Psychology from SUNY Oswego. Before beginning her doctoral work at Syracuse University, she practiced as a school psychologist in New York State schools for 12 years. During that time, she developed a persistent interest in literacy development, assessment, and instruction."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":26,"name":"Elementary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LB1555","visible_textbooks_count":14,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/elementary-education"},{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":28,"name":"Secondary Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":10,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/secondary-education"}],"publishers":[{"id":155,"url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2024-04-15T13:39:15.000-05:00","name":"Open SUNY"}],"formats":[{"id":221,"type":"PDF","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/steps-to-success-pdf/?tmstv=1672258551","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":222,"type":"eBook","url":"https://milneopentextbooks.org/download/steps-to-success-epub/?tmstv=1672258551","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":223,"type":"Online","url":"https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/steps-to-success/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":27,"reviews":[{"id":803,"first_name":"Cathryn","last_name":"Lambeth","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"College of Education, Concordia University, Portland","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"One of the strengths of this text is the inclusion of chapters relating to current best practices in literacy instruction. Specifically, the chapters covering the link between assessment and literacy instruction and interventions, relating to reading instruction across content areas, and literacy and literacy instruction in our expanding world. \n\nThe Table of Contents is clear and describes the span of topics in this text, but there is not a glossary or index. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Each chapter reflects current research and best practices in literacy. Many chapters also include commentary on current issues in literacy, or nicely encapsulate historical perspectives. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text succinctly explains relevant and recent research, issues, and best practices. I appreciate the integration of assessment and instructional considerations. Updates could be made efficiently since the themes of each chapter are clear. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The short, well-written sections of this text make it easier to navigate then some on-line, text-heavy materials. I never got lost scrolling through the pages. Many chapters integrate illustrations and tables that support and illustrate the material. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The common format for each chapter aids the reader in navigating the chapters. Each chapter contains learning goals and a set of questions and activities to enrich the reader's understandings. While many chapters defined specific academic terms based on the topic, the writing was generally free of jargon and extremely readable. The authors were succinct but addresses the topics completely and clearly. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters can be used in or out of context easily, and they stand along in their description of the content. This text could be used for a variety of courses, drawing from chapters or even parts of chapters without further information. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"While the chapters may be read as stand-alones, the book flows nicely between topics. The early chapters (1 - 6) focus on literacy instruction for emergent and early readers, the middle section addresses literacy instruction with special populations and tools, and the remaining chapters tell the story of literacy at the secondary levels and in the future. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text was easy to navigate. The chapters were short with sufficient markers (headings, charts, etc.) to avoid frustration with scrolling. The illustrations were clear and large enough to be easily read. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"A thorough, professional edition. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text describes literacy issues and best practices that are not easily located in a published trade textbook. The chapters on literacy for English learners, and specifically for students with learning disabilities, are often difficult to locate in a comprehensive text. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This text has an exceptionally comprehensive and strong basis in current research. It incorporates current and cumulative understandings rather than a single researcher's viewpoint. It is aligned with edTPA language for professors and students working under that system. Chapter 1 could have used a little editing to avoid emphasis on a personal experiential reflections, but overall the text provides a valuable, updated resource for multiple topics of literacy instruction. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":807,"first_name":"Gregory","last_name":"Koers","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is very comprehensive and would effectively serve as an excellent text for teacher practitioners.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"It utilizes some of the most current research regarding literacy.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The relevance of the research is up to date and should be relatively easy to update as new research unfolds in the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose is clear and concise, but does not oversimplify information.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Terminology is very consistent throughout the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book lends itself to easy modularity and can subdivided based on the course content and focus.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"There is a logical flow that is very clear.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems and distortion of images/charts.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text does not contain grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book is culturally aware.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"N/A","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":880,"first_name":"Kenneth","last_name":"Farizo","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text provides multiple points of view, with a different topic and author for each chapter. This approach offers a variety of perspectives on major issues in literacy. All sections of the text are well-organized, including table of contents, index, essential questions, objectives, and questions for discussion.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content appears to be accurate and unbiased, although these authors are promoting specific theories and perspectives. As a result, there is some inherent biases, though nothing unusual.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is current and relevant to issues surrounding literacy theory and practice. The text seems that it will not become dated any time soon.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text provides many different authors and writing styles, which is a strength. Most chapters are well-written, current, and relevant to issues of literacy.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text provides a consistent theme reflected in the title: bridging literacy research and practice.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The modularity is a strength of the text. Each section/chapter provides a different voice/author/issue . Over the course of a semester, each issue could be addressed using these chapters as anchor texts to facilitate assignments and discussion. The text offers intriguing activity/questions for each chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The structure is organized and clear, making transitions from one issue to another in a logical progression.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No interface problems. The display features are useful and relevant to the text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No significant grammar issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally relevant, with relevant inclusion of many different backgrounds and points of view.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I like the organization of the text - many perspectives and issues to keep students \"current in the conversations\" surrounding literacy research and practice. There are many single author textbooks on literacy, but this text offers a more varied consideration of current research and practice.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":916,"first_name":"Kim","last_name":"Skinner","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Louisiana State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The fourteen chapters in Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice are both comprehensive and concise, making this edited collection particularly appealing to educators and students alike. The chapters contained in this collection represent current research and practices in the field of literacy in a format accessible to students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Able to be used in tandem with other chapters or as stand-alone pieces, the chapters of this text could be utilized in numerous undergraduate and graduate literacy courses. Each chapter offers guiding questions and activities to aid comprehension and application of the concepts. References are included at the end of each chapter, however the text does not provide an index or glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text content is well-researched and accurate. Each chapter author has conducted original research in the topic area he or she addressed, providing in-depth reviews of the current knowledge base.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"While the field of literacy continues to broaden and evolve, the text's content is up-to-date and offers the reader an overview of the current knowledge base as well as insight into areas of future research. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"As this text is an edited volume the writing styles vary across the volume, though the presentation and format of the information remains constant. The academic terminology is adequately explained within the chapters and the writing is accessible.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Consistency is evident through the inclusion of goals, the current state of research, and concluding questions within and across chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Comprehension of information within individual chapters is not dependent on knowledge from the preceding chapter. Variance of the sequence of the material is possible and chapters could be omitted or regrouped without interference to understanding.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text begins with a brief introduction of the field of literacy followed by research approaches for literacy instruction within and across literacy components. Ending with international considerations and teacher identities is logical and timely.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The brevity of the chapters and overall text makes navigation across chapters not problematic. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors were evident.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"An emphasis on cultural relevance and responsiveness is apparent throughout the text. Topics include English Language Learners, culturally responsive strategies for disciplinary literacy, and world language and literacy learning.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This highly accessible text offers a broad scope and stand-alone chapters, making it a valuable resource for numerous undergraduate and graduate courses in literacy education. ","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1014,"first_name":"Beth","last_name":"Beschorner","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Minnesota State University, Mankato","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"As the author states, \"this book spans many topics related to literacy teaching and learning\". Chapters are included on several topics related to literacy research and instructional practices that are fundamental to understanding the key aspects of children's development of literacies, literacy research, and effective instructional practices for a wide range of learners. Some of the chapters are quite specific in scope and, therefore, might not be applicable for all pre-service and/or in-service teachers (e.g. the chapter that focuses on twenty-first century perspectives attends to issues in adolescent literacy and not younger children). However, these chapters would be pertinent in specific coursework, areas of study or preparation, etc.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is based on seminal research in the area of literacies. Each of the topics that are presented in the book accurately include the main ideas and supporting information about the topic.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Given the ever-evolving nature of platforms, and related skills and strategies, for literacies, and the subsequent influence on literacy practices and related instruction, this is a difficult question to answer. However, it seems that it will be quite possible for this text to be easily updated over time in order to remain current.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This text utilizes straightforward language and often defines terms that might be unfamiliar to the reader. Moreover, the author has included links that provide more information, examples, videos, etc. to illustrate some terms. For example, in chapter ten the author describes the instructional strategy known as a gallery walk. There is a link included within the text that takes the reader to a website that includes a description of a gallery walk and provides a short video illustrating the practice. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This is an edited book. Therefore, several authors have contributed to the content and ideas in the book. However, the text in each chapter clearly articulates the underlying theoretical perspectives about the content in each chapter, includes a research base for the topic, and provides examples of applications in real classroom contexts. This common text structure is consistent and, therefore, aids the reader.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The structure of this text is a strength. Specifically, the chapters are organized by significant topics in literacy instruction and can be read together or separately. Given the broad scope of the topics that are included in the text (e.g. writing in elementary schools, adolescent literacy, etc.), it is likely that instructors might choose to use some, but not all, of the content.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization of the book is strength of the text. The structure of the text includes an abstract, objectives, and a summary with questions and activities. Additionally, the chapters are organized into short sections with bold headings that often describe instructional practice and the research that supports those practices. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Several of the references for each chapter include links to the actual article or other source. This is a fabulous addition for any reader of this text, because the reader can explore the research/references more deeply by following the links that have been included. This might be a particularly useful feature for students that are studying a specific topic.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"In general, this text promotes culturally relevant instructional practices by including a diverse set of classroom examples in each chapter. Further, there are chapters that are specifically focused on inclusive practices for all children. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1573,"first_name":"Yun-Ting","last_name":"Hung","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Metropolitan State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook is very comprehensive. The authors provide an in-depth explanation of different theory and  concepts. In addition, classroom based and real life examples were provided. I can see teacher candidates and in service teachers apply the information for the text into their classroom practice. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Information provided is accurate. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up to date with additional resources provided. Links for other online resources, websites and references are provided and should be easy to update in the future. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Each chapter has different author and each of them has their unique writing style. The text is written is a way that is easy to follow and understand. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in terms of tones, voices and terminology. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is extremely modular in its organization at the chapter level. In other words, It can be easily reordered by the instructor or students based on the course or students needs. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is well-organized with easy to follow structure. Individual topics are also well-organized. The first half of the book focused on emergent literacy and young learner and the second half of the book focused on middle/upper grade learners. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Both online and PDF version work well. Easy to navigate for first time user. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is well written. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Chapter 12 addresses culturally responsive literacy strategies specifically, however, I would like to see more culturally relevant  instruction and examples throughout the whole text.  ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Overall, this book is well organized with rich information for literacy instruction. Highly recommended. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1617,"first_name":"Brooke","last_name":"Hardin","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Appalachian State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text offers a variety of view points, with a different topic and author for each chapter. This approach provides diverse perspectives on major/critical issues in literacy. There is not a glossary for the text, but this does not take away from its usefulness.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text content references current research in the field, and each chapter author has conducted original research in the topic area he or she addressed. While the theoretical/conceptual frameworks used may have some inherent bias, the text is error-free and unbiased. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content reflects both seminal and relevant ideas in the field of literacy, making it a most useful text. In addition, the text points to potential for future research in the ever-evolving field of literacy.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Due to the nature of many different authors for different chapters, the writing styles vary within the text. However, this does not distract the reader and actually makes the text more engaging, allowing a reader to experience different voices for different topics. Overall, the text is well-written.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The theme, \"bridging literacy research and practice\" is reflected throughout the text. There is a common thread evident in each chapter connecting what research and in-the-field practice.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is one of the more evident strengths of the text. The text can be used in smaller sections throughout a semester and paired with supplementary texts to provide a varied text set around an issue/topic. In addition, each chapter of the text provides an opportunity for engaging activities and questions.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The flow and organization of the text is exceptionally logical and clear.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Professional interface; the text is free is void of any distorted images/charts, navigation issues, or distracting features.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Very professional; no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Compared to many other texts, this text addresses issues relevant to English Language Learners and populations with learning disabilities. Many backgrounds and perspectives are included in the text.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I especially appreciate the variety of authors portrayed in the book. Like many of my favorite hard copy texts, this text feels like a handbooks that addresses pertinent issues in the field and provides a wider lens through which to think about these issues. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1815,"first_name":"Mikkaka","last_name":"Overstreet","position":"Assistant Professor of Reading Education","institution_name":"East Carolina University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers a great deal of relevant current literacy research, without feeling too broad or disconnected. The topics are covered thoroughly and in such ways that both novices and seasoned readers alike can understand and learn from the material.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I do not believe there is any way to write an unbiased text, but the author's are transparent about their stances. For example, the author that introduces literacy as a concept draws on UNESCO's definition of literacy as a fundamental right. This approach is very different from some who might approach it as a discrete set of skills. Knowing this, however, the text is very accurate from that perspective and the authors provide evidence to support the stance they've taken.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"For the most part this book has longevity, though I can't imagine how it could remain entirely relevant for more than a few years. When including topics like children's literature or digital literacies, no writer can anticipate major changes, advances, resources, and titles. Still, it does a good job of covering relevant topics.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is a fairly accessible read. I do think it reads better for researchers and teacher educators than for teacher education students, but with proper scaffolding it can still serve.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Though there are multiple writers and each chapter can stand alone, the conceptual framework is maintained and the book is cohesive.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter can stand alone and they are of a manageable length. Within each chapter, topics are well organized.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters are logically sequenced and the topics within each are connected in clear ways. Occasional heading formatting issues don't interfere with the overall structure.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is easy to navigate and all images and figures are readable.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is free of grammatical issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text does an excellent job of considering issues of culture and social justice, within the parameters of literacy research. The theorists that are cited are the top in our field. When doing a book on reading and writing, it would be easy to ignore the inherent connections between who we are and how we teach and learn, but the others in this volume don't take that easy route. Well done.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1829,"first_name":"Xiang ","last_name":"Shen","position":"Visiting Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Miami University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook addresses a wide range of topics in the field of literacy. Authors did a great job preparing readers to follow the ideas from the introduction to literacy, word-level and text-level literacy all the way to the new literacy and other critical topics in the field. It also includes topics about literacy development of learners with diverse needs, such as English language learners and learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The structure is clear, and text is easy to read. As the title indicates, bridging the research and instructional practice, the theme of the book, is consistently maintained across chapters.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The information presented in this textbook is accurate. Primary resources were used. The discussion seems to be objective. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This textbook includes updated resources. Future updates can be easily made to the current framework of the book.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to read. The first chapter, which serves as an orientation session, provides an overview of the book. Technical terms within each chapter are clearly explained with examples. The learning objectives and the reflection questions are helpful for readers to have an in-depth understanding of the text. In addition, graphic organizers and tables used in some chapters support the clarity. Overall, the text is comprehensible to readers in literacy education. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The consistency of the text is well maintained with respect to the uses of terminologies and concepts, the structure of each chapter ( abstract, learning objectives, and questions and activities), as well as the theme of the book across all chapters (i.e.bridging research and practice).","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Because it is an edited book, chapters are structured in the same way with abstracts and learning objectives included. This makes it easier to select certain chapters based on class focus. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization within each chapter is clear with subheadings used to address \"what\", \"why\", and \"how\" questions of a certain concept. Readers can see how the concept evolves with connections to instructional practices.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"There are no interface problems. The images and charts are properly placed in text and can be easily navigated.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical erros.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is strongest when connections are made to the literacy development of learners with diverse needs (e.g. chapter 8, 9,12, 13).","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2006,"first_name":"Tara","last_name":"Wilson","position":"Assistance Professor ","institution_name":"University of Texas - Permian Basin","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Wow! The editor of text did a fantastic job incorporating multiple areas of literacy! I like how each chapter can be read separate from one another, but there are references to other chapters so that the reader knows where to look for additional information on that aspect. The authors of the individual chapters cite numerous literacy “gurus”. The index is effective in helping the reader decide which chapter(s) peak their interest. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content definitely is unbiased. The book discusses multicultural literacy and students with disabilities in a straightforward manner. I did not notice any errors. ","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"There is mention of NCLB, and that act no longer exists. Though there are a ton of great citations, most of them are quite dated. I do feel that it would be easy to add updated information. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is well written! I am considering using pieces of it with my undergraduates. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The text is incredibly consistent in terms of terminology. However, there are places where acronyms are used and then times where they are not.  For example, one chapter goes back and forth between English Language Learners and ELLs. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"My favorite aspect of this text is how divisible it is! This makes it extremely useful in my undergraduate courses. All the different headings make this possible. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is easy to follow, not choppy at all. ","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"Labeling of tables, charts and figures are slightly confusing. They are all labeled as figure 1 or table 1. I feel that the number should correspond to the chapter and order (i.e. the third figure in chapter five should be labeled as 5.3) Labeling tables and figures like that would help with assigning in courses. \nSome figures are even repeated. \n","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"No issues noticed. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book discusses multicultural literacy and students with disabilities in a straightforward manner. ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"Overall, I think this is a great text! My undergraduates have enjoyed it as part of their coursework. ","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2049,"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Kelley","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Washington State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":" The book addresses most of the topics for a course about literacy methods. However, two areas that could be added are: the cueing systems and the stages of spelling development. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"For the most part, the book presents accurate information and identifies positive and negative aspects about instructional strategies by including research to support the information.  That said, Chapter 5: Types of Literacy Assessment seems to overemphasize the benefits of DIBELS without presenting the concerns about DIBELS. (Riedel, B. W. (2007). The relation between DIBELS, reading comprehension, and vocabulary in urban first-grade students. Reading research quarterly, 42(4), 546-567.)","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date and connects to the current educational context such as the Common Core State Standards.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Most of the chapters are clearly written and provides clear examples or scenarios. Specifically, the chapters written by the editor, Kristen Munger, are the most lucid and engaging chapters.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"There is consistency throughout the book; however, some chapters provide more of a critical stance to literacy methods and research while other chapters are less analytical. For example, the chapters written by Munger do best job in presenting different perspectives and research.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The books chapters are generally the same length and will be easy to assign for course topics. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book topics seem to be in a logical sequence that will make sense to a pre-service teacher. However, the true test is using this book with students and getting their feedback.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Although I did not click on all of the links to additional resources, most of the links worked. That said, the link for “RAND Reading Study Group” mentioned in Chapter 1 had a 404 error. When errors such as this are discovered, is there a way to contact the author so that it can be updated/fixed? If this information is already in the textbook, it was not easy to locate.\n\nWhen reading a certain chapter, another chapter may be mentioned in the text which includes a hyperlink to the mentioned chapter. For example, in Chapter 7, the author notes: “Recall from Chapter 1 that modes of communication….” I had hoped that the link would go to the specific section in Chapter 1; however, the link went directly to the beginning of Chapter 1. \n","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any glaring grammar errors; however, there were a few typos and text alignment issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Although the book presents the need for pre-service teachers to consider culture in relation to instructional practices, I would have liked to see culture addressed/consider in each chapter.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2095,"first_name":"Mary ","last_name":"Anderson ","position":"Assistant Professor ","institution_name":"Winona State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covered all areas in the table of contents. The book had many areas of importance. The first eleven chapters were practical and included examples of strategies and activities for the classroom. The last three chapters were more theoretical in nature. ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"From my perspective, the book’s information was accurate. There were a few errors/questions:\nFirst sentence, first three lines:  White. Kind boys….  (white, kind boys?)\np. vii: “stoned on cough medicine” - I am not sure what the author was saying, but it struck me odd to use that phrasing, within this book.\np. vii:  two colons used in the same sentence.  I am not sure if that is mechanically correct.\np. 51: first sentence under “why language is important” – extra space in front of “morphology” \nChapter 8 in the abstract:  4th line says “at6s” and it should be “as” \n","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is written in a logical, systemic way so that future updates could be made rather easily. \n","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I thought the chapters were clear and concise.  I appreciated the terms and explicit information.  For example, the author’s clarity was excellent in explaining the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. The chapters were broken into smaller chunks, each having a heading.  That made for clarity as well. I did not think the last three chapters were as clear. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter had learning objectives, questions and activities, and extensive references.  The setup of each chapter also was consistent (length, smaller chunks). ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is readily divisible by chapter and by smaller sections with headings.  While I read the book in entirety, it could easily be read by chapter or even smaller chunks. Chapters do not rely on each other for understanding","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I thought the chapters were in a clear order.  Chapters 1-12 seemed in order (if one wanted or chose to read in entirely).  These chapters were practical and informative.  Chapter 13 and 14 did not seem to fit as well. While the chapters have relevance and are important, it was not on methodology as the rest of the book seemed to be. However, the book was well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The pages of the “book” did not align with the pages online.  There is a small gray box in the bottom right hand corner telling the reader what page they are on. For example, the online box said p. 128, and the book said p. 112. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found only 1 grammar error (and it may be that I didn’t understand the nuance, or it was mechanical vs grammatical): First sentence, first three lines:  White. Kind boys….  (white, kind boys?)","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not read any culturally insensitive material.  In fact, the book had several chapters and parts of chapters specific to cultural relevance","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book was informative and packed with great information and current research. It was easy to read, and the majority of the book read like a good novel.  I didn’t want to put it down.  I especially liked the practical, well written, concise material on word recognition, comprehension, literacy assessment, and writing instruction. \n\nChapter 4:  Not sure the braid illustration was needed twice. \n\nChapter 5: I was surprised there was no mention of Fountas and Pinnell, running records, or monitoring reading levels. \n\nChapter 7, Influence of the Digital Age on Children’s Literature and Its Use in the Classroom was somewhat disappointing.  It was not as succinct in classroom practice and the earlier chapters, nor did the content match the title.  I assumed that the chapter would be about how to incorporate digital tools into the classroom with a focus on children’s literature.  For example, I wrongly assumed that there would be information on apps and tools to lead to more literature (Epic! app as an example). \n\nChapter 11, Teaching as a Writer – Assigning as a Reader was too ambiguous in the teacher’s role in writing.  For example, “It is the responsibility of teachers to know the language conventions.”  I agree, yet do they?  Do all teachers teach writing skills, especially in the secondary?  “Students should be mentored to use proper language…” The ambiguousness is that the books needs to say, “students must be mentored…. (not should). There was also a lot about relationships in this chapter.  I do not disagree, I just think the writing portion, including mechanics, punctuation, word choice, and grammar, should be highly emphasized and all teachers in all content areas must teach students these skills. \n\nChapter 12: Great points and tables for content area teachers.  In the next edition, add the same for PE, Health, technology, and vocational teachers. Literacy is no less important in any of these content areas and not written about very often. \n","created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2165,"first_name":"Mary","last_name":"Anderson","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Winona State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covered all areas in the table of contents. The book had many areas of importance. The first eleven chapters were practical and included examples of strategies and activities for the classroom. The last three chapters were more theoretical in nature.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"From my perspective, the book’s information was accurate. There were a few errors/questions:\nFirst sentence, first three lines:  White. Kind boys….  (white, kind boys?)\np. vii: “stoned on cough medicine” - I am not sure what the author was saying, but it struck me odd to use that phrasing, within this book.\np. vii:  two colons used in the same sentence.  I am not sure if that is mechanically correct.\np. 51: first sentence under “why language is important” – extra space in front of “morphology” \nChapter 8 in the abstract:  4th line says “at6s” and it should be “as”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The text is written in a logical, systemic way so that future updates could be made rather easily.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I thought the chapters were clear and concise.  I appreciated the terms and explicit information.  For example, the author’s clarity was excellent in explaining the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness. The chapters were broken into smaller chunks, each having a heading.  That made for clarity as well. I did not think the last three chapters were as clear.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter had learning objectives, questions and activities, and extensive references.  The setup of each chapter also was consistent (length, smaller chunks).","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is readily divisible by chapter and by smaller sections with headings.  While I read the book in entirety, it could easily be read by chapter or even smaller chunks. Chapters do not rely on each other for understanding","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I thought the chapters were in a clear order.  Chapters 1-12 seemed in order (if one wanted or chose to read in entirely).  These chapters were practical and informative.  Chapter 13 and 14 did not seem to fit as well. While the chapters have relevance and are important, it was not on methodology as the rest of the book seemed to be. However, the book was well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The pages of the “book” did not align with the pages online.  There is a small gray box in the bottom right hand corner telling the reader what page they are on. For example, the online box said p. 128, and the book said p. 112.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found only 1 grammar error (and it may be that I didn’t understand the nuance, or it was mechanical vs grammatical): First sentence, first three lines:  White. Kind boys….  (white, kind boys?)","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not read any culturally insensitive material.  In fact, the book had several chapters and parts of chapters specific to cultural relevance","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book was informative and packed with great information and current research. It was easy to read, and the majority of the book read like a good novel.  I didn’t want to put it down.  I especially liked the practical, well written, concise material on word recognition, comprehension, literacy assessment, and writing instruction. \n\nChapter 4:  Not sure the braid illustration was needed twice. \n\nChapter 5: I was surprised there was no mention of Fountas and Pinnell, running records, or monitoring reading levels. \n\nChapter 7, Influence of the Digital Age on Children’s Literature and Its Use in the Classroom was somewhat disappointing.  It was not as succinct in classroom practice and the earlier chapters, nor did the content match the title.  I assumed that the chapter would be about how to incorporate digital tools into the classroom with a focus on children’s literature.  For example, I wrongly assumed that there would be information on apps and tools to lead to more literature (Epic! app as an example). \n\nChapter 11, Teaching as a Writer – Assigning as a Reader was too ambiguous in the teacher’s role in writing.  For example, “It is the responsibility of teachers to know the language conventions.”  I agree, yet do they?  Do all teachers teach writing skills, especially in the secondary?  “Students should be mentored to use proper language…” The ambiguousness is that the books needs to say, “students must be mentored…. (not should). There was also a lot about relationships in this chapter.  I do not disagree, I just think the writing portion, including mechanics, punctuation, word choice, and grammar, should be highly emphasized and all teachers in all content areas must teach students these skills. \n\nChapter 12: Great points and tables for content area teachers.  In the next edition, add the same for PE, Health, technology, and vocational teachers. Literacy is no less important in any of these content areas and not written about very often.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2696,"first_name":"Aeve","last_name":"Abington-Pitre","position":"Assistant Professor of Reading Education","institution_name":"ULL","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The essential elements of literacy foundation I am seeking in a textbook, was very appropriate and concise.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The accuracy in textbook chapters were good. As we know all authors are going to share their personal opinions when writing. ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is current with historical support for content. ","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I believe the clarity of the text and the \"hot links\" embedded in the text is a great feature for undergraduate readers. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The team did an excellent job of consistency and accuracy in style, terminology and design.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"There are more reference to experts in the field (historical and current) to support all context, easy read and assignment of various chapters or entire textbook would be most helpful in future course planning.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Only change I would suggest is switching chapter 5 and chapter 6 placement... writing should follow reading as they are very closely tied together when it comes to instruction. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I am very impressed with the easy navigation of this text: click on a chapter and it opens to the exact page, click on a link within a page takes you to that website easily, back space brings you back to the textbook where you click on the chapter and you are back. Now I would prefer these links open in a new page just to save me time of having to use the scroll through the chapter and return to where I was reading at, but over all acceptable. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any errors. I have only read through once and as such was focused on if this would fit my needs for use in my class in fall 2019. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not find anything negative. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am very interested in using this book for one of my reading foundation courses in fall 2019. ","created_at":"2019-03-25T14:49:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-25T14:49:39.000-05:00"},{"id":2704,"first_name":"Sara","last_name":"Miller","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Longwood University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The authors do a nice job of thoroughly covering important aspects of literacy research and how this impacts (or should impact) practice.  ","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"For the most part, I feel that the content is accurate and unbiased.  One area that I would like to see more discussion was in chapter 2.  I understand the author’s emphasis on scientifically-based approaches and appreciated the brief discussion on how other types of research can still be important, but felt that this point of view could have been elaborated in more detail.  For instance, some empirical literacy research has focused on discrete skills to such an extent that the application to real world reading and writing is dismissed.  Also, I found the comments in chapter 4 about pre-reading strategies to be misleading.  There are many situations when working with emergent and early readers that a picture walk or other pre-reading techniques can support students word recognition and language comprehension.  ","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content contained many updated references and current literacy trends.  I did find one link that didn’t work (Chapter 4).  ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The authors did a thorough job explaining vocabulary in all chapters.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"I felt the text was very consistent with the exception of Chapter 9.  It was interesting that this chapter was organized around the NRP categories instead of the framework laid out previously in the text around word recognition and language comprehension.  This shift made the chapter feel like an “add-on” instead of a cohesive part of the text.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It was easy to read chapters of the text in isolation, but I think it would be a stronger tool if reading many chapters together.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Very well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I thought the interface was very easy to use.  I especially appreciated the ability to make one click and be back at the beginning of the chapter as well as the navigation tools at the bottom of the screen to move to the previous or subsequent chapters without having to click on the menu of chapters.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I found at least one error (abstract for Chapter 8).","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I appreciated the authors’ references to student culture and its impact on literacy learning throughout the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I thought the layout of the text was excellent, but I would have liked to see more visuals throughout the chapters (such as the figures in chapter 3).","created_at":"2019-03-28T14:56:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-03-28T14:56:39.000-05:00"},{"id":2773,"first_name":"Kay W.","last_name":"Kelly","position":"Adjunct instructor and supervisor","institution_name":"Marian University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"In this text, literacy is defined as involving reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and performing. My teachers often find it difficult to create a literacy lesson/unit that includes all of these aspects, especially the artistic aspects.  This book makes it easier for teachers to understand and include instruction/activities using this broad definition.\r\nThe text I recently used for teaching best practices in reading and social studies was not this comprehensive.  I especially liked this book’s links to additional information, videos, and examples.  \r\nAdding an index for topics and another for the researchers cited would be helpful.  A glossary would increase the comprehensiveness of this book.  An index could include links to the text which would make it easier to locate specific topics.\r\nI liked the inclusion of penmanship in the writing chapter “…proficient writers possess fluent handwriting skills…”p.76.  Assessment of student writing would have made this chapter stronger.\r\n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I wonder if the links will be updated or reviewed on an annual or other basis.  I clicked on some of these links and twice found the message “The page you are seeking is not available.”","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content is current now.  Is there a plan for including new research studies, especially on how we can reduce the vocabulary/learning gaps students bring to kindergarten?","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easily read and follows the best practice of telling students what will be studied by opening each chapter with objectives.  Each chapter ends with questions/activities that often included critical thinking at the higher Bloom levels.  Many of these questions could be excellent springboards to class discussion.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The writers and editors maintained consistency and accuracy in style, terms, voice, and design.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Because each chapter can stand alone, it is an excellent resource for several courses.  For example, a class focused on instructional practices in special education would find Chapter 9 very helpful.  Practicing teachers would, also, find such a chapter to be informative.  I will use Chapter 8 (ELL) when I supervise teachers in this field.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text is well organized and arranged in a logical manner.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I liked the way the table of contents was linked in such a way that a reader could click and immediately access that chapter.  There were helpful references in each chapter where one could click to return to additional information about a particular topic.  These links are time saving and might promote a broader understanding of a topic.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found only one typo and a couple of comma omissions: p.24, line 9 (…themselves, but…) and p.48, line 18 (…and, if asked after the flight, …)","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There were some references to socio-economic differences, but not enough suggestions about overcoming the gaps caused by low SES.  \r\nI would have liked more information about teaching strategies that are effective and culturally sensitive.  \r\n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I plan to use this text the next time I teach a best practice course about teaching reading.  \r\nI would, also, recommend it to teachers who are required to follow a basal reading program.  Combining the information in this book with school/district/basal requirements will provide teachers with understandable research to enhance such requirements.\r\n","created_at":"2019-04-11T23:53:45.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-11T23:53:45.000-05:00"},{"id":3095,"first_name":"Kathy Meyer","last_name":"Reimer","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Goshen College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is generally comprehensive in its coverage of literacy instruction areas (vocabulary, writing, word recognition, background knowledge, etc), developmental levels from elementary school through high school, literacy with different demographics of students (including EL and special needs), and world language literacy as well as English literacy.   I saw less discussion of the role of text structures in literacy, very early literacy, or instruction for low SES students.  The areas that were covered (and there were many) were covered fully.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The research cited was covered accurately, with good representation of the data.  The authors were also willing to present research from a number of different perspectives.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"These are important topics and the book did not describe many branded approaches or things that would come and go rapidly from the field.  The authors were willing to cover seminal research that was older along with the more recent research.  There is a clear structure that will mean sections could be added if necessary.  In fact a chapter could be inserted if the authors thought it would be helpful (and I would be glad to see one on early literacy or on text structures).","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Generally the book is very readable.  I appreciated a number of the chapters that had real voice to them--the authors brought some personality to the writing, not just the feel of a lit review.  The only language I noted that was used without explanation/definition was the term \"mini-lesson.\"  In the writing chapter it seemed the author assumed the reader would know what a mini-lesson was or how to conduct it.  The text reads smoothly and it is easy to follow where you are, even though it is a digital text.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Definitely.  The approach to the research, how it is described, and what language is used is consistent throughout the book.  The book is not full of jargon and uses terms clearly.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"It would be easy to use a chapter or two from the book on a specific topic without using the whole text and it would be comprehensible.  You could even lift a section of a chapter as they are clearly defined.  The book is text heavy, but the text is clearly defined by headers.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters are consistent and clear in their organization.  The book is text heavy.  The graphics that are included are well done and clear and enhance the text--I would like to have seen even more graphical information, particularly in the early chapters of the book.  The sections of each chapter are consistent throughout.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I reviewed the PDF version of the book and had no trouble with links, charts or tables.  I would have been happy to have even more graphic representations, but the mechanics of the links and moving between links and text worked well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no more errors than I would in a printed text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I did not find evidence of cultural insensitivity.  I would have been glad for the book to discuss some other cultural issues such, as poverty or gender, more specifically, but there have to be parameters along the way.  The book is clearly illuminating the research that has been done in the area of literacy, so there are some areas of literacy that have much less research and are not addressed as fully.  That is an accurate representation of the field and of how literacy and culture have intersected.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The book is very comprehensive in covering why a topic is important and what the research says.  It also includes an instructional component.  I find in undergraduate classes and particularly literacy methods courses, students are eager to read about specific methods and how to implement them.  This text is strong on activities and how you would conduct an activity, but I found it not quite as strong on describing specifically how you would conduct some literacy processes or structures--such as a mini-lesson, or some of the other structures the book refers to.  \r\n\r\nThe assessment section discusses assessments, types of assessments, and conversations in the field about assessments, but is not as strong on situated, authentic assessments.  These also potentially have less research available, which may be why they are not discussed as comprehensively.\r\n\r\nI enjoyed this textbook and will definitely use chapters as I teach in the fall.","created_at":"2019-07-15T22:57:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-07-15T22:57:00.000-05:00"},{"id":3472,"first_name":"Ronda","last_name":"Fritz","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Eastern Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covered a wide range of topics related to literacy, but did so comprehensively for a text that might be used for an introductory course on literacy instruction. Because it was covering such a wide range, it didn't delve deeply into any one topic, but did provide a very good overview of literacy and the many facets that need to be discussed throughout a teacher education program. I saw the first nine chapters as excellent for use in an elementary education program, while the final chapters would be good for middle and high school pre-service teachers (perhaps with chapters 8 \u0026 9 and 14 being important for both groups). ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text used content that was very well-supported through use of citations that are important to the field of literacy education. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is highly relevant and provides very up-to-date information on literacy instruction, particularly coverage of the Simple View of Reading in the earlier chapters. Since there is a current emphasis on using the Science of Reading to teach pre-service teachers about literacy instruction, I found it especially helpful for providing an excellent overview. Chapters that might require frequent updating, such as the sections on technology integration, could easily be updated. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is very well-written throughout. It is easily accessible to pre-service and in-service teachers and the style across chapters seemed to flow well even though each was written by various authors.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text seemed very cohesive and consistent across chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I definitely found that the text could be used in smaller sections and I could see using the text split into different courses. As I noted earlier, some chapters seemed more applicable to elementary while others were better suited to secondary.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The topics throughout the text seemed to flow well throughout. Bridging the elementary and secondary sections with information on literacy for special populations was a good way to separate the two sections, but still have them flow together.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text used excellent links to outside resources and these links seemed to work very well.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no significant grammatical errors in the text. It was well-written throughout.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text seemed to be culturally sensitive throughout.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is an excellent text to use as an overview to literacy instruction. It will be a great resource to use in literacy courses in pre-service teacher education.","created_at":"2020-01-05T20:32:31.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-05T20:32:31.000-06:00"},{"id":3621,"first_name":"Shuling","last_name":"Yang","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"East Tennessee State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has an extensive span from early literacy, foundations of literacy, intermediate literacy, writing, to teacher's self-identity. It has 13 chapters and incorporated most recent literature. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is unbiased and except for one typo at the end of the book. Also the book is updated in 2019 but ILA just issued statements in early 2020, So this can be updated as well.  It also provides detailed descriptions of activities. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is arranged in a logical way from research findings, to early literacy, then comprehension. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, objectives, and by the end a summary and references. Like the editor suggested, each of the chapter can be used separately but there is also a connection between the chapters. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is clearly written. It is really nice that the authors in Chapter 4 and 5 used many analogies to explain the reading process. This makes it easier to understand for novice learners. Chapter 2 is a well-written as well and it focuses on a neglected area, how to help teachers to locate and identify research-based strategies. It is highly recommended but this chapter gives explicit instructions. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter in the book followed the same structure and it is easy to navigate throughout the chapter. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is separate and can be separate to use as its own. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 can be used together because both of them are based on the Simple View of Reading. In each chapter, the subheadings are clear and helps readers to know the topic of the paragraph. There is no enormous blocks of text in the chapter without a subheading. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book covers a lot of areas from research-based strategies, early literacy, word recognition, comprehension, assessments, to children's literature, adolescent literature, writing and teacher's self-identity. The first few chapter of the book will be good to be used in the introductory courses in reading for preservice teachers. A few chapters at the back can be used in graduate level courses. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is clearly written with many internet resources linked. All the links worked so the readers can reach the additional resources without a problem. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical issues are found. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book takes into consideration of cultural and linguistic diversity. It has one chapter on ELLs (chapter 8), one chapter on culturally responsive literacy strategies instruction (Chapter 12), and one chapter on world language and literacy learning (Chapter 13). It covers second language acquisition, and funds of knowledge to meet the needs of the current issue in education. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The authors of the book had made great to include most critical areas in the literacy field. The digital age of children's literature definitely a must-read chapter for all preservice teachers and Chapter 2 would be a good course read as well. ","created_at":"2020-03-06T06:45:39.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-03-06T06:45:39.000-06:00"},{"id":3833,"first_name":"David","last_name":"Almeida","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book covers information gleaned from valid research from The National Commission on Excellence in Education, through The National Reading Panel Report, to valid current research in literacy theory and instruction.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book presents content in an accurate and extremely unbiased manner, with authors going out of their way to present both sides of controversial issues in the field.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The information presented in the book is current and up-to-date, but because the book is so strongly research based, it can easily be updated as continuing literacy research emerges.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is exceptionally readable and filled with real life examples, while continually including all technical/field related language and terminology.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The textbook is internally consistent, as a whole and also within chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As an instructor of a number of courses in literacy development and reading/writing disabilities, this text provides multiple opportunities for me to use individual chapters or the book as a whole for my undergraduate or graduate students, as I see appropriate for our developing needs.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is very well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I read the book in its entirety and found it to be almost totally free of issues which might confuse the reader","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There were perhaps one or two minor grammatical issues, but nothing of consequence.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I thought the text was very sensitive to cultural issues and was extremely inclusive, especially when it came to student backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Here is a review that I put together after reading the text:\r\n\"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge between Literacy Research and Practice\"  (Kristen A. Munger, ed.) was written for all preservice teachers or teachers of record who are interested in the theoretical framework behind why a subset of their students are experiencing (or are at-risk for) reading failure, as well as obtaining practical advice on how to improve their planning and instruction when working with these students.  \r\nThis exceptionally readable and thought-provoking text is perfect for introductory college or university literacy courses, as it describes research-supported literacy practices that are perfectly appropriate for teachers of all students, at all ages.  Each chapter includes information presented in a problem-solving format, beneficial for helping teachers improve their literacy practices when teaching typically developing readers, as well as readers with special needs.  The chapters begin with an abstract and a set of learning objectives and end with questions, resources, etc., useful for instructors and course participants alike.  Information is presented in a variety of interesting ways, with relevant “real life examples” with which preservice and practicing teachers can readily identify.  Each chapter connects smoothly one to the other, yet each chapter could also be used on its own, as a supplement to instructor-selected readings from other sources.","created_at":"2020-05-27T08:29:58.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-05-27T08:29:58.000-05:00"},{"id":4684,"first_name":"Shelly","last_name":"Meyers","position":"Professor of Elementary Education","institution_name":"Limestone University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers a wide array of topics in literacy research and best practices. Even though the copyright is 2016, the text still represents most topics in more recent research. (A new edition to reflect the most recent Science of Reading research would bring this text up to date.)","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content of this text is consistent with other texts in the same field. Multiple perspectives on literacy topics were provided which aids in student understanding of literacy research and instruction as a \"practice\". There were no evident biases noted.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because of the organization of the text, updates to reflect the most recent research in the Science of Reading would be helpful. I intend to use this text again next year with supplements from more recent research in the field. The text cites research and practice that is still relevant for current classrooms.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"This text is written in a \"research journal\" style which makes it challenging for undergraduate students, particularly at the beginning of their literacy coursework. However, because these students need to learn to read in this genre, it is appropriate. A glossary or supplementary material may make the text more accessible for students learning literacy jargon.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text has multiple authors, but the voice was consistent. There were no contradictions in philosophy, but the presence of multiple perspectives.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"One of the best attributes of this text is that it is available in multiple e-reader formats as well as a pdf download. It has made the implementation of the text in multiple courses for different students quite simple.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text groups the strands of literacy into more comprehensive chapters, so while the content is present, it is sometimes difficult to find. A more detailed table of contents or index would be quite helpful. The titles of the chapters help to narrow the search for content, but more specificity would further clarify for search purposes.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I have had no issues with the text interface regardless of format.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is well-written with no found grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text specifically included a chapter on culturally responsive teaching, English Language Learners, as well as students with different intellectual and developmental disabilities. These chapters were quite informative.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I would be interested in any supplementary materials or updates that may be made to this text for future use.","created_at":"2021-03-08T11:33:46.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-03-08T11:33:46.000-06:00"},{"id":4916,"first_name":"Maggie","last_name":"Berg","position":"Professor","institution_name":"University of Northern Colorado","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice is an excellent textbook for the basics of literacy particularly for the younger elementary students.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice maintains and unbiased stance. (However, the chapter that contained information about teen's digital literacies, Chapter10, was removed and this may be a result of the political pressure to \"standardize Whiteness\" as some scholars have called the literacy testing regime.)","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice does an excellent job of explaining how the idea of \"literacy\" continues to expand, Chapter 1. It also has two excellent chapters on \"Word Recognition Skills\" and \"Language Comprehension Ability\" that provide a good explanation of The Simple View of Reading. Another excellent chapter is the final chapter on \"Teacher Discourses and Identities: Understanding Your Teaching Self.\" It provides thoughtful information and exercises that draw attention to identity performance through language.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice has Learning Objectives listed prior to the body of the text to help guide the reading. Each chapter ends with questions to assist students in thinking more deeply about the information. When technical vocabulary is presented, it is given context and definition.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice has consistent terminology with hyperlinks to other chapters if an idea from another chapter applies to the information being presented. One weakness overall is the presentation tends to be Anglo-centric so that ideas about multilingualism are partitioned off into Chapters 8 and 12, but this English preference is consistent throughout the text. The 5Cs of language learning are presented in Chapter 13 and these can be moved forward to situate English within a world context for a more ecological, rather than ethnocentric, perspective.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice has subheadings throughout chapters to make it easier to read and understand. The text is easy to adapt to literacy courses through the selection of single chapters that are not dependent upon other chapters.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice is presented in a logical and clear fashion and chapters can be taught in a different order than presented. The text has a heavy focus on elementary years and less information on the secondary years in the latter half of the book. No information is presented on adult learners which gives the impression that learning is finished upon graduation from high school. A conclusion chapter on adult learning would benefit the textbook and add to the lifespan order inherent in the organization.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice has visual appeal. The graphics are kept to a minimum for ease of reading and does not complicate comprehension with busy images and sidebars. The hyperlinks are useful for visual and knowledge support.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice is written in an easy-to-read style free from grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice has a weakness of limiting information about multilingualism to a few chapters, however, this shortcoming is common in most literacy textbooks written outside the English as an Additional Language and multilingualism scholarship.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Steps to Success: Crossing the Bridge Between Literacy Research and Practice is acceptable to the \"identify more (minority) children as dyslexic\" movement. The Simple View of Reading aligns with the \"phonics centric\" researchers' ideas; but as stated above, the textbook is rather weak in recognizing and preparing teachers for supporting the increasing numbers of multilingual learners who need/want to maintain a home language while adding English as an additional language. Instructors will need to augment this area of knowledge and research.","created_at":"2021-05-13T10:58:20.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-13T10:58:20.000-05:00"},{"id":33469,"first_name":"Jennifer","last_name":"Thoma","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Drake University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers many aspects of literacy research and practices, some that are not covered in traditional literacy assessment texts. Due to its comprehensive nature, each section provides an overview and does not necessarily cover the depth of each concept, nor does it provide applicable materials for application, as other texts might.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content of the text is accurate and cites many of the foundational studies you would expect in a literacy research text. I found no errors in the text. There are advocacy groups who may disagree with how some of the materials on students who find reading difficult are categorized in the book.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"With the changing nature of literacy research and the public media outlets for literacy instruction, it would be difficult for any text to remain relevant for more than a few years. The current text addresses many relevant topics and includes foundational research that has so far been shown to stand the test of time (and repeated research).","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text, although written by multiple authors with expertise in each area, is very clear and concise. Illustrations and figures are provided to illustrate concepts in a way that is helpful for the reader.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is internally consistent in the use of terminology. Although each chapter is a stand alone resource, the chapters draw on one another.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text is easy to use for just one or two chapters with students as a stand alone resource. It would be easy to split chapters into smaller chunks of reading for a group activity or to address certain concepts.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapter headings and abstracts help the reader to organize the information. The headings for each section are clear. There is a clear path to each chapter.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This text was easy to navigate in a digital format. It was easy to use the toolbar to quickly find different portions of the text. There is a search tool that helps you to find specific topics.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text includes information on serving students of different languages, cultures, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"There are definitely sections of this book that I will use with undergraduate students. This will supplement some materials I already use. It definitely does not go into the detail that my students would need to fully operationalize some of the concepts.","created_at":"2021-11-18T11:47:56.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-11-18T11:47:56.000-06:00"},{"id":33575,"first_name":"Norma Linda","last_name":"Mattingly","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Mount Mercy University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book had a table of contents and the first chapter provided a brief introduction to the field of literacy. Each chapter includes specific definitions of key literacy \u0026 educational terms, clearly enumerates learning objectives, and contains an introduction. The scope and sequence of the content reflects typical literacy textbooks with an added chapter that provides pre-service teachers with some important information on what scientifically-based literacy approaches are and how to determine whether certain literacy practices are actually supported by empirical or qualitative research. The text could have benefited from including an index.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Content is supported by research, which is cited within the text as well as at the end of each chapter. However, I noticed many statements within different chapters had only one citation per main idea or topic and could have benefited by other equally valid references. Take the following examples, for instance. \r\n\r\nOn p. 52 in Steps for Success … Vocabulary words that should be intentionally taught are those essential for understanding texts, those that are likely to be encountered across multiple tests, or those that are particularly difficult to understand (Beck, McKeown, \u0026 Kucan, 2002).\r\n\r\nThis statement on page 52 could also have been supported by the research conducted by Graves, M. (1986). Vocabulary Learning and Instruction in Review of Research in Education 13(1), 49-89. \u0026 McKeowna, M.G. (2019). Effective Vocabulary Instruction Fosters Knowing Words, Using Words, and Understanding How Words Work. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools(50), 466–476\r\n\r\nOn p. 82 in Steps for Success …. Finally, there is some evidence that children should engage in the writing process flexibly rather than rigidly (see McQuitty, 2014 for a review).\r\n\r\nThis statement about the writing process on page 82 could have also included a citation for the research done by Hayes, J. R., \u0026 Flower, L. (1980). Identifying the organization of written processes. In L. W. Gregg, \u0026 E. R. Steinberg (Eds.). Cognitive processes in writing (pp. 3-30). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.\r\n\r\nHayes, J. R., \u0026 Flower, L. (1987). On the structure of the writing process. Topics in Language Disorders, 7(4), 19-30. doi:10.1097/00011363-198709000-00004\r\n\r\nMurray, D. M. (1985). A writer teaches writing (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Relevant theories and methods of teaching literacy in the elementary grades are included. The chapters, in varying degrees, address the five pillars of literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, \u0026 comprehension. In my assessment, the text is organized in such a way that makes it possible to update the contents and add information as needed.  For instance, additional studies and strategies that address fluency can easily be included.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The concepts are readily accessible to undergraduate students, with key terms and concepts clearly explained. I appreciated the thorough yet accessible manner in which chapter 2 on scientifically-based approaches to literacy instruction was written with examples that students can relate to. The point of this chapter was to help pre-service teachers understand the importance of making well-informed decisions about teaching practices by helping them understand how to identify reputable sources.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"As I mentioned earlier, key terms are addressed within each chapter, including an explanation of key terms that are used across the chapters being defined in chapter one. The framework of the chapters is also consistent. Each chapter has a title, an abstract, learning objectives, an introduction to the chapter, headings and subheadings, a summary of key ideas, questions and activities, followed by references and where appropriate, endnotes. Within the chapters where links are included, they are still active.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters are clearly titled and subtitled. There are some pages where the text is continuous, perhaps requiring a graphic to break up these longer sections (i.e., p 35-36, p 45-47, p 115 \u0026 117, p128-9, p136-137, p148-151, etc.)\r\n\r\nThe headings and subheadings to lend themselves to being parsed out over several days with smaller sections being assigned in readable chunks. \r\n\r\nIn addition, the learning modules are appropriately titled so if needed, a course instructor could easily assign sections on certain topics in whatever fashion makes sense for his/her course.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is structured and follows a typical progression of major topics that include early literacy concepts such as phonemic awareness and phonics to the logical and subsequent topics of comprehension and writing. Fluency was paired with the chapter on literacy learning challenges, which made sense, but it could be its own chapter and come before the chapter on comprehension. The way the book was organized made sense yet, I do think that all young readers could benefit from fluency instruction, especially reading with expression, since it effects reading comprehension as well as is a motivating factor for continued reading success.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Links all work and will allow students to further investigate main topics easily, using the sources listed and supporting materials (i.e. p 17 Reviews of Collections of Programs, Curricula, Practices, p. 46 Willingham (2006) article, 102 story map, Colorin Colorado website, etc.) I was able to follow particular links and accessed them easily. I also printed the text in its entirety and all headings, subheadings, tables, graphics, images, etc. printed in a format which was visually appealing. For instance, on page 101, a student writing sample was included. The colors one student used in his/her drawing were vivid and the text was easily readable. There were no distortions of images that I could detect.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"There are a few places where further editing would be beneficial, but overall minimal grammar issues. (e.g.  over use of 'that':  One principal told me that she believed that many ineffective practices were connected to the \"love curriculum.\" When I asked her what she meant, she told me that some educators ...\r\n\r\nNo major grammatical errors noted.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text contained references to technology, digital \u0026 postmodern influences, and multi-modal literature responses in the chapter dedicated to children's literature and the role it plays in literacy instruction. While expression of ideas and the recognition of historical, societal, and political influences on the production and use of children's literature was acknowledged in chapter 7, there was less of a focus on the selection of multicultural literature that reflects the changes in school demographics and the need to have role models for a more diversified population of students. There was acknowledgement on p 93 to \" show a different perspective or viewpoint ... telling the story through multiple narrators and perspectives,\" but this was in reference to an author's stylist choices, not necessarily aimed at the use of multicultural literature. This was a missed opportunity to acknowledge that the texts we select should also reflect children's backgrounds and experiences. \r\n\r\nIncluded was a chapter on English Language Learners (chapter 8) with theories of language acquisition and theoretical language learning theories. There are many scientifically based strategies for ELLs that could have been cited and briefly explained just like was done in the word recognition skills Chapter 3. This was another missed opportunity.\r\n\r\nAnd finally, the chapter on literacy instruction for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities made references back to challenges these students have with phonemic awareness and phonics that hampers their advancement in literacy skills and the impact this has on their fluency, comprehension and vocabulary development. This chapter could also have included some scientifically validated approaches to fluency instruction such as ...\r\nFluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, Wide Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction, Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading, and Wide Fluency-Oriented Oral Reading (Kuhn, M.R.; Stahl, S.A.  (2003). Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. J. Educ. Psychology, 95, 3–21.    \r\nMiller, J.; Schwanenflugel, P.J. (2006). Prosody of syntactically complex sentences in the oral reading of young children. J. Educ. Psychol, 98, 839–843.    \r\nEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development NIH, DHHS. Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-4754); (2000). U.S. Government Printing Office: Washington, DC, USA.   \r\nStahl, S.A.; Heubach, K.M. (2005). Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction. J. Lit. Res. \r\nSindelar, (1983). The Effects of Segmenting Written Discourse on the Reading Comprehension of Low- and High-Performance Readers. Reading Research Quarterly(18)37, 25–60, L Journal of Teaching.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, I think this book contains some important literacy content. I can see myself using certain chapters of this book with my undergraduate students. I appreciate the effort the authors and editor/author made to make this text a free resource for students to use.","created_at":"2021-12-25T00:59:19.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-12-25T00:59:19.000-06:00"},{"id":33739,"first_name":"Amy","last_name":"Bowden","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Western Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Overall, I found this book to be fairly comprehensive, although there were a few key components that would have improved the readability and organization of this book. The beginning pages are quite helpful. A foreword by Kathleen Hinchman, a professor at Syracuse University, helpfully situates the book within a colleague's academic context. Following the foreword is an \"about the book\" section, which I found helpful as a preview of the in-depth chapters to come. The chapters themselves are very comprehensive. They provide a nice balance of overview and in-depth information. I particularly enjoyed the fact that this book covered literacy for all ages.  There is a chapter devoted to \"approaches to writing in the elementary school classroom,\" and there is a later chapter about \"twenty-first century perspectives on adolescent literacy and instruction.\" Similarly, the book traces literacy through various theories and perspectives, which would be useful to students trying to understand literacy as a field in terms of \"where it's been and where it's going.\" Key terms are delineated where appropriate. The book is missing end matter, such as an index, which would make it more accessible to the average reader.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book was well-researched, and citations were included where appropriate. A extensive references section is included following each chapter in the book, which would allow students to engage more deeply with research should they so wish to do so. That said, as other reviewers have indicated, there is often only one citation included where multiple citations would strengthen the validity of the argument that is being made. Additionally, the last update to this text was in 2019, which means that it is three years out of date. That is not necessarily problematic, though interested instructors may want to use the text as a foundation and supplement with more recent research.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As noted earlier, as a foundational text, this book works quite well. It relies on time-tested research that isn't controversial. The research included in this text will likely remain valuable to the field over the next many years. It will remain a useful research for students enrolled in practical literacy course in which students are seeking an overview of relevant information. It is, of course, difficult for a textbook to remain relevant in this era of information in which new research is constantly being released. The textbook format is not nearly as agile as information published digitally. Instructors using this text must be prepared to supplement this text with newer information, but it is still a great resource filled with useful information.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is written by multiple authors, which is sometimes problematic in terms of clarity; this book suffers from no problems of clarity whatsoever. The chapters flow nicely from one into the next (this is largely due to a standardized organizational system) so that following the main themes of the text is abundantly easy. This book would be a great choice for both student teachers and pre-service teachers who are beginning their journey into understanding literacy. The clarity of the text will benefit students, who will find it straightforward.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I did not discern any inconsistencies in terms of either terminology or framework. The text is very clear in defining its key vocabulary terms, and these are used consistently throughout the chapters - this in spite of the fact that multiple authors wrote this text. This holds true for literacy and pedagogy frameworks introduced by the authors. The text is consistent throughout.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The organization of this text is one of its best qualities. Chapters are organized with a brief abstract which gives a solid overview of information to be covered in the chapter. Following the abstract are a number of learning objectives that are measurable and concise. For example, one such learning objective is: \"After reading this chapter, readers will be able to discuss how educators and researchers have critiqued different ways of teaching writing.\" Various sub-heads break up the different chapters, so that text can be easily chunked. Readers can read one section and then return to read another later without losing the flow of the text. The end of each chapter is bookended with a summary that is a nice accompaniment to the abstract. Finally, questions, suggested activities, and web resources are included at the end of chapters.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This literacy textbook was well-organized, with a clear, coherent structure. In chapter 1, the text starts with a brief introduction to the topic of literacy and includes a \"how to use this book\" section. This is followed by a chapter devoted to key ideas in literacy instruction. From here, the next several chapters are devoted to a deeper dive into literacy abilities such as word recognition and language comprehension. Then, some guidelines are given with which a practitioner could evaluate a literacy program in their own school. Finally, literacy issues in elementary, high school, and special populations is addressed.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I explored both the PDF and online versions of this text before finally reading the online version. Both are intuitive and easy to navigate. The text blocks are well-designed and easy to engage with. No interface issues were discovered at all.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not detect any grammatical errors. The text is readable and professionally edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"A number of different perspectives are included in this text, representing a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. I particularly liked that several chapters were dedicated to discussing literacy in terms of special sub-populations of students. Chapter 7 was about the influence of the digital age on children's literature; chapter 8 helping English language learners develop literacy skills, and chapter 9 is about literacy instruction for students with developmental and intellectual disabilities.  Finally, an entire chapter is devoted to culturally responsive literacy practices.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This text makes a strong choice for an instructor looking for a foundational, introductory text to literacy research. Its greatest strength is that it is a comprehensive overview of the field. It would be useful in any literacy course. Readers leave with a great overview of literacy and are given numerous activities and resources which they can engage with to further explore this topic.","created_at":"2022-03-11T13:45:10.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-03-11T13:45:10.000-06:00"},{"id":34226,"first_name":"Micah","last_name":"Walker","position":"NTT","institution_name":"Western Oregon University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Provides a real nice overview of the various concepts from foundational skills to content literacy strategies.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The information is relevant and utilizes current research and theories.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The  book's summary of the Science of Reading is helpful for pre-service teachers who are aiming to understand the history of literacy instruction. The methods discussed are up to date and relevant to students' lives. The culturally responsive teaching section, though brief provides a nice intro into definitions and instructional practices.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Written very clearly and easy to understand, a good resource for undergraduate students.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Text was consistent throughout each chapter with the introduction, abstract, section materials, summary and references.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each section is clearly labeled in the Table of Context along with within each chapter. The sections are very clearly identified with-the introduction, abstract, section materials, summary and references. As an instructor you could easily pull out specific chapters related to your course content i.e. chapters 2-4 chapters if you are teaching about emergent/beginning readers, chapter 5 for assessment and chapter 12 for literacy strategies.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization is consistent and user-friendly.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The content is very clear and organized. There are tables that are clearly seen.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not see evidence of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"As mentioned about the text provides a brief intro into culturally responsive teaching. I would say for someone that has never heard of culturally responsive teaching, this would be a good resource to start with. Some feedback for the Emergent Bilingual section would be to include more positive and asset based language.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think for an UG literacy course this has some informational sections to pull from that are student friendly and relevant!","created_at":"2022-12-03T22:06:09.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-12-03T22:06:09.000-06:00"},{"id":34846,"first_name":"Michaela","last_name":"Koch","position":"Instructor of Education","institution_name":"Clarke University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers appropriate areas related to literacy, and the table of contents makes it easy to jump between content areas. The reference lists throughout the text are detailed and complete, but the lack of index/glossary is why I rated this 4/5.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"From my knowledge and experience this text is accurate and error-free.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I appreciate how several sections of this text address what \"we used to think\" about literacy instruction, and then goes on to update what the research has shown and where we are today. Given that this structure already exists, I see it as easily to update in the future as well.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"There is some technical jargon, as is necessary, but in almost all cases the terminology is explained or defined.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in terms of framework, which makes it easy to follow.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I see myself using portions of this text with my students. I believe that smaller sections can easily be used and referenced as is necessary.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I appreciate the organization and flow of this text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The PDF version of the text has hyperlinks in the table of contents were are appreciated. I saw no visual errors.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I saw no grammatical errors in this text.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I believe the research discussed is culturally relevant, however the text does not make a point to discuss this in all sections. However, where significant, such as when discussing English Language Learners, it is intertwined.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I look forward to using portions of this text with my students to help provide them with a contextual framework for literacy research and practice.","created_at":"2024-01-04T10:38:47.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-01-04T10:38:47.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/steps-to-success-crossing-the-bridge-between-literacy-research-and-practice","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:48.000-06:00"},{"id":267,"title":"The Changing Story: digital stories that participate in transforming teaching \u0026 learning","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2016,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"The Changing Story gives you assignments, resources, and examples to use in your teaching and learning. It will also help you think of ways digital stories can be used in your teaching, and help students harness the power of visual storytelling.","contributors":[{"id":3045,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Linda","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Buturian","location":"University of Minnesota","background_text":"Linda Buturian has taught in the humanities at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis for eight years. She has also taught writing intensive courses shaped around themes of sustainability. In 2006, Buturian was awarded a leave from the university to develop curriculum around the resource of water, and received funding to travel to New Zealand to research water resource protection and sustainability models. In 2007, Linda created a freshman seminar on water that integrates both the sciences and the humanities, and gives students the opportunity to create digital stories about water resource topics. The water seminar is in its third year. Prior to receiving her masters of arts in literature and writing from the University of Cincinnati, Buturian was the director of a community environmental organization in the Oregon Cascades, which addressed citizen-based solutions to watershed and ecosystem issues. Buturian has published essays, poetry, short stories, interviews, and articles in publications including Shouts and Whispers (Eerdmans 2006), Life in Body (Cathedral Hill Press 2006), and Utne Reader."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"}],"publishers":[{"id":156,"url":"http://www.cehd.umn.edu/the-changing-story/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:37.000-05:00","name":"University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing"}],"formats":[{"id":230,"type":"eBook","url":"https://pressbooks.umn.edu/thechangingstory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":231,"type":"Online","url":"https://pressbooks.umn.edu/thechangingstory/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":26,"reviews":[{"id":758,"first_name":"Mike","last_name":"Mutschelknaus","position":"English Instructor","institution_name":"Rochester Community and Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I am new to digital storytelling. I teach a lot of freshman composition at Rochester Community and Technical College. I've been teaching for a long time. I'm looking for new ways to approach my course. This book provided me with lots of online examples of digital stories. It also provided me with lots of scaffolded course assignments and exercises I can use. It has a very specific table of contents, but it doesn't have an index or glossary. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book seems to be error-free. Obviously, Linda is a big fan of digital story-telling. If there is a bias, it's her assumption that digital story-telling is going to be the new paradigm for composition and rhetoric. I think, though, that she might be right. I watch my freshman students and my own children. They live in a digital world, so building digital stories is an important literacy skill for them. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is very relevant. I also think it will have longevity. Digital storytelling, in one fashion or another, is here to stay. I have a junior high daughter. I can attest that she would much rather create digital stories than write a five-page typed paper. Updates will be easy to make. There are lots of hyperlinks and connections to actual examples of student digital story assignments that can be updated as needed. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is written for teachers, not for students. As a teaching guide, it is very clear. I feel like I could use these techniques and implement them, at least partially, in my community college freshman composition class next year. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is consistent in the way that it assumes the digital storytellers will be college freshmen and busy teachers. It keeps the assignments at a straightforward level throughout the book. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is very modular. It's a combination of straightforward exercises, careful explanation of how to implement those exercises in the classroom, and inspiration for doing digital storytelling assignments. Each chapter does build upon the next, but each chapter could also be read separately. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters are arranged in logical sequence. Linda explains what digital storytelling is, and provides some examples. She then discusses how to build assignments and how to assess those assignments. Finally, throughout the text she provides lots of student examples. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is clear, relatively large, and easy to read. All of the links to videos, digital stories, podcasts, etc., open easily. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is lucid and well-written. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book provides examples from students from a wide variety of geographical regions and backgrounds. Linda also makes a strong argument that digital storytelling is a way to break down barriers. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Freshman composition teachers should read this book. I'm going to start incorporating elements of her assignments, one by one, into my course. I'm not going to change my entire course overnight. Over the span of a few semesters, though, I intend to transform my course with this book as a guide. ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":858,"first_name":"Laura","last_name":"Medina","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of New Orleans","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book  would be a good choice for educators considering exploring or committed to introducing digital storytelling into their pedagogy.  It serves as a comprehensive introduction and overview to digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool, as well as providing examples, assignments and assessment approaches.  The table of contents and the linking within the chapters to videos, appendices and exercises are very useful. The book lacks an index, which would be an additional useful tool.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate, no errors were found.  The author's commitment to and passion for digital storytelling is clearly conveyed -- this is not an \"unbiased\" examination but a persuasive argument.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The overall concepts, exercises and assessment rubrics will remain relevant.  Links to external media (YouTube) videos may become obsolete or need to be updated.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose is very well-written, clear and accessible, with very little if any jargon or technology terminology used.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The layout, language and content seem very consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This is not a textbook for use by students.  The purpose is to inspire and inform educators and provide specific methods for integrating digital storytelling into coursework of all subjects.  For  that purpose, it is well organized in terms of modularity.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Overall the book is well organized - topics are presented in a logical fashion and very helpful links are provided between chapters that have related materials.  Chapter 5 \"We are the Battery Human\" and Epilogue \"Essays\" could be considered supplemental - they do not quite flow as informational tools but instead function as essays and food-for-thought.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The layout is pleasing and easy to read.  The linking between chapters and external media is quite useful and well executed.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is very culturally sensitive and relevant.  ","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"This book is very persuasive in its advocacy of digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool and would be very useful for any educator considering introducing digital storytelling.  ","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":946,"first_name":"Krista","last_name":"White","position":"Digital Humanities Librarian","institution_name":"Rutgers University Libraries","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"Aimed at educators, not students, this is not comprehensive in the sense of providing background to digital storytelling and the trend toward using multimedia to teach various \"literacies\" - digital, media, information, visual in secondary and higher education. \n\nThe Changing Story: digital stories that participate in transforming teaching \u0026amp; learning is a how-to manual for instructors unfamiliar with using digital and multimedia assignments. It is a very fine, quick-start guide for incorporating digital storytelling into curriculum. The text is largely philosophical in tone, with a bent toward advocating for the methodology/practice of using digital storytelling exercises  in addition to or in the place of traditional essays and tests. \n\nThe Changing Story is not a scholarly examination of the practice, and most of the literature to which the author links is illustrative in nature, rather than used to support claims of effectiveness of method as would occur with a more scholarly source. Readers should be cognizant that this is not intended as a source book with deep scholarly support and evidence to back up its pedagogical claims, despite the previous and emerging literature available on the topic in a variety of disciplines. \n\nThe text provides very useful links to resources for developing exercises and curriculum. I found the links to the DreamWorks tips for storyboarding, copyright resources and the VALUE Rubric Development Project especially useful. \n\nEmbedded links to multimedia resources related to book material is interesting and the author acknowledges that these multimedia resources are meant to be a \"long tail\" tool educators to use and re-use as they return to the textbook and develop their own strategies for the use of digital stories in the classroom. This model also allows for updates to the book with newer materials as needed, a well-designed innovation. \n\nExamples of student work and faculty interviews are useful for orienting newcomers to the practice of digital storytelling. Scaffolded assignments are well-explained and can be easily adapted to individual  instructor needs. The grading rubrics provided in Chapter 4 are good models on which to build or adapt for individual course purposes. \n\nA solid, quick-start guide to incorporating digital storytelling into course curricula. It does not contain any background or history on the use of digital media in classrooms, so cannot be said to be \"comprehensive.\" The scope is appropriate for its intended purpose.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Accuracy is not an issue for this text, as it is a manual for implementing digital storytelling assignments in curriculum and not a traditional textbook. It does provide sound advice and solid examples of assignments for instructors unfamiliar with the processes and methods of digital storytelling. No inaccuracies were present, though it is a work that advocates for the use of digital storytelling, and is not at all unbiased. This is not a detriment in my opinion, though readers should be aware of it.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Digital storytelling is a methodology for pedagogy that has been emerging for the last few years. It will continue to be relevant with the implementation of standards such as the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy to incorporate critical thinking and various digital and research skills into curricula across the country. Edits and updates should be easy to implement as strategies and standards change.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Meant as a manual for instructors, the text is easy to read and provides excellent examples. The author defines digital storytelling well in the introductions, but many terms of art, such as \"visual literacy\" and \"close reading\" are utilized without formal definitions to help readers unfamiliar with them navigate and understand these terms.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"The content of the book is generally consistent, with conceptual linkages between the more philosophical chapters (1, 2, 5, Epilogue) and the more concrete, procedural chapters (3 and 4). ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Modules are set out logically. This book could be easily remixed with other sources to create a customized text. ","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Content in chapters 1 and 2 are thorough, but uneven in their treatment of topics and would benefit from reorganization. Chapters 3 and 4 are extremely well organized and flow logically. The whole book would have benefited from having resources listed at the end of each chapter, in addition to being individual links on which the reader must click to examine. ","interface_rating":1,"interface_review":"Epub: Anchor links in the text work as expected, though the links in the grading rubrics do not provide the user a way to get back to the chapter text to which they correlate. The Illustrated versions of stories in the Epilogue do not work in an ePub reader (Adobe Digital Editions).\n\nWeb-based interface: Anchor links within the text need a serious overhaul. When trying to return to the text from an example of student work, the reader gets bumped to the end of the book, rather than returning to the relevant section of the chapter from which they linked. Links to specific scaffolding exercises take the reader to the beginning of the appendix, rather than to the specific exercise mentioned. \"Returning to chapter3\" takes the reader to the beginning of the chapter, rather than to the section of the chapter of the relevant scaffolded exercise. The illustrated stories in the Epilogue work well in hte online interface.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Text is well-written and free of grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"As scholarship, especially in higher education, moves forward, methodologies like digital storytelling will take precedence over more traditional forms of scholarly publishing. This resource is extremely timely and will have relevance far into the future.","overall_rating":8,"overall_review":"As someone who has been planning my own digital storytelling curriculum for a digital humanities lab attached to a literature lecture course, the advice contained here mirrored my own thinking the in the realm of scaffolded assignments to address issues of the \"digital divide,\" as well as utilizing transparent rubrics for assessing assignments. Many of the suggested exercises and rubrics were innovative and I discovered useful ideas to incorporate into my own course.","created_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-08T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1044,"first_name":"Nina","last_name":"Spiegel","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is geared toward educators, rather than students. It is therefore not a book for use in the classroom, but a text to use to prepare assignments for a course.  Its goal is to demonstrate the value of using digital storytelling in the classroom, to encourage educators to create digital storytelling assignments, and to provide examples and insights into how to develop these assignments.  The book provides a thorough discussion of digital storytelling as well as an appendix that includes a variety of assignments.  It also provides links to a range of useful examples on youtube.  The book does not include an index or a glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"While I am not a specialist in digital storytelling, the content seems accurate.  I did not discover any errors. The author is direct about her perspective: Buturian clearly views digital storytelling as an effective teaching tool and seeks to convince educators to try using this method. The author provides compelling arguments and reflections from students and educators on the benefits of digital storytelling assignments.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The content of the book appears up to date. A guide to developing digital storytelling in the classroom is an important topic and the book provides relevant points and examples. Depending on changes to technology, the youtube examples might need to be updated at some point in the future.  It appears as though new examples would be relatively easy to input into the text.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a clear manner.  It is accessible to a variety of audiences and disciplines and well explains terms and concepts.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text uses terminology consistently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"As mentioned above, the text is not geared toward use in the classroom, but rather is aimed for use by educators for classroom preparation.  The text is organized in a coherent manner that is easily usable and accessible by educators.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is overall organized in a clear and coherent fashion. Chapter 5 contains reflections that might fit better in the epilogue.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The youtube links are helpful and appreciated.  When I clicked on other links, such as to the mandala example or to examples in the appendix, I was not able to easily return to the original location in the text.  This is an interface matter that could be improved to make the text more user friendly.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text does not contain grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text incorporates inclusive language as well as examples from different topics and cultures.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book contains several important and helpful elements describing how to develop digital storytelling assignments.  At times, it seemed repetitive in terms of its continued justification of the use of digital storytelling in the classroom, and some editing would thus have been useful.  In addition, while it is helpful to see a broad range of examples, it would also be useful to directly follow a few specific courses in a more linear fashion by including the syllabus and the assignments leading up to the final digital storytelling project alongside the educator and student reflections of these assignments and courses, all in one place. While some of this material is currently located in either the text or appendix, it would also be helpful to have it organized and presented together according to syllabus and course.  This could be added in this format into the appendix.","created_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2017-02-15T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1102,"first_name":"Jiyoon","last_name":"Yoon","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas Arlington","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Linda successfully provided her wonderful ideas of how to integrate stories with the advanced technology with appropriate index and glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Linda clearly explained her stories with the accurate, the error-free, and unbiased writing. The student artifacts, exercises, and the evaluation rubrics, appropriate to the contents of the book, helped the readers understand better the contents.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Story-telling is the classical teaching method that most of parents and teachers have liked to used. But Linda approached the classical story-telling differently with the most advanced technology. Her direction of how to combine was easy and straightforward to be implemented in the classical teaching methods.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Linda wrote the book in lucid, accessible prose, and provided adequate context for any terminology used.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Linda consistently talked about story-telling all through the book.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each of the chapters can be easily and readily divided into smaller reading sections.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"All the topics in the chapters except Chapter 5 are presented in a logical and clear fashion. I think Chapter 5 needs to move to the introduction or the end.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The navigation was excellent with the technology! All the student examples in the middle of chapters and the exercises in the appendix were easy to be checked and gotten back to the original place.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Linda wrote this book in Minnesota providing with the artifacts of her students. The artifacts naturally reflected the culture of Minnesota. By using the culture in daily lives, Linda was telling about her story. I like the idea of using the culture. When people are within and related to their culture, they generally feel comfortable and understand things better.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will introduce this book to my students who will be the future elementary science teachers. This book brought brilliant ideas of how to integrate literacy, social studies, and technology with science. In the past, I had the “water project” with my students to save the world water. As part of the project, my students created and posted campaign posters on campus. For our next “water project,” I will add developing their digital story-telling.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1174,"first_name":"Carol","last_name":"Patnaude","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Community College of Rhode Island","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found the text to be very comprehensive for working in higher education and/or secondary school educators   wanting to provide new learning opportunities for their students. Digital storytelling opens doors for students and faculty to present projects and assignments in an innovative way with appropriate use of technology. The text can be used in a variety of courses, is easily adaptable, specific and user friendly. The examples, assignments and resource links are practical and useful. An index would be helpful.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is accurate in providing information for implementation of digital storytelling. As the text is not written in the manner of a textbook it covers all key elements needed for those who are new to digital storytelling. The process and methods are clear while no errors were found. Students favor the use of learning using multi-media approaches in any aspect of the curriculum, this is a benefit to both students and teachers.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is relevant in that it meets the needs of students as they learn through the use of digital storytelling. Technology is here to stay. Students would prefer to be creative active learners rather than passive. The links, videos and examples can be easily updated as the need arises.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is easy to read, clear and consistent in its format. The examples help to connect the written information to the visual.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent in its format and focus.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is organized, visually appealing and provides the right balance of text with examples, resources and links. Educators would find this text easy to use. Additional texts, reading and relevant information regarding digital storytelling could be a fine compliment for those seeking further knowledge.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"I found the chapters to be arranged in a logical manner. I would suggest including resources at the end of each chapter as it would seem to be a better fit.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The text is easy to read and clear. I did not have any difficulty opening the links however in a few instances it was not easy to get back to the text page where I left off.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text provided relevant and culturally sensitive examples that were inclusive of language as well as samples from a diverse student population. I can easily see this approach used in higher education courses such as (but not limited to) Cultural Diversity, Sociology, Language Psychology etc.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I found the book to be a practical guide that would be useful for adding digital storytelling as a teaching tool. The rubrics and exercises can be adapted for individual use. It would be interesting to include a sample syllabus and course requirement for the reader to examine the application to digital storytelling.","created_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-04-11T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1225,"first_name":"Rebecca","last_name":"Goodrich","position":"Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Engish","institution_name":"Washington State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text covers each step in developing and implementing a digital storytelling assignment, with one glaring exception. The author can't assume that readers have any experience with video or audio editing, and some of the first questions readers will raise will involve the basic nuts and bolts of collecting assets (a term I believe is useful to describe the \"parts\" of a digital story: photos, video clips, music, sound effects, etc.) The author should have devoted one chapter to the rudiments of importing assets and arranging them on a timeline. She could have made suggestions for simple editing platforms, many that are free to use. Even though the technology changes, those recommendations could be easily updated in the ebook. Suggestions for editing platforms include Adobe Spark, iMovie, WeVideo, Windows Movie Maker, among others.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I felt the author did a good job of describing the most common types of digital stories, the types of learning that they inculcate, how to assess student learning. I noticed that she referred to \"Royalty Free\" music as equivalent to legally available. That is a common misconception. Royalty Free assets are copyrighted and usually require a fee to use. Ther Royalty Free simply means that the user does not have to pay a royalty fee every time the asset appears online. The fee can be anywhere from $4 for a one-time use to several hundred dollars for an asset that will appear on a commercial website.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text is very relevant and will be useful for the foreseeable future. It is applicable for a wide range of ages and abilities.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text was a very quick read. I found the quotes at the beginning of each chapter cumbersome and often quoted out of context. Chapter 5 seemed out of step with the overall focus of the text. It is devoted to a fuzzy discussion of the environmental impacts of using digital devices. I didn't see that it added any information to the topic of using digital storytelling in the classroom.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"I didn't notice any issues with consistency.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is well-organized. The smaller assignments are easy to access via links to the appendix.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Except for the Chapter 5 outlier that I've described before, I felt that the text flowed very well. The topic is introduced, the many types of stories are described, then the author outlines the process of leading students through a digital story assignment. She culminates with a brief discussion of assessing the stories, mainly by providing sample rubrics.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text performed without difficulty. The typeface is easy to read. The text is formatted so that it is easy to read onscreen. I had no difficulty reading the text and following the links.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are a few punctuation flaws, but I didn't make note of them. I did see that on page 115 the author uses a pull-quote that appears in a block. Because she quotes so often from other writers, I assumed that it was from an outside source, but was not properly attributed. But then, in the very next paragraph, she repeats the quote verbatim. It's repetitions and cumbersome. I guess the quote is her own words, but I don't see why they were repeated in the main text. The block quote really should be deleted for ease of reading and to avoid distraction and confusion.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Excellent. She gives great examples of using digital stories with a variety of students, on a great variety of topics. It felt very inclusive.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"As a trained digital storytelling facilitator and an instructor of a university course called \"Digital Storytelling\" I was excited to see this text. I feel that it will be an excellent resource for teachers who want to learn how to use digital storytelling in the classroom. It is not a stand-alone text. Teachers will have to find other sources of information to learn how to teach students to edit photos, video, and music, and to assemble them into engaging, impactful digital stories.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1246,"first_name":"Alison","last_name":"Pelegrin","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Southeastern Louisiana University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The progression of the material is intuitive. The book is clearly set up, but I do think that a more detailed Table of Contents, with links to specific parts of chapters, would be useful.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text is accurate and timely. It is unbiased and the attention to storytelling implies that all experiences and backgrounds are valuable and worth preserving in this manner.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is up-to-date, but the nature of the subject is such that it will likely need updating--I do not consider this a flaw of the book, but the nature of its subject.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is quite clear--while the book seems most appropriate for instructors and perhaps upper level students, college freshmen could use the text with little help.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text never deviates from the structure outlined in the Table of Contents and Introduction. Each chapter is similarly organized, and this makes the book easy to navigate.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is easy to read, but I do think that the colors used in the book need more contrast--the black text is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the blue headers. It is easy to navigate each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"It is a book that would be useful to instructors more than students, as I think it encourages the design of assignments that writing students would find interesting. The topics discussed are timely and appropriate, and the assignments and rubrics provided are very helpful.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is easy to navigate--the introduction explains the layout of the book, and the text does not deviate from that. Internal links in the text are quick to open.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I found no grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally sensitive. By placing value on digital storytelling, the text values technologically savvy students and the skill set the bring to classroom. Rather than shaming them for their use of technology, it gives the tools they necessary to harness their voices in a way that would be helpful in many types of classroom settings.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"This is an interesting and useful text. I am thinking of adding this to the reading materials for a creative writing class that I am teaching on hybrid forms in poetry and prose. It may also be relevant for a class in which students discuss and design digital humanities assignments for undergrads. Digital story telling could also be something to introduce in a composition class working on personal narratives.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1452,"first_name":"Rebecca","last_name":"Owen","position":"Adjuct Professor, Writing","institution_name":"Chemeketa Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"I teach composition courses at a community college, and one of the big assignments that both the students and I grapple with every year is the research paper. This text gave me a lot of new ideas about how I might incorporate digital storytelling into my composition courses. The author of this text does an incredibly thorough job explaining her own experiences with teaching digital storytelling in the context of a class about water. Even though this is a text designed for educators, she gives many different scaffolding exercises in the glossary to help other instructors start to incorporate technology and visual imagery into their classes. The book itself is thorough and organized quite well. There are many links and sample digital stories to peruse. Each chapter begins with a quote, which is a very welcoming way to transition from one topic to the next.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author has done a meticulous job in creating a very beautiful book. Even though I read this on my laptop, I had the experience of reading an actual print copy. There was a lot of thought put into layout and arrangement here. No errors that I noted!","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This text felt very new and fresh--the author discusses ways to utilize technology in the classroom as well as how to make technology a component in research assignments for a variety of subjects. It's interesting to think about how these methods could be used in a wide range of classes--science, humanities, English, math, sociology, among others. However, in one activity, she mentions encouraging students to use regular digital cameras rather than only their smartphones. If anything, she could be a little more open to letting students use what is available to them (i.e. smartphones) since many might attend a school that doesn't have a library of recording equipment or other technology to check out.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clear, easy-to-follow prose. The author of this text walks the reader through her own journey with digital storytelling, and she also shares her tips on making these types of assignments accessible and less daunting for students who might be afraid of making short films. The organization and layout of this text made it very easy to read from beginning to end. She featured student examples to help explain her concepts. One of the best features of this book was how adaptable it could be for all teaching styles and subjects.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The material is given here in five chapters. Each builds on the previous chapter. There's also an epilogue where the author shares her students' digital storytelling projects to illustrate the concepts covered in the text. During each chapter, if she references a scaffolding activity, there is a link to the appendix where the full text of the scaffolding activities are linked. The book is quite consistent throughout, and the author is an encouraging and helpful guide.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This book is well-organized. Each chapter builds nicely on the next. It's not a guide for students, but it provides good support to guide instructors into incorporating digital storytelling methods into the classroom. The activities referenced in each chapter are spelled out in the appendix. This makes for a very streamlined narrative. The author anticipates the reader's questions, too, and these are addressed in each chapter. There's also a helpful summary at the end of each chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This textbook is structured very logically. It moves through a definition of digital storytelling into an explanation of how to include it in the classroom. The activities given in the appendix are extremely helpful. Without those, it might have made the presentation of this material a little harder to interpret. As mentioned above, the author seems to know where the reader might have questions, and she addresses those questions in the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Beautiful layout and organization. I was able to view this text on my phone and laptop without disruption. It's very clear that this author had aesthetics in mind as well as organization. This made for a very pleasant and easy read.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Nothing to note, error-wise!","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The author includes a chapter that discusses some of the oft-forgotten realities of tablets and other modern media: the means used to gather metals and other elements from locations like the Democratic Republic of Congo. She alerts us to the ethics of using this technology--we must be aware of how we obtain these materials or risk further harm to the people whose lives are at risk for our technological pursuits. She also mentions that a good way to combat this is by using smart technology like tablets and iPhones as educational and storytelling tools, not just a means for texting or visiting Facebook.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"There are a lot of exercises and activities in this book I'd like to use in my composition courses! I have a lot of ideas about how to re-structure my research paper assignment! Thank you!","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1546,"first_name":"Mildred","last_name":"Barya","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"UNC-Asheville","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is elaborate and comprehensive in its explanation of what Digital Storytelling is about, the different types/categories, and how as an instruction tool for teachers, has potential to transform student learning. Incorporating students' work and reflection, exercises and assessment methods add to the overall completeness of the book. There is no index/glossary but I assume that in its place is the appendix provided at the end. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Other than being an ardent advocate of Digital Storytelling (passion versus bias--we get plenty of this not only in the introduction but also in the proceeding two chapters), Buturian is passionate in her strong belief that DS transforms the learning environment (she gives good reasons how and why), is necessary and perhaps timely as well, considering that we now live in a world that is deeply influenced by digital technology. The content is accurate and error-free. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Extremely relevant not only in subject matter but also in its practicability/implementation. It is written in a way that would incorporate updates easily based either on the changing nature of DS itself or students' needs.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Clearly written, accessible and conversational in tone. It's balanced in both formal and informal approaches. That said, some parts could be condensed so that they're more concise, for instance, Chapter one could be part of the Introduction. Buturian spends a lot of time \"telling\" us why DS is important instead of going straight into \"showing.\" Later she does. Examples will always win over explanations. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text doesn't depart from its premise. This is one of its strength.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is another strength of the book. One can focus on a small section or module easily or different sections within a chapter without losing focus.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"This could be revisited. For instance, Introduction and Chapter one could merge. Chapter six could come before Chapter five, since the latter is more of a concluding reflection on the product of our time, while Chapter 6 is a continuation of DS content. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text lends itself to easy navigation, scrolling and display. Inclusion of images, charts, clips, and so on, is done well so there's no confusion going back and forth, in and out.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"I found unnecessary preposition \"for\" in one of the sentences: Something about  \"...awaiting for construction.\" instead of awaiting construction or waiting for construction.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This is a great strength of the book. It can be used in all cultures across the world and has good examples from culturally diverse backgrounds.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book emphasizes the power of storytelling through digital media as opposed to traditional narratives. The impact of using stories in learning instruction (the ancients knew this) so we're just returning to it. Because storytelling is the transforming heart, this book would be especially effective in introductory courses that cut across disciplines such as Languages, Social and Natural Sciences and Humanities. Students from fields such as Engineering, Literature, Composition, and so on would benefit. This book has potential to bridge the gap between arts and sciences since its effectiveness relies on acquiring and transferring multiple skills that utilize various senses when using text, image, sound and so on.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1553,"first_name":"Norb","last_name":"Thomes","position":"Learning Systems and Services Coordinator","institution_name":"Winona State University ","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The author does a nice job of covering the use of digital storytelling from concept through completion. This is a really nice recipe for creating and using storytelling as an important part of teaching and learning. The only thing I would add is some real-world examples of what the author sees as exemplars. For example, I would like to see some storyboards and scripts from successful projects. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text was accurate, free of errors, and unbiased.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The author described the activity and its benefits nicely without getting deeply into things that would date the information. The focus was clearly on the project and its relevance to teaching and learning while steering clear of items like the proper hardware that would quickly change.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and concise. There is little use of language that needs definition or explanation.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"From start to finish, the project is laid out is a manner that is easy to follow. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Individual chapters reflect individual aspects of the project. Breaking the work into modules will not be a problem.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The book flows well with one exception. The last two chapters, \"We are the Battery Human\" and \"Learning Through Stories,\" do not fully fit the digital storytelling project. \"We are the Battery Human\" is a very interesting read on the balance between using digital technology and the footprint it leaves in the environment. It would make a really nice stand alone paper. \"Learning Through Stories\" discusses how written essays can be presented in illustration. This felt like a good subject for another book, maybe geared toward art and design majors. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The use of example videos and slide shows was great. Examples were woven into the text to support exactly the concept in each chapter. Links to appendices supplied additional detail while collecting all of the most detailed material in one central spot.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No errors were found. Nice editing job overall.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I saw not cultural relevance issues. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reading this book. I have used videos in projects in my own courses and I feel this is a very good set of instructions for designing and implementing digital storytelling in any course. ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1622,"first_name":"Carolyn","last_name":"Parker","position":"Director, Graduate Teacher Education","institution_name":"American University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"As other reviewers have pointed out, the audience of this textbook is educators, not students. This is mostly accurate. However, within the realm of teacher education, parts of the book, such as chapter three, could be used with students to help guide individual assignments, and in my case, introduce K-12 teachers on how to use digital storytelling with students. The book’s appendix provides many examples of assignments along with ideas and insights into how to develop these assignments. The book also provides a plethora of examples on youtube. The book does not include an index or a glossary.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content seems accurate and I did not find any errors. The author’s writing and method of presentation is straightforward. Buturian supports her writing with student and instructor reflections, which describe the benefits of incorporating digital storytelling into a classroom.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is timely and new, with a production date of 2016. I think incorporating digital storytelling into any classroom if timely and could be included in most any classroom. In the future, the youtube videos may need to be updated, but given how the book is laid out, this should be relatively easy to do.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Buturian’s writing is straightforward and clear. Terms are explained clearly, which makes the content accessible to instructors from a diverse range of disciplines.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Buturian employs terminology consistently. Her framework if logical and organized.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text is a great example of a modular textbook. Each chapter does build on the previous work, but each chapter could also be read separately. I like the balance of explanation and practice through examples.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The textbook is well organized and flows in a logical fashion. It was quite easy to follow Buturian’s through processes and instructions as she described how to include digital storytelling in a classroom.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The links all worked well. The provided rubrics were very informative, as were the links to youtube videos. The text was large, well-laid out, and visually appealing.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not find any grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Buturian does a great job of including a diverse range of topics and examples from different cultures. She also incorporates inclusive language. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I enjoyed reading the book. The text and the ideas around digital storytelling were very accessible. I look forward to including a digital storytelling assignment in my spring 2018 teacher preparation course.","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1835,"first_name":"Julie","last_name":"Adams","position":"Academic Skills Tutor: Digital Impact","institution_name":"Staffordshire University, UK","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book is an excellent, quick-start guide for ways to incorporate digital storytelling into curriculum. It is aimed at teaching staff who wish to make use of digital storytelling as a new form of student assessment, but also to enhance their own teaching, although the emphasis is on the former. It is aimed at those new to the subject, but I think also has relevance to those with some experience. \n\nAlthough not overly scholarly in tone, it does make some reference to learning theory and pedagogical practice, although these are not detailed. The author clearly sets the context for a need to change educational approaches given the changes in students’ digital lives outside education to be collaborative and participatory in their use of digital technology.  Digital storytelling may be particularly beneficial to those students who may not excel at normal written assignments.\n\nThe book is mainly a ‘how-to’ guide which provides useful examples, assignments and assessment approaches, with plentiful examples from the author’s own practice.  I liked how the author shares examples of her own experience and journey to being more engaged with using digital technology and multi-media within the classroom. \nThe examples of student’s work and the videos of them explaining their approaches, and the teaching staff reflections I found especially useful.\n\nOne addition could be an appendix with links to online resources on video/audio editing tools - especially free ones.  Those new to the area of digital storytelling may not have much experience in collecting and putting together the digital assets needed to create their story, so pointers to further guidance on this would be reassuring.  This would be helpful to staff who want to create their own story, and help them to advice students. \n\nThe table of contents is helpful, but the use of subheadings within this would be beneficial.  There is no index, but I am not sure this is essential – I used the search facility within the e-book when I wanted to go back and find a particular example. \n","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The text is comprehensive in describing different types of digital storytelling. Linda is enthusiastic in her advocacy of digital storytelling, and explains the processes clearly.  I found the text to be accurate with one small exception. She referred to royalty free music in Chapter 3, although does then mention Creative Commons licenses in the same sentence.  Royalty free resources are not completely free, but normally involve an initial fee, although subsequent uses of the material are free.  ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is very relevant to the current educational climate.  Students need to develop their digital capabilities for working and living in the digital world and digital stories are one way that they can do this.  The examples of videos could be easily updated as required to keep the text more current and fresh.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"I found the text clear and consistent and easy to understand.   There is not too much use of jargon. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The layout, language and content seem consistent throughout the book. Chapters open with a quote giving a taste of the material covered in that chapter. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Being aimed at educators rather than students, consideration of allocating chapters for reading is not relevant.  The book is easy to read and the chapters could be read separately.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Most of the book was well organised and flowed well.  I would suggest that one improvement would be to include a list of all references at the end of each chapter, or the end of the book.  This would make it easier to follow these up when you wanted rather than having to go back and locate the relevant link. You don’t always want to link out of a chapter while reading it. \n\nChapters 2, 3 and 4 are very well organised and flow logically from one to another building up the readers understanding of what digital stories are, types of these and how t assess them. Chapter 5 does not sit quite so well in the flow of the book.  It covers an important issue of the environmental impact of technology, but could be the final chapter as food for thought.   \n\nChapter 6 has good examples comparing a traditional essay with a digital story and helps to emphasise the difference digital stories can make.  \n\nThe appendix  is very useful to pull all of the exercises together with links back to the relevant chapters. ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"I tried the book in both ePub format on an iPad and in a web browser. The book has a clear layout and is very easy to read.   I found that the interface on the iPad worked better, when following the links to other resources.  On the web version I did struggle to get back to the book after following the links.  ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"To me this book has great cultural relevance and is inclusive. I think that the use of digital stories can make it easier for students to being their own cultural and lived experience to their assignments and are an excellent way for them to share these with others in a way that a traditional written assignment might not. Some of examples that Linda gives are from her situation in Minnesota, which those reading the book might not share - certainly it is not something I as a reader in the UK am familiar with! - but this does not matter as I can see how this could be adapted to other situations.  Linda also makes a good case for how the use of stories can be a way to break down barriers.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"This book provides a good practical guide for those new to digital storytelling, and would like to use this within the classroom and who want to introduce more creative and inclusive assignments for their students. \n\nIt would also be a useful book for trainee teachers who want to adopt new approaches.  ","created_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-02-01T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":2029,"first_name":"Ranae","last_name":"Hanson","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Minneapolis Community and Technical College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book gives a thorough guide to developing digital story assignments and teaching this method of researching and presenting a topic. The author offers a wide range of examples and methods for adapting the material to varying academic disciplines. There is no index or glossary, but none seems necessary.\n\nHowever, as a newcomer to digital story-making, I feel a need for more specifics about how, exactly, to make a digital story. I note the suggestion by Rebecca Goodrich, in an earlier review, that the “rudiments of importing assets and arranging them on a timeline” as well as suggestions for simple editing platforms be included in the book. When, in the Exercise 2.2 assignment, the author says that she works with a technical assistant to help students edit photos, I feel unclear how I could do this at a college where I will not have access to a technical assistant and do not have much experience editing visual material myself.\n\nThe book would be more useful to me if it gave more suggestions about how to begin teaching digital story-making in a small way, incorporating additional aspects as the instructor gains more expertise.\n","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This book is clearly up-to-date. Because technology changes so often, the author has incorporated suggestions for how instructors can, and must, choose some new methods to learn while rejecting others. She also addresses honestly the issue of student frequently knowing more about a particular technology than the instructor does and highlights the benefits of student-to-student sharing of knowledge. \n\nThe digital format of the book makes revision for timeliness easier. \n","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book moves well into the future. Unless technology becomes harder to access, the relevance of this teaching technique will probably increase. \n\nIn addition, the focus on water will become increasingly relevant. Students will find the material presented engaging and essential. Students at my college will appreciate the many examples that are near to home.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The book is clear and specific. As I noted above, it is unclear only about how some editing and video composition tasks are done. Those may need further training and additional instruction. For example, samples of students’ story-boards, especially the early hand-drawn ones that the author says she had her students begin with, would be quite useful for instructors new to video production.  ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is consistent. It’s purpose is to introduce educators to digital story-telling pedagogy; it remains true to that task. ","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text is written for the instructor rather than as a text for student use. Each chapter, except for Chapter Five, builds on those before it and follows a similar, welcoming organizational pattern. The assignment explanations in the appendix are useful for course development. The many excellent examples of student- and faculty-produced digital stories throughout the text would be great for students to explore; therefore, I would appreciate a “For Students” segment in the text, but students are not part of the audience the author envisioned. The challenge of adapting the text for student use is left to the instructor.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text links from examples back to the explanatory material. It shows how digital story-telling works as well as explaining the craft.\nChapter Five in out of the flow of the other chapters. It addresses ethical issues related to scarcity of resources and global injustice involved in the production of our devices and is, I believe, an essential addition to the text. \n","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The textbook links cleanly with all videos included. Links to assignment prompts and back to the text chapters functioned smoothly. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The grammar of the text is, overall, good. Some editing of repetition, as at the beginning of Chapter Three when a quotation is repeated in full, would be helpful. I stumbled over “I trust you are as busy as me.” My old-school education would ask that to be “as I” and I still prefer that, but I admit that the grammar the author chooses here fits what students will understand. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The cultural relevance of the text is excellent. The author immediately addresses important cultural concerns—resource depletion, varying access to knowledge and experience, and the need for collaboration to overcome these challenges.  \nAs an instructor at a college that does not have access to the many technological experts who (according to some of the teacher testimonials included in the video clips) are available to come into the U of M classrooms to help students with visual and sound editing, I am aware of further injustice and begin to feel the deprivation my students may suffer because of uneven allocation of expertise as well as of resources. The text challenges me to expand my skills in order to try to reduce these digital and skill-set divides. \n","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-05-21T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2454,"first_name":"Candace","last_name":"Schlein","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Missouri - Kansas City","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"A real strength of this book is how it provides definitions of different types, purposes, and scopes of digital story assignments. Furthermore, the author makes the most of the digital platform of this ebook by including a great number of samples of digital stories. Reviewing actual completed digital stories is extremely useful for breathing life into some of the concepts that are highlighted within the text. I also appreciated that the samples represented a number of disciplines.\r\nThe text further does an outstanding job of including discussion of major considerations to take into account regarding assessing digital stories. Samples of rubrics and descriptions of assessments are also provided. The author encourages the use of backward design in shaping digital story assignments in terms of considering the student learning objectives for digital storytelling in the classroom. For this reason, the rubrics might be positioned earlier in the text.\r\nBuilding on the assessment focus of the book would be helpful. For example, some samples of student attitudes toward assessments appear within the assessment discussion. Including students in the assessment discussion from the outset of the assignment would be useful as well.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This book is well-researched and well-written. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The text provides information in concise chapters so that all pertinent information on digital stories is included in the book. However, the use of digital/ media samples to support components of the book really go a long way toward ensuring that the content is up to date. I would imagine that over time, as digital tools expand and media literacy in the college classrooms also develops, there would be a need to regularly update these samples.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The text is written in a very accessible manner. All key definitions are explained cogently. The actual samples further help to explain different concepts that are discussed. This is not a jargon-heavy text, and sections of it might be assigned to students who are working toward developing their own digital story assignment.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This book was carefully prepared and clearly organized.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This text includes several brief chapters. These chapters can be easily assigned throughout a semester to students. Alternatively, an instructor might be able to focus on portions of chapters within lessons and showcase some examples to students as a basis for whole class or small group discussions. Samples of discrete digital narratives may also be assigned to students for critical discussion about digital assignments and rubric samples might also be assigned to students as a basis for their own work to develop an assignment and rubric surrounding digital storytelling in class.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text begins with definitions, builds toward distinguishing types of digital stories, and leads to assessments. In this way, the book follows a sound pedagogical logic to support scaffolding knowledge growth and pragmatic skills in the area of digital stories.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"On a few occasions I faced some challenges with the interface after opening a sample. During each of these instances, I found it easiest to search for the book again and open it. The book then opened where I wanted to go next.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"The text is grammatically sound overall.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally inclusive. It also includes perspectives from a broad range of disciplines.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I think that this text can be useful for a variety of different purposes. I was pleasantly surprised with the professional quality of the text. It was easy to read, and I can see multiple ways that I can incorporate it into my own teaching, as a supplementary textbook or as a material to support a lesson, students' digital story efforts,  or a student assignment focused on teaching through technology tools or on media literacy.","created_at":"2018-12-08T19:36:53.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-12-08T19:36:53.000-06:00"},{"id":2785,"first_name":"Tracey","last_name":"Burrell","position":"Director of Clinical Experiences","institution_name":"LSUS","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is organized in such a way that it addresses the what, when, where, why, and how of digital storytelling.  Content is supported by several student examples and teacher reflection. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author infuses personal experiences with academic research to deliver a pretty accurate assessment of the power of multimedia as a learning tool. ","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This resource will be easy to update. The author does not mention specific names of multimedia programs, but focuses on the skills needed to develop a quality product. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very clear and easy to follow. ","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Terminology was consistent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The flow of the chapters supported student learning and teacher/instructor implementation. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Chapters are well-organized. The structure is consistent from chapter to chapter. The author uses various approaches to connect with different audiences (i.e., quotes, student examples embedded in chapter, teacher reflection at the end of each chapters). ","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Links were live. There were no navigation problems moving from text to video samples. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no grammatical errors. ","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"There could have been more of a balance of representation, as it relates to student examples. Nevertheless, student examples that were included were a nice addition. ","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-04-13T17:39:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-05-06T11:38:35.000-05:00"},{"id":3338,"first_name":"Molly","last_name":"Bruce Patterson","position":"Assistant Professor, Digital Archivist \u0026 Special Collections Librarian","institution_name":"Rhode Island College","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"In The Changing Story Linda Buturian intentionally maintains a platform-neutral approach in her exploration of digital storytelling; she provides a pedagogical framework that can inform digital storytelling assignments across platforms and formats. In that sense, The Changing Story is comprehensive. However, aside from one teacher reflection that briefly discusses map-based projects, the examples and exercises offered in the text are almost entirely linear video narratives. These examples are drawn mostly from faculty at the University of Minnesota, who seem to share a similar approach to employing digital stories in the classroom. In that sense, the scope of the text is somewhat limited, but I don’t think this detracts from Buturian’s overarching goal to inspire and offer guidance to teachers interested in digital storytelling.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content in The Changing Story is accurate and well researched.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Although digital tools and platforms are constantly evolving, for the most part The Changing Story will remain relevant because Linda Buturian’s exploration of digital stories is platform-neutral. The links to examples of student work will probably need to be updated over time, but as long as digital media is abundant in society, the core text of The Changing Story will offer helpful guidance on how to employ it in curricular design. However, readers will have to turn to other resources to find more specific information about technology and platforms for digital storytelling.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Linda Buturian’s writing is clear and she defines most technical or specialized terminology used in The Changing Story. However, because Buturian’s intended audience is teachers, there is an underlying expectation that readers have some basic experience and understanding of curricular design.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The Changing Story is informed by a cohesive pedagogical framework that emphasizes instructional scaffolding techniques. This underlying structure ensures that the text is internally consistent as it lays out the curricular building blocks needed to support students as they learn to communicate effectively through digital media.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The Changing Story is a guide for teachers interested in using digital storytelling in their classrooms. Because instructors are the audience, the text isn’t designed for direct use in the classroom, and the main chapters not modular in design. Each chapter builds off what preceded it, so it would be important for a teacher to read through most of the text in order to understand how to effectively incorporate digital stories into curricular design. Unlike the main body of the text, the appendix is more modular and provides many examples of exercises that a teacher might pick and choose from to use in the classroom.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The Changing Story is very well organized. The overall structure follows a logical order that first explains what a digital story is, and then explores different kinds of digital stories, how to prepare students with scaffolding exercises, and how to assess and evaluate digital stories. Each chapter concludes with links to examples of student work and a video of teacher reflections.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"I encountered some issues with the interface, probably because I don’t normally read eBooks so I was using a free app on my phone. The main problem was the display of block quotes, which looked very nice in the online version of the text but did not render properly in the epub version. When displayed on my phone there were no quotation marks or any other formatting to distinguish quoted text.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not notice any grammatical errors in The Changing Story.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The Changing Story is very inclusive in its approach to digital storytelling. “Developing a culturally-inclusive lens for visual knowledge” is a stated goal of Linda Buturian’s scaffolding assignments, and she emphasizes the power of digital storytelling to foster intercultural knowledge. Many examples of digital stories in the text show students sharing diverse cultural experiences through their assignments. Not only is the text of The Changing Story culturally sensitive, but the author also demonstrates how digital stories can support culturally inclusive practices in the classroom.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2019-12-02T15:19:32.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-12-02T15:19:32.000-06:00"},{"id":3516,"first_name":"Mara","last_name":"Pierce","position":"Assistant Professor of Art Education","institution_name":"Montana State University - Billings","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is wonderfully comprehensive. The work is inclusive of example assignments, sample student outcomes, and methods of curricular incorporation. I appreciate the focus on participatory culture and its inclusion as a pathway to community capital.\r\n\r\nThe author atypically includes a clear layout in the beginning that informs the reader of how they will encounter the content, which is beneficial to be able to identify sections most relevant to the immediate reader.\r\n\r\nAs is consistent with the topic of digital storytelling, the author also includes narratives of those who have participated in the process of digital storytelling learning. This creates a deeper connection for more audiences.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"There needs to be much more information on the Fair Use and Copyright guidelines. To do so would inform students about artists’ rights and the work they put into their pieces, including films, the next iteration of digital storytelling.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Relevance, including appropriateness for educational level or course level - Comments\r\nInterestingly, this text is more relevant to instructors than teachers. However, as a professor of teacher education, it is relevant to my pre-service or in-service K-12 teachers who plan to teach digital media.\r\n\r\nAs an artist and teacher, I find immediate relevancy.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Text is clear and utilizes at-level appropriate vocabulary. Style is conversational, but informative.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Text is consistent from beginning to end.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The chapters depend on one another, but are linked accordingly. Ideally, when one piece of information in a latter chapter references an earlier one, it is cited and informs the reader where to find the previous information.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapter content scaffolds well beginning with a definition of the topic through methods of pedagogical incorporation to student assessment.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The interface is excellent. All links I attempted were active and footnote numbers have immediate links, which I also found impressive.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were no discernable grammatical mistakes that interrupted reader flow.","cultural_rating":3,"cultural_review":"The text speaks well to those engaged within a culture of research. There is information that sheds light on acts that are relevant to conducting research appropriately. \r\n\r\nWhat cultural aspect I would like to see more of is the connection of digital storytelling to various global cultures that use narrative as a way to continue traditions. Including those points of learning creates a dynamic that takes the concept of personal storytelling into a much large realm.\r\n\r\nI appreciate the inclusion of storyboarding as part of the storytelling culture. A connection to filmmaking is present through the link to an external site about filmmaking. However, it is not a primary source, which juxtaposes some of the content regarding the importance of first person resources.\r\n\r\nAs far as references to cultures beyond the mainstream dominant, there is none. The lack of non-privileged cultural perspectives is shortcoming, especially with today’s diverse student populations.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The text is appropriate for a group of teacher educators, but seems to be more along the lines of a project guide than a full semester textbook.","created_at":"2020-01-15T15:38:46.000-06:00","updated_at":"2020-01-15T15:38:46.000-06:00"},{"id":3681,"first_name":"Qazi Arka","last_name":"Rahman","position":"GTA","institution_name":"West Virginia University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book does a good job of detailing the steps of digital storytelling. I have particularly found the organizational structures of the chapters helpful.  The way of utilizing quotes, content, student work, faculty interviews, and footnotes does a good job in scaffolding concepts and cases that is beneficial for comprehending the entire process. The chapters themselves are pretty straightforward and provide enough cases to understand the challenges of such a venture in the real world.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text seems accurate and relatively free of bias. The arguments are based on case examples and that is always a good strategy.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Given the time and its techno-centric focus, I think this is a very relevant book. Be in introductory composition courses or graduate level seminars, it cannot be denied that the demand for incorporating tech into teaching is increasing. The book addresses a timely issue.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The prose of the book is clear and jargon-free. It's a good strategy for a book of its kind. There are little in here that might seem difficult due to the language that has been used.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The individual chapters are very well organized and that helps the overall book to be consistent and coherent.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"It seems it will not be much difficult to reorganize the book to fit a class. The chapters are subdivided into different segments and that is helpful.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The strength of this book is its organization. The chapters are divided into segments that slowly builds up the process for comprehension. The usage of faculty interviews and student works also help to understand the issues that might come for each segment.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The online reading interface is smooth enough. Although, I did face some issues while turning pages. On a few occasions, I have been taken to the first page while going through the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I have found no significant issues with grammar in this text.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It seems the text actively tried to be inclusive, which is a good thing. It also pulls from a wide range of disciplines.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"The text is easy to read, well organized, and addresses an issue that is very relevant for the current times. I am looking forward to incorporating it for one of my future classes.","created_at":"2020-03-26T11:06:05.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-03-26T11:06:05.000-05:00"},{"id":3733,"first_name":"Catron","last_name":"Booker","position":"Adjunct Faculty/Radio-TV-Film","institution_name":"East Tennessee State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text is very accessible in terms of being easily readable for educators from a wide variety of backgrounds.  The textbook seems to be more of an overview of digital media for a course in the humanities, American Studies, Environmental Studies, etc. that is interested in using digital media as an additional tool for research and/or for using narrative strategies to explore various topics that might other just be driven by data based analysis.  The exercises located in the Appendix are very useful in terms of understanding how to integrate this approach into a curriculum.  Nevertheless, I think it would be useful to provide examples of a completed (portfolio based) project that shows a process based approach in which a range of digital strategies are used to explore one topic such as water. I think this is what Chapter 6 could have displayed especially since it was rather brief.  Chapter 4 is exceptional for offering concrete instruction on assessment strategies and the challenging nature of evaluating digital projects  with comprehensive rubrics included.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"High accuracy and error-free readability.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This textbook feels mostly up to date as of this reading, but the challenge with digital media is remaining up to date in a highly evolving digital landscape. The relevance of this book lives in the teaching tools it provides instructors already using digital media and/or wanting to acquire a solid pedagogical foundation with concrete project based results. In this respect, the content is incredibly useful.  An Appendix that not only includes the exercises but also lists key terms would also be helpful for quick and easy reference of certain topics, terms, concepts, etc.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Exceptional clarity and highly engaging without technical jargon that can be daunting for those unfamiliar with the field.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Very consistent and highly useful in terms of constant referencing of core concepts.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"There is a solid balance between visual examples and the text. I would have liked to see a wider variety of digital story examples other than video including, but not limited to, graphic based projects, art projects, sound based work, etc within each module.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The chapters easily build upon each other. It is definitely an invaluable teaching reference because of its organizational flow such that one would want to return to it again and again.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Many of the links did not easily open for me in iBooks to watch online. This is an important functionality issue that needs to be resolved and may be more an issue with iBooks than other software. One suggestion is to have the links all clearly listed in the Appendix and/or on a companion website which is what I eventually found via my own navigation.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Excellent grammatical quality.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"I would have liked to see more racial/ethnic, cultural, economic and linguistic diversity from the student and faculty stories and interviews included.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Excellent textbook for digital media educators. Also, a more nuts and bolts chapter on the mechanics of editing would have proven useful. A chapter with references to open source editing software is a suggestion.   And finally, while Chapter 5 is valid regarding the environmental and human impact of technology consumption, the chapter was not useful for teaching in practice. This chapter  could have been more impactful by considering 1)How can students incorporate this awareness into their projects and/or lives? 2)How can one maximize the functionality of technology and/or take on a DIY approach in order to minimize the environmental impact 3) How can this challenge actually become a digital media story in and of itself?","created_at":"2020-04-17T16:10:20.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-04-17T16:10:20.000-05:00"},{"id":3885,"first_name":"Carrie","last_name":"Oeding","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Bridgewater State University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I really like what the book covers and how it breaks down the steps to integrating digital storytelling assignments in your classroom. It's incredibly clear and immediately useful. In the \"Types of Digital Storytelling\" I would like to see a reference to additionally using the assignment genre to create arguments with digital storytelling. Right now the emphasis is on informing, explaining concepts, reflecting, and teaching others. A lot of students think research and writing means just reporting. Informing and explaining doesn't imply creating an argument. To specifically emphasize how to create an argument with your research or an argument using a concept you have studied, is a different, important objective for classrooms. I also would like to see a researched personal narrative assignment included in the \"types.\" The reflecting section in Chapter 2 is geared toward students reflecting on their work. But to emphasize how a digital storytelling assignment could require research and personal narrative to create an interesting hybrid narrative would be useful for a lot of courses.\r\n\r\nThe book also does not break down specific questions peers can ask each other in the peer review process. This is a constant step of consideration and revision for faculty when scaffolding major assignments.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is steeped in useful experience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The strength of this book is that its breakdown of these assignments are really flexible for almost any course and major. The guidance is still open enough to inspire you to consider what your current goals and themes are for the course, making the text very relevant and adaptable.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Easy to read in a useful way. I can get through the text quickly, find it all useful and know I can return to it when I want to build my own assignments or cite in pedagogy research. I would have liked to see, though, a section on teaching editing of video and photo essays. This seems like a key step in the learning process.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The clarity of the book is also stemming from its consistency. The consistent referral to the practice of a participatory pedagogy through the use of digital storytelling helped to keep the objectives in the forefront. The value of participation was present in every aspect of this book--from brainstorming to evaluation.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"I like the links to the exercises within the textbook. You can keep following this scaffolding of exercises and still return to where you left of in the chapter.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The organization makes it easy to jump around as well as read chronologically. I just wasn't 100% sound on the position of Chapter 5. I understand that loading this information in the preface would lose readers, but it read as coming in a little too late into the text.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Easy to click and return throughout the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Very clear.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"It's incredibly relevant to use with inclusive pedagogy. The text emphasizes the need for rhetorical analysis of images, a critical cultural tool, by organically integrating such analysis into the scaffolding of the exercises.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Very useful! A good primer for faculty who want to use digital narratives or multi-modal assignments in their classrooms. The textbook shows how anyone can adapt these assignments.","created_at":"2020-06-01T12:15:42.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-01T12:15:42.000-05:00"},{"id":3908,"first_name":"Sharon","last_name":"Head","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text is a comprehensive, concise, and highly readable introduction to the use of digital storytelling as a learning tool for both instructors and students. The author provides a solid theoretical background, exercises to use with students, and many powerful examples of the ways that her students and colleagues have used and learned from the process of digital storytelling.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author provides content that is accurate and unbiased. Specific attention seemed to be paid to providing examples of digital storytelling that reflected a variety of cultural perspectives/voices.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Because the author refrains from discussion of any specific technology, this text will be \"current\" for years to come. There is a sense of timelessness about this content in the best possible sense.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This is a well-written and very readable text. I think that it could be easily used by instructors not just at the university level but in K-12 settings as well.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author very clearly outlines her approach to the organization of chapters at the beginning of the book and follows that structure throughout. There is good consistency in tone. Use of short, meaningful quotes at the beginning of each chapter helps to draw the reader \"in.\"","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Text is arranged in an very visually appealing way. Lots of white space and headings/sub-headings that help the reader to see where they are and what lies ahead. No student should be able to make a complaint of TMDR (too much, didn't read) about any of the chapters or the book as a whole.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text has a very clear organizational structure that progresses from definitions, to types/uses of digital stories, to very practical exercises, examples, and assessment tools.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Text is free of major interface issues; there were however issues with accessing the assessment rubrics.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammatical errors; well-edited.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Text is culturally sensitive and includes examples of digital stories from students and instructors who have a variety of cultural and/or experiential backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I will plan to use this text as a resource for pre- and in-service K-12 teachers.","created_at":"2020-06-03T16:47:06.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-03T16:47:06.000-05:00"},{"id":33368,"first_name":"Elif","last_name":"Guler","position":"Dr./Associate Professor/Professional Writing Coordinator","institution_name":"Longwood University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book presents a comprehensive discussion of digital storytelling from its definition to examples of students’ digital stories to related scholarly research as well as tools (e.g., assignments and exercises) and other resources (links to instructional videos) for teachers to easily integrate \"digital storytelling\" into their curricula. However, some of the links provided for sample students’ projects no longer work (perhaps because those students chose to make the videos private, etc).","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate. The only issue (error) is with the broken links that no longer work (there are several of those).","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The relevance is a challenging aspect with this kind of a text whose topic (digital storytelling) has something to do with changing technologies. The text does a good job of overcoming this challenge, Much of the discussion provides timeless guidance on composing digital works that would could be easily applied through different technologies -- even if those technologies were to change in the future. Still, the text might need updating every five years or so (which is indicated even by the sample links that can go obsolete in a short period of time).","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The author presents the content in a very accessible, clear prose. The text flows very well and makes the reader want to continue reading. The text can be understood by any teacher at any level without knowledge of specific terminology. Any terminology used is defined and explained.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text uses relevant terminology consistently. The chapters are also consistent within themselves in terms of their purposes. For example, chapters 1 and 2 provide a more theoretical discussion, while chapters 3 and 4 also provide practical models and procedural frameworks.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The text has been clearly divided into chapters and different sections that can easily be selected and assigned for students to read.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"This text is clearly organized around definitions and discussions of theory on digital storytelling, practical tools for creating digital stories, specific examples, exercises, assessment devices.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The interface can get problematic at times; for example, it takes a while to get out of an example page and return to the corresponding chapter, sometimes. The reader can find themselves bumped back to the beginning of the book or the end of the book, etc. Also, some of the lines in some of the chapter pages seem to get cut off, so the reader might need to play with the browser window size to make all of the text visible.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book seems to be edited well for grammatical correction.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text presents a rhetorically conscious approach to culture and invites instructors and students to critical thinking thorough the exercises included in the chapters. Highly interesting sample works such as the \"classroom as mandala\" provides for meaningfully diverse content.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I'm definitely planning to integrate some of the assignments and exercises from this book into my digital writing course.","created_at":"2021-08-17T22:49:10.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-08-17T22:49:10.000-05:00"},{"id":33655,"first_name":"Vicki","last_name":"Pitstick","position":"Director, New Student \u0026 Family Programs","institution_name":"Radford University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"As a professional who has used digital stories in many ways and a certified Digital Story Facilitator through The Storycenter, I felt this book did a great job of explaining what digital stories are and different ways they can be utilized.  The numerous examples of digital stories and students' reflections on their digital stories were wonderful, and the index/glossary was very complete with explanations and sample assignments.  The one thing I wished the author would have discussed was the use of story circles when creating digital stories.  This is a very powerful aspect of the process of digital storytelling that can elevate student learning and teach empathy, and although it takes time, that all professors may not have in the classroom, I do think it is a part of the process that could have been explained for those who might have the time to incorporate it into their teaching.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author did an excellent job of providing clear and accurate explanations.  Her viewpoints did not come off as bias, and she was able to portray a sense of flexibility as well as provide options for teaching a topic in a different way in her writing.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As technology becomes more and more a part of our world, providing resources to teachers about ways it can be utilized in the classroom is crucial.  This is especially true if we want to keep our students engaged as much as possible.  Additional examples and updates could easily be added to this textbook.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The numerous examples, digital stories, and exercises made the text an easy and enjoyable read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author is consistent throughout the book with her terminology and framework.  She explained how each chapter would be set up and followed the format she described.  Her use of backward design as a framework for the book illustrated the value of this pedagogy.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text is written more of an instruction for teachers on how to teach using digital stories.  There are aspects that could be pulled out for students, but it is mainly to help teachers with this pedagogical strategy.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book was easy to read and flowed well.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Not all links worked for me, but this may be a result of my own computer.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book was very well-written and easy to read.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The beauty of digital storytelling is that it is a great tool to help people educate others about and celebrate their cultures.  I did not find anything offensive about the text.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I believe the use of digital storytelling is very powerful and enjoy incorporating them into courses and other activities when appropriate.  I appreciate that this book has added to my repertoire of exercises, examples, and ways to assess digital stories.  I also appreciated the authors vulnerability and honesty about her own process as she continues to incorporate digital storytelling into her teaching,  Well done!","created_at":"2022-01-07T14:58:46.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-01-07T14:58:46.000-06:00"},{"id":33853,"first_name":"Dolores","last_name":"Flamiano","position":"Professor, Media Arts and Design","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The Changing Story gives a remarkably thorough overview of digital storytelling and covers the bases from project conceptualization to scaffolding to assessment to peer feedback. There is much to admire in this book, from preliminary chapters grounded in educational theory to later chapters that get into the practical nuts and bolts. There are a couple of features that I find extremely informative and helpful—at times even inspiring. Next semester, I plan to implement digital storytelling assignments in my classes. When I do, I will be turning to The Changing Story, in particular the exercises in the Appendix and the chapters on scaffolding and assessment. As a professor with a humanities background teaching in a program with a strong focus on applied skills and media technology, I often feel like a fish out of water. At the same time, I want to help students apply their digital skills to critical analysis and visual literacy development. The Changing Story appeals to me because it takes a “big picture” approach to digital storytelling. In other words, the focus is on learning through digital storytelling rather than learning to use digital tools. To me, this is an important distinction, and one that makes this book truly comprehensive.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Very clear and accurate focus on digital storytelling from cross-disciplinary, education-based, pedagogical perspectives. I appreciate the short videos sharing the experiences of students and teachers who have used digital storytelling assignment for different purposes and in different disciplinary contexts.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book’s dual focus on digital storytelling and climate change (a through line in many of the video examples) makes it feel highly relevant and of-the-moment, but not in a trendy or frivolous way. I also applaud the authors for paying attention to the process of digital storytelling and not espousing any specific technological tools or platforms.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing is clear, straightforward, and accessible. It might seem basic for those already conversant with digital assignments, but for someone getting started, it seems just right.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Uneven, in my opinion. The chapters are consistent in terms of following a format clearly described in the introduction. The student examples are somewhat inconsistent in terms of the production lengths (8 minutes feels too long) and technical quality.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I’m not accustomed to rating modularity, but will do my best. In terms of the ability for separate chapters to stand alone, then I think that certain chapters, notably the Appendix, could function quite effectively as independent modules.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is thoughtfully organized so that each chapter builds upon the previous one. The chapters flow well together.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"This was somewhat uneven, in my opinion. For example, when reading the e-book online, I found a few cases of orphan last lines or headings. In terms of the videos, I found it distracting to be taken to YouTube whenever clicking on a video interview or student example. I would prefer to have the videos embedded in the e-book rather than having to go to YouTube.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book was error-free as far as I could tell.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Somewhat uneven overall. The examples of student work were somewhat diverse and inclusive. There were videos highlighting people and projects in South America and other parts of the world. On the other hand, the interviews with students and teachers did not have much diversity.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book. I have been looking for a helpful primer for introducing digital storytelling into my media literacy and critical thinking classrooms, and this is the best textbook that I have seen so far. It provides a solid rationale for introducing digital storytelling as a way to enhance and enrich teaching and learning. Equally important, the authors often take a strong social responsibility and ethics perspective, which I admire and support. In this vein, I appreciate the attention to fair use when it comes to using images and music, as I think this is an area where students will need more guidance as digital storytelling becomes more pervasive in our educational landscape, which I think it will.","created_at":"2022-05-16T13:17:39.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-05-16T13:17:39.000-05:00"},{"id":35356,"first_name":"Caleb","last_name":"González","position":"Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies","institution_name":"The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers many areas and ideas of the subject appropriately. I especially appreciate how The Changing Story begins by discussing what digital storytelling is, types of digital stories, scaffolding activities and exercises around digital stories, and assessment strategies. As a reader, a particular highlight of the textbook is that no one pedagogical strategy is enforced as the one pedagogical strategy for digital stories. In other words, Buturian is very much aware that teaching and learning differs widely and teachers need options to think about their assessment, design of assignments and activities, and even the kinds of digital stories they might want to embrace given the objectives and learning outcomes of their courses. This is why I appreciate the integration of backwards design learning as one key approach to digital stories. Readers will certainly benefit for these kinds of strategies. Part of what makes this textbook effective is the wide range of insight that readers learn from students and faculty. As a reader who works at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Regional Comprehensive University (RCU), I did wonder how Buturian and other faculty address technology access as they integrate digital stories in their classroom. I mention the topic not to suggest that students at my institution have no access to technology, but that assuming everyone's access to technology even in the same ways (i.e., everyone has access to iMovie software) can provide a conundrum early on in one's teaching. This was a question that lingered in my mind as I read that I would have wanted to see better addressed in pedagogical sections like teacher reflections, faculty interviews, student reflections, scaffolding exercises, and assessment strategies. Additionally, it's important to note that there is no index or glossary in this text to help readers navigate terminology. In an updated version, The Changing Story could benefit from a glossary for teachers, especially students who are studying teaching and learning in a variety of settings.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"I do find the content of the text is accurate. I appreciate the pedagogical terminology (i.e., backwards design, scaffolding, assessment) that is used for a teacher readership of this text. I would have liked to see more scholarship integrated on multimodal writing, digital rhetorics, technology access, and teaching and learning in digital environments to help me as a reader make greater connections in addition to expanding my archive of resources to help me think through, for example, how I might integrate critical reflection on students' engagement with technology.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"It's important to take note of the publication date of this text (2016 \u0026 2017). Because technology and students' access and engagement with it is rapidly changing even from one year to the next, this text can be used as one resource or as a secondary text to better understand both how and what it means to embrace digital storytelling in teaching and learning. The textbook does need updates to its interface and links throughout to make it as relevant as possible to readers today.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is written with accessible prose for a teacher readership. It's really important to note that this textbook can be used for pedagogy courses or upper division undergraduate courses with students who may want to be teachers. It is not, however, a textbook that a teacher would use as a primary text for students who are designing digital stories. With that said, teachers can use this textbook for students to interact with, but they should be explicit about which sections to use. Student examples and reflections are especially useful. However, largely speaking, this text is for teachers and students who are aspiring to be teachers themselves. It can also be used by centers of teaching and learning that are working with learning assistants and faculty across disciplines who are especially interested in digital storytelling. \n\nI mention the textbook's readership in relation to clarity because if we consider an audience of teachers, then yes, the text is written in an accessible prose that readers can understand. I also appreciate some of the terminology in the introduction that Buturian includes while not assuming that readers are familiar with it.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"I find that there is internal consistency in terms of terminology and framework. Digital storytelling is used throughout to emphasize the importance of creativity and narrative in students' learning and writing processes. The textbook also does a great job of consistently incorporating pedagogical technology throughout that helps readers imagine how they might integrate digital storytelling activities and assignments. At the same time, there isn't always a focus on pedagogy. I do, however, appreciate the integration of activities, exercises, and resources for teacher readers in most parts of the textbook.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"While some chapters do have smaller sections that readers can interact with and easily turn to if they would like to identify those sections early on upon accessing the chapter, chapter five is a block of text without subheadings. This is part of why I struggled to get through the chapter and make connections to teaching and learning and more specifically, how I might integrate critical reflection with technology in the integration of digital storytelling. I appreciate chapter three which is an excellent example of modularity. In that chapter, Buturian provides a list of activities and exercises that teachers can use to teach the process of digital storytelling. The chapter includes a list of 12 activities and exercises and then breaks each one down with examples. The modularity follows that design.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"The book is organized both with a pedagogical orientation in mind, but also a thematic/critical reflection purpose. This kind of organization can confuse readers a bit especially for those readers already looking to embrace digital storytelling in their teaching and seeking content that supports them in their pedagogy. For example, chapter one introduces readers to digital storytelling, chapter two focuses on types of digital stories, chapter three is about scaffolding exercises, and chapter four is about assessment and evaluation strategies. However, chapter five then turns to questions of helping students think through their relationship technology under the title \"We Are the Battery Human.\" I appreciate this chapter, but I do think that some of the exercises in the appendix can be integrated in these chapters to continue pedagogical learning or the author can integrate exercises that help students reflect or engage metacognitive activities that help them make meaning of their digital storytelling processes. This is something I would like to see more as a reader.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"The interface of this text is strong especially when YouTube videos that include teacher reflections, student interviews, and some students' digital stories are integrated. Readers are able to access these videos because they are uploaded to YouTube. I also find The Changing Story's YouTube channel to be a crucial tool for additional interviews and examples of student work. In chapter 5, there is audio of a song that works and is accessible to listeners (however, I did want to see a transcript of that audio for accessibility purposes). In chapter 6, Buturian incorporates illustrated stories that are visible and accessible to readers. The navigation problems occur at the beginning of chapters 1, 2, and 3. There is a video that continues to try to load at the beginning of each of those chapters unsuccessfully. I tried multiple browsers and in each case, the videos do not show. There are also some links that are broken. In chapter one, there is a link to student work that then takes readers to a page that says \"Oops! That content cannot be found.\"","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text contains very little to no grammatical errors. As someone with expertise in writing studies, I do not see grammatical errors throughout this text and if there are any, they do not impede a reader's understanding of the content of the text overall.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. In fact, I appreciate the kinds of examples from students and teachers that include digital stories located in various parts of the region, country, and even the world. This aspect of the text certainly demonstrates an inclusivity of geographical location. I also appreciate how it integrates teacher reflections that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. As a reader, I did wish to see more representation from student writers and more commentary from faculty represented. I mention this representation from faculty especially since in these teacher reflection areas of the textbook, I was able to gain tremendous insight from faculty who reflect on how they scaffold their teaching around digital storytelling activities and assignments. For example, Rashne Jehangir, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota reflects on the need for greater scaffolding around technology in teaching students how to create digital stories. These kinds of reflections are useful as a teacher readership moves through this text.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Overall, I want to highlight the wealth of resources that this textbook includes. In the very introduction, Buturian is explicit and intentional about incorporating student work and reflection, faculty interviews, and quotes that help readers understand the value of digital storytelling from a variety of perspectives. This is certainly one of the major foundations of this textbook which provides a teacher readership with multiple angles to learn about digital storytelling and their responsibility to change their teaching with digital stories in mind. At the same time, I believe that it's important to note that this text was initially published in 2016 with a second edition published in 2017 by the University of Minnesota, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). I mention the year of publication to note that digital storytelling is changing rapidly. This is why future versions of this book might include a list of resources for teachers to draw from in learning more. Additionally, I mention UM's institutional context not to suggest that the University of Minnesota does not enroll student populations from a variety of backgrounds or that it is insensitive in any way. On the contrary, this textbook even refers to the wealth of resources that the University of Minnesota has related to digital storytelling for both instructors and students. However, I mention UM's context to keep in mind the ways in which technology and access can differ across various institutional typologies (e.g., various Minority-Serving Institutions, two-year colleges etc.). While I appreciated that in chapter five, Linda Buturian focuses on the importance of helping \"our students move from an unconscious to a dialectical relationship with...technological devices,\" and even more so, she begins that same chapter by explaining that \"the digital story assignment assumes that an infrastructure of technology is accessible to all students, whether it is a tablet, a camera, and laptop, or more,\" there still is an assumption about students' access to technology that isn't heavily interrogated. In fact, in one example, a student discusses his use of an iPad which suggests a kind of access to technology that may not be shared by all students. Certainly technology is widespread and students' access is wide ranging, but how do instructors address access to technology when teaching digital storytelling? This perspective is crucial especially as teachers consider both how and what it means to integrate multimodality in the assignments they bring to students.","created_at":"2024-12-16T18:28:41.000-06:00","updated_at":"2024-12-16T18:28:41.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/the-changing-story-digital-stories-that-participate-in-transforming-teaching-learning","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:01:49.000-06:00"},{"id":293,"title":"Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future","edition_statement":null,"volume":null,"copyright_year":2015,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":["unknown"],"description":"In Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies, Asao B. Inoue theorizes classroom writing assessment as a complex system that is \"more than\" its interconnected elements. To explain how and why antiracist work in the writing classroom is vital to literacy learning, Inoue incorporates ideas about the white racial habitus that informs dominant discourses in the academy and other contexts. Inoue helps teachers understand the unintended racism that often occurs when teachers do not have explicit antiracist agendas in their assessments. Drawing on his own teaching and classroom inquiry, Inoue offers a heuristic for developing and critiquing writing assessment ecologies that explores seven elements of any writing assessment ecology: power, parts, purposes, people, processes, products, and places.","contributors":[{"id":3250,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Asao","middle_name":"B.","last_name":"Inoue","location":"University of Washington Tacoma","background_text":"Asao B. Inoue is Director of University Writing and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma. He has published on writing assessment, validity, and composition pedagogy in Assessing Writing, The Journal of Writing Assessment, Composition Forum, and Research in the Teaching of English, among other journals and collections. His co-edited collection Race and Writing Assessment (2012) won the CCCC's Outstanding Book Award for an edited collection."}],"subjects":[{"id":5,"name":"Education","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"L7","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education"},{"id":6,"name":"Humanities","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":null,"visible_textbooks_count":418,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/humanities"},{"id":33,"name":"Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry","parent_subject_id":6,"call_number":"PE1408","visible_textbooks_count":124,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/literature-rhetoric-and-poetry"},{"id":27,"name":"Higher Education","parent_subject_id":5,"call_number":"LC980","visible_textbooks_count":34,"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/higher-education"}],"publishers":[{"id":483,"url":"https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/inoue/","year":null,"created_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:40.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-09-07T12:22:40.000-05:00","name":"WAC Clearinghouse"}],"formats":[{"id":812,"type":"PDF","url":"https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/inoue/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":813,"type":"eBook","url":"https://wac.colostate.edu/books/perspectives/inoue/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"4.5","textbook_reviews_count":17,"reviews":[{"id":836,"first_name":"Antonette ","last_name":"Aragon","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"Colorado State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The book has a clear comprehensiveness. It shows an effective coverage of the subjects appropriate to the subject within it's index, notes, and reference pages. I followed the structure of the book easily.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I believe it is ludicrous that any text is unbiased. All authors bring their biases and if we cannot recognize this, then why do theories exist? The author of this text shows the bias with writing assessments and how such bias marginalizes students of color, simply because our society is wrought with racism that has never been confronted. Inoue touches on the epistemological racism that works in our society because we live in a society that has been founded on racism. Until we examine what racism is and how it resides in our academic practices, we will only continue the status quo hegemonic writing practices that herald white as normal, neutral and natural. Yet, it is a book like this requesting that we stop and examine our assessment practices and examine how racism is at the heart of such practices.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is up-to-date. The topic is one that has longevity and relevancy. I don't see how there will be necessary updates in the future because it has a candid simplicity that is straightforward to follow for years to come.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The book is written clearly. The author, Inoue, knows deeply how race and racism is part of the landscape of the inner workings of our educational operations, such as within our assessments. He breaks his theory and praxis down coherently. I also applaud him for tackling an issue that is overwhelming present within academia, yet acutely hidden within the white illusion of hegemonic power dynamics. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The terminology related to the topic of race and racism related to assessments is well defined. I am an educational researcher and I focus on Chicana Feminist Epistemology and Critical Race Theoretical frames representing socially just educational research.  Inoue, author of this book, presents the terminology and framing related to the elements of race and racism as something we must examine forthrightly within our writing assessments. Such assessments are often written and developed by professors and teachers who are bound to the epistemology of our culture and he deconstructs this so that we may understand the concepts of ecologies of assessments.  ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book has clear modularity. I found the text and chapters easy to read with clear use of subheadings when needed. The book has clarity within its layout. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The organization/structure/flow is logically put together. There are five chapters and they are all well developed with a clear thesis and solid arguments to back the claims of the arguments about race and racism at the core of our writing assessments. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text is free of interface issues. There were no distorted images/charts and I found nothing confusing to read. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The book is well written. There were just 2 that I ran across. Otherwise, I found the book very well written.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"I chose this book because I research \"race and racism\" as it pertains to educational equity. This was the only book that i found covering this topic. Cultural relevancy is at the core of this text. The discussion of race and racism is no delicate topic and the author does a solid job covering the topic as it relates to writing assessments. He makes a strong case to show how race and racism are part of the fabric of our society and if we don't address it, it doesn't mean racism will vanish. Instead, examining the elements in our thinking as it relates to how we assess is based on our thinking, which is then validated by the values (axiology) and the nature of what we call real (ontology). He shows how writing assessments are bound to the culture we reside and abide. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I highly recommend this text!","created_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00","updated_at":"2016-12-05T18:00:00.000-06:00"},{"id":1412,"first_name":"Callie","last_name":"Palmer","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Linn Benton Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Inoue addresses the writing task and assessment as an \"ecology\" which frames the work as a living, breathing entity capable of evolving. He provides detailed components in this ecology, beginning with a very lengthy and detailed introduction that lays the groundwork for his thinking and writing, detailing the \"function of race in writing assessments\",  defining \"ecology\" as \"relationships between ...people and their environments,\"  specifics about constructing antiracist writing assessment ecologies, a demonstration of how these work in a specific course inclusive of students' participation and response, and closes with details about designing the assessments. \nAs a writing teacher and an antiracist educator, I find this a very comprehensive text, inclusive of critical and thoughtful application of key scholars' work to support Inoue's thesis.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"Inoue uses his sources well, supports his work thoroughly and thoughtfully. The question of bias is curious - I would argue that depends on who reads the text and for what reason. If an instructor is looking to create a \"neutral\" writing assignment, this is not the text for that. Inoue's thesis is not about anti-bias, rather, it is about antiracist frameworks for creating assignments and assessing them.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Inoue's text is very timely and I can see this remaining useful for years to come. He adds an interesting perspective to scholarship about writing pedagogy and assessment that is rarely addressed at this level in other writing texts. In an era where some find it easy to dismiss respectful writing practices as \"politically correct\", work like this gets at the structural issues involved in teaching and assessing writing projects.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Inoue's text is clearly written for an audience that would include instructors who have familiarity with theory and scholarly work. What is great is he doesn't overwhelm with jargon on any level - but that is part of his ecology. Where difficult concepts and language are introduced, they are also broken down for the reader so that this work is accessible without being simplistic.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"One of the benefits of reviewing a writing scholar's work is that they are conscious of the structure they are creating, and Inoue is no exception.  Each chapter is well developed, and at only 5 chapters, this text isn't too long for the average busy instructor to consult.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"This text is not one that would be used by first or second year students, and would most likely only be used by students who intend to teach writing on some level, but in spite of that, this book is well organized and easy to follow. All five chapters are broken down well - some additional subheadings might be useful to break up the type, but that is purely an aesthetic consideration.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Inoue breaks down the concepts he relies on for his ecology theory, and then provides clear and consistent details about how and where this theory operates to create an antiracist writing assessment ecology.  He starts with the bigger picture, breaks down the ideas, and then demonstrates how they work in the fourth chapter in an actual class, followed by a final chapter that provides considerations for design.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Inoue produced this book as a free text, and it is possible that choices were made to keep the interface simple to prevent any kind of copyright/use issues. There are very few graphics, and the text is available as a pdf or ePub document.  I read the document as a pdf file, and had no problem navigating and making notes in the pdf file.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I saw no grammatical errors. Inoue's writing is clear and concise.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Since the focus of this text is antiracist writing ecologies, there are relevant examples of dominant or culturally oppressive practices that some might, depending on their personal standpoint, find problematic - but that is the point. What this text can be described as is culturally responsive - it does not center any one group as the \"correct\" group, nor does it simply dismiss the dominant or racially constructed methods as \"bad\" - rather, Inoue does a nice job pointing out how these constructions are problematic and how to create \"ecologies\" that are less inclusive and more equitable. Inclusivity doesn't necessarily dispense with the dominant issue.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"It would be great if this were to be used as a handbook (or some form of it) to train writing center tutors, directors, writing faculty, and then once this is firmly set in that aspect, across the curriculum.","created_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":1506,"first_name":"Shane","last_name":"Abrams","position":"Adjunct Faculty","institution_name":"Portland Community College and Portland State University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provides incisive yet accessible exploration of the institutional hegemonic racisms upon which many of our assumptions about \"good\" writing rely. In response, it promotes a culturally and situationally responsive ecology of writing instruction and assessment. It's certainly not a \"how-to,\" but offers important conceptual considerations for the intentional teacher committed to material antiracism.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is polished and, based on my theoretical posture, accurate, although topics like this one are highly politicized, and \"unbiased\" might be a reductive way to describe it.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The book refers to both historical and ongoing institutional racist (and antiracist) practices; although a new edition might be in order in a few years, it seems both relevant and lasting.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The target audience for this book (\"graduate students, writing teachers, and writing program administrators\" [Inoue 3]) should feel comfortable with the language employed in this book, but I can't envision using it below the 300 level.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Inoue establishes a thoughtful framework in the introductory sections of the book which continues throughout the text.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"These concepts are very complex and not especially excerpt-able. The text is very dense, so I would not consider it modular.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"The text is clearly organized and easy to follow, in terms of overall trajectory.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"Inoue uses frequent and very important endnotes, but there's no way to click between the main text and the endnotes. I keep having to scroll/jump to pages, and losing my place. It seems like it would be easy enough to make these endnotes linked.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn't observe significant grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is exceptionally relevant, in fact focusing on antiracist cultural responsiveness. It is highly conscious of race (and other axes of oppression) and committed to social justice writing pedagogy.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I am not likely to use this book for the particular classes I teach, but I think it should be required reading for Teacher Education Programs at both undergrad and graduate levels. It would also make an excellent text for professional development projects and ongoing education for current teachers.","created_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2017-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2176,"first_name":"Melissa","last_name":"Wells","position":"Assistant Professor of Education","institution_name":"University of Mary Washington","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"In this text, Inoue offers an incredibly comprehensive view of a subject about an area that deserves more intentional attention:  antiracist writing assessment ecologies.  After clearly laying out some complex issues raised within critical theories (such as Freire’s emancipatory frameworks, Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, and Marxian political theory) in a comprehensible orientation for newcomers to these theories, Inoue then provides specific suggestions and considerations for classroom practice that moves toward antiracist writing assessment ecologies.  The text includes two appendices, one which shows the author’s grading contract (one strategy, building on the work of Danielewicz and Elbow, 2009) for antiracist writing assessment the author mentions in the text) from his own college composition course at Fresno State; the second includes a sample reflection letter for problem-posing labor processes.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"This text thoroughly addresses the basic premises underlying antiracist writing assessment ecologies.  Inoue clearly defines differences between race and racism, as well as differing forms of racism and power/equity (such as assumptions of Standardized Edited American English [SEAE] and a white racial habitus) that need to be addressed before pursuing the work of creating antiracist assessments.  Furthermore, Inoue clearly analyzes writing assessment data from his institution on the EPT to support his argument that this work is necessary.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"On a scale from 1-5, this text deserves a 10 in this category.  With this work, Inoue fills a significant void in the field of educational assessment that needs to drive discourse and teaching practice for years to come.  Traditional writing assessment relies upon sameness and standardization, which, Inoue explains, are foundationally racist principles due to the artificial assumption of shared mainstream norms; this text offers ways to reconsider such practices to focus more on students’ labor as writers instead.  While Inoue frames this text from his experience as a college writing professor, as a current teacher educator and former public school educator myself, I see direct applications of the issues raised in this text across all educational contexts.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Despite the complexity of the topic, Inoue engages the reader with his conversational tone.  Specific case studies, research, and anecdotal evidence clearly illustrate and support the arguments and claims made.  Even though the concept of “ecologies” in the context of antiracist writing assessment may be new for most readers, Inoue spends ample time explaining this concept in an approachable way.  In addition, the conclusions at the end of each chapter concisely review the overarching themes and arguments.  Two figures are also included that provide additional clarity of the seven interconnected elements of writing assessment ecologies and example of the labor-focused rubrics Inoue negotiates with students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text’s terminology and framework is consistent throughout the text.  While the theory and framework are initially (and thoroughly) established in Chapter 1 and 2, Inoue revisits key concepts through the lens of classroom practice and personal experience in Chapter 3 through 5.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"While Inoue does use subheadings within chapters to organize the work, these sections of text are at times quite lengthy and may rely upon an understanding of or interaction with previous sections in order to be understood.  However, I also see the need to read this text holistically because of the depth of content:  for example, skipping to the classroom practice suggestions misses the basic orientation to the critical theories upon which these practice suggestions lie, which is in itself a problematic omission for a reader who is wanting to do this work.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"As would be expected from a professor of writing in a book about writing assessment, this text is clearly organized with a natural flow that makes it engaging for the reader.  Inoue clearly guides the reader through logical arguments and strategic use of evidence to support those arguments.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text’s interface was clear and simple to navigate; I used the iBooks app on my iPad and was able to use the features of the app with this text, including searching for terms within the book.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"While there were a handful of grammatical errors throughout the entire book (one use of it’s instead of its, one use of students instead of students’, one question mark instead of a period, and one period instead of a question mark), these minor errors did not detract from the reader’s ability to understand the text.  (Also, there is a great irony in assessing this text’s grammatical integrity amidst its central arguments that delineate antiracist writing assessments.  So, if we re-frame this assessment of grammatical strandardization through Inoue’s own suggestion of labor, this becomes a non-issue.)","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Yet again, this text should be a 10 on a scale from 1-5 in this category.  The central tenants of this text rely upon cultural relevance and interrupting writing assessment practices that are culturally irrelevant.  Inoue focuses on the experiences of all students in his courses through data on the standardized EPT writing assessment and their reflections/writing in his course, but a special focus is placed on the Mexican-American and Hmong students at his institution and ensuring that his writing assessment practices are culturally relevant by moving beyond the assumption of a white, mainstream habitus.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"As a professor of education whose research interests lie in critical theories and their application to classroom practice, I was thrilled to find such a well-written book available on this topic as an open-source text.  It helped me re-envision some of my own teaching practices, and I anticipate others who read this text will share in that transformative experience.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2219,"first_name":"Warren","last_name":"Christian","position":"English Language Specialist","institution_name":"University of North Carolina's Writing Center","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Inoue delivers a clear and well-pointed critique of the racist implications of established college-level writing assessments setting up the need for antiracist assessment practices. He gives an in-depth rationale for his own anti-racist assessment practices that assess students based on their labor rather than how well their products approximate academic standards based on white middle and upper class norms.  He goes on to describe how such practices have played out in his own courses. Inoue ends with a series of questions that any writing instructor or writing program administrator concerned with disrupting racist writing assessment practices would do well to consider.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book is well researched. The works Inoue critiques are represented fairly.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book is extremely relevant to its target audience, those who teach writing and administer writing programs at the college level. The pervasive nature of inequality in writing assessments and the inherent nature of racism in the US mean that, unfortunately, this book should remain relevant for a long time.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Inoue tackles complex material in a clear and systematic way. The content is ordered and divided in a way that aids in understanding.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Inoue is careful with his terms and explanations and is consistent throughout the text. Inoue lays out a clear theoretical framework and proceeds methodically in his descriptions.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"Several chapters in this book would stand alone fairly well. The introduction and first chapter lay bare the racist nature of the dominant writing assessment practices, no matter how well intentioned they may be. The fifth chapter offers a useful set of considerations for one to construct their own antiracist writing assessment ecology.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book is logically organized and flows well.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The books interface is appropriate to the content and purpose.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is relatively free of any grammatical issues.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is extremely culturally relevant. Inoue details the harmful effects most writing assessment practices have on students of color and offers a way out.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Inoue goes to great lengths to describe the ecology of a writing course and is quite thorough. However, given the focus on labor and Inoue’s discussion of Marx, I was surprised that the tenuous working conditions of many college writing instructors was not addressed. I realize that the book must have boundaries and cannot cover everything, but I would have enjoyed hearing more about how the instructor’s labor fits into Inoue’s writing assessment ecology.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2242,"first_name":"Umme","last_name":"Al-wazedi","position":"Associate Professor, English and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies","institution_name":"Augustana College, Rock Island, IL","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The text covers a very important aspect--designing assignments that bring equity in the classroom. Different students, such as first generation students, students of color, international students--all come with different experiences. A writing instructor must pay attention to these experiences. The writer talks not only about different pedagogy but also relates to history and explains why such pedagogy is needed. He gives examples of what as writing instructors we shouldn’t do. He also uses Freirean critical pedagogy, Buddhist theories of interconnection, and Marxian political theory to talk about classroom writing assignment “ecology.”  This book contributes to the knowledge of those educators who see their classroom and their pedagogy inclusive of social justice issues.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content is accurate. As a postcolonial feminist scholar whose research encompasses race and intersectionality, I don’t see why a text has to be considered biased. There is a lot of tension in the classroom these days and if a writing instructor is well versed in Freirean theory, then the whole class benefits. It is important to understand the power structure that often defines success in higher education; it is also important for the instructor to be aware of what power structure he/she/they/Z bring into the classroom. As educators we have to negotiate that structure only when it becomes barrier to an inclusive education. This book makes us aware of those vulnerable situations.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The book is relevant and lasting. Chapter 4 is a great example of how relevant this text is in terms of teaching a diverse set of students. The book is written is such a way that if the writer wishes, he can always rewrite the pedagogy chapter with updated teaching experiences.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"This book is definitely for senior graduate students and faculty. Yet, an administrative personnel (such as the Chief Diversity Officer, Dean of Students) may find it helpful. It would be very helpful for graduate students who are in their final year of teaching and who are in the job market. For someone like me, the text is more lucid than many I have read. A text like this cannot provide context for every little term that the writer uses. So, this is a text for more mature readers, yet anyone can benefit from it--they will gain new knowledge about how race plays out in the classroom.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Inoue consistently uses terms that are important for the readers to understand his theory and the pedagogy he introduces. He repeats in places so that his readers are able to follow him throughout the chapters.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"The book is well organized and easy to follow. The book could be broken into smaller parts and used to teach student and new faculty how to create effective and inclusive assignments and assessment.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Inoue first creates a big picture of how often in institutions we fail to recognize that race matters when it comes to assessments of student writing. Then he discusses the relevant theories, how they relate to his concept of an anti-racist writing pedagogy, and then he ends with the description of his own class. He concludes the book with a beautiful anecdote that speaks to writing teachers--after all, our responsibility is to create humane writers who are critical thinkers and not mechanical ones.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I didn’t face any navigating problems, the charts and the diagrams were clearly displayed. I used the pdf file. There was no distraction.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I didn’t see any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Inoue  writes that his purpose is to “construct ecologies that work as sustainable, livable, fair ecologies that address racism by not avoiding it in the language we write or speak.” While talking about power structures he not only discusses and defines the white dominant discourse prevalent in many classrooms and  classroom instruction, but also focuses on different cultural groups and how each grouplearn. He uses various critics in the field (i.e. Asian scholars while talking about Asian students) to explain the situation that the student may be going through.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I have already recommended this book to my reading/writing center for the senior fellows. This book should be used as a handbook in a school which has graduate students as tutors in the writing center. This book will definitely be my companion when I teach my First Year Inquiry classes.","created_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00","updated_at":"2018-06-19T19:00:00.000-05:00"},{"id":2446,"first_name":"Patricia","last_name":"Alafaireet","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"MOBIUS","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"I found the book to be more comprehensive in it's review of the relevant literature.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"I'm not a writing expert, but there is a bias, a perhaps useful one, in this material.","relevance_rating":3,"relevance_review":"There a a number of very old (1970's, 80's ) and older materials cited. This does not mean that they are inaccurate but I did wonder, especially since the use of mobile devices has changed educational access, if more recent studies had been done and should be included. Perhaps the book needs to be updated?","clarity_rating":2,"clarity_review":"I had a hard time with clarity. It may be that I simply have little expertise in the area of teaching student to write and therefore need to work on my own knowledge, but often the way concepts were expressed was confusing for me. I'd certainly not ask my students to read this book.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Really consistent across the entire work. The author has planned well and executed even better in terms of vocabulary, structure and flow.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"This text heavily depends on the learning that takes place in the initial chapters for understanding the latter ones. It is really necessary to read the entire work, start to finish, for understanding to occur.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Typical chapter type organization. It would have been helpful if each chapter had begun with context and \"what to learn from this hcapter\" type information.","interface_rating":2,"interface_review":"Not really and interfacing going on.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No grammar errors that I saw.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"No particular insensitivity but certainly could have included examples from a wider range of student interactions. ","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"I found  this a difficult read , but did come away with several ideas I'll try in my classroom. ","created_at":"2018-12-05T14:08:31.000-06:00","updated_at":"2018-12-05T14:08:31.000-06:00"},{"id":2583,"first_name":"Amanda ","last_name":"Evans","position":"Assistnat Professor","institution_name":"James Madison University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text provided an outstanding framework for educators to incorporate anti-racist writing activities in the classroom. This can be a great tool to assess classroom climate and to challenge student worldviews. ","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The content was accurate, relevant, and timely. A great tool to use in our classrooms!","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"In our current socio-political climate, a text like \"Antiracist Writing Assessment Eulogies,\" can be valuable to provide a context for classrooms to examine racism and discrimination. This information is grounded in solid pedagogy and consistent with higher education practices of accountability. ","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The authors developed a well-written and comprehensive text with excellent ideas for a college process. ","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"This text is consistent with advocacy and social justice initiatives. It allows for individuals to use the content in various classrooms and to challenge critical thinking. ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"This is an easy read. ","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well-organized and easy to follow. ","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"No issues noted. ","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"This is a well-written text. ","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is culturally sensitive and inclusive. ","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I really enjoyed reading this text and will recommend it to colleagues. What a valuable resource in our current era to promote learning! ","created_at":"2019-02-25T12:18:36.000-06:00","updated_at":"2019-02-25T12:18:36.000-06:00"},{"id":2834,"first_name":"Ruthe","last_name":"Thompson ","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Minnesota State","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"The textbook offers answers and ideas for everything I could think of and more. Information was easy to find.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"I've read quite a lot in the history of racism and am watching in alarm at the rise of white supremacy in this country. I've also studied and used contemplative teaching. The book echoes and reinforces what I have learned in previous research and reading and supports my antiracism efforts in the classroom.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This topic of creating anti-racist classrooms and teaching students to be aware of cultural differences without judgment has not been studied until recently--maybe twenty-five years if my reading has been correct. The book will be a foundational text in this topic and an early example of contemplative pedagogy that readers can benefit from and build on into the future.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"While bringing up complex and difficult topics, the book explains concisely how the theory and practice of anti-racist education has arisen. The author provides room for readers who might be resistant to the topic to open themselves to the ideas. She acknowledges that it is hard for many to discuss racial privilege. The writing is lucid and elegant.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The book is structured in a logical fashion ","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"\r\nThe textbook is divided into chapters with individual divisions and chunks of important discussion that can be mixed throughout the course or offered as separate chapters even if the whole text is not assigned.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"I found that this textbook unfolds with a strong and reasonable presentation of theoretical underpinnings, discussion of practice, and activities and other material that can be modified to fit the journalism and communication courses I teach. While I don't know if I would assign the reading to a beginning academic composition class, I will use the ideas for my summer and fall courses in freshman and sophomore writing.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I had no trouble connecting to various topics within the text links. The text was clear and lucid both in writing and style and electronic presentation.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No problems here. The writing is crisp with an engaging voice and style.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This question prompts a kneejerk response for me! One has only to look at instances of increased violence to minority groups, white supremacist speech in political rallies and advertisements, on Fox news--which is the most popular channel in the country--and at the doublethink encouraged even by public servants and the U.S. President makes a book like this indispensible.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I'm very happy to have this resource (and at a reasonable cost :).","created_at":"2019-04-25T03:03:49.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-04-25T03:03:49.000-05:00"},{"id":3171,"first_name":"Joseph","last_name":"Pickard","position":"Associate Professor","institution_name":"University of Missouri - St. Louis","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This book had more information than I expected.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"In my opinion, this book was unbiased, as it takes the perspective that  we should be intentional and careful to avoid doing harm through unintentional racism. The author presents several theories to help explain why and how institutional racism exists in current writing assessments and how to alleviate the probles.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"These issues do not appear to be going anywhere soon.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"Some of it might have been a little overly-written. Since it is an online source, maybe more tables or bullet points or something to simplify the reading might be beneficial to the modern reader.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"Again, the information was too theoretical in places with various perspectives presented.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"I think that the book needs to be read as a whole. I say this due to the thought that many of these ideas can be difficult to accept if it is a person's first time seeing them. It could take some time for people to digest. Concepts like White privilege are often rejected by people who later realize that the concept has much merit when examined objectively.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"It seemed well organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I observed no problems.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"It was well written.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This book is about culture, and I think it dealt with issues in a fair manner.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"No.","created_at":"2019-09-25T06:20:13.000-05:00","updated_at":"2019-09-25T06:20:13.000-05:00"},{"id":3955,"first_name":"Emily T.","last_name":"Loker","position":"Graduate Student Part-Time Instructor","institution_name":"University of Colorado Boulder","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Inoue provides an extremely comprehensive account as to how race is a factor in writing assessments, what they call “writing assessment ecologies” (which, to my delight, draws from critical pedagogues such as Paulo Freire and Buddhist theories of interconnection), recognizing the elements of antiracist writing assessment ecologies, and designing and conducting antiracist assessment ecologies. The text includes an index, notes, references, and appendixes.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author is clear in defining their audience (instructors who use writing in their assessment) and the scope of the book (racism as a structural and institutional dynamic rather than a personal one). An easy critique of the book could be an intersectional one (such as why race over gender/nationality/sexual orientation). Inoue answers this handily in their intro by noting their conception of race as a localized function that includes other facets of identity.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"This book read at a fairly high reading level, but one appropriate for its audience of college-level instructors rather than a book intended for undergraduate student use. For an instructor who desires to be antiracist in the classroom, this is an essential text.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"I found the author’s voice to be quite inviting and easy to understand. I appreciated the bulleted structures used occasionally (such as in Chapter five, where Inoue offers a set of questions, with explanations, on how to design an antiracist writing assessment ecology).","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The author built each chapter in concert and conversation with the previous chapters, effectively building on previously-introduced terminologies and concepts.","modularity_rating":4,"modularity_review":"The text’s organization flows well from theoretical framing to practical examples. The table of contents is helpful, particularly in PDF form, because the reader can skip to a chapter by clicking on the heading. I found the author’s use of tables and illustrations an effective and multimodal learning experience. Inoue provided clear examples from their own teaching, complete with rubrics that supported and contextualized the more theoretical facet of the text.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"As previously mentioned, the text flowed very smoothly from setting out a theoretical and social framework to how to conduct antiracist writing assessments, complete with rich examples along the way.","interface_rating":4,"interface_review":"The table of contents makes the text easy to navigate. All images appear clear.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"I did not catch any grammatical errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"By nature of the material, I would expect the text to include inclusive examples and it does not disappoint, drawing examples from various classroom contexts and demographics.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":null,"created_at":"2020-06-11T15:48:25.000-05:00","updated_at":"2020-06-11T15:48:25.000-05:00"},{"id":4898,"first_name":"Jill","last_name":"Hallett","position":"Instructor","institution_name":"Northeastern Illinois University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Inoue has clearly done his homework and has demonstrated synthesis among researchers of writing centers, composition, linguistics, assessment, and other fields. He sets up arguments made by other scholars and proceeds to explain why their points are inadequate, presenting an alternative antiracist perspective. In later chapters, Inoue details precisely and in great detail how he enacts antiracism in his own writing classroom, foregrounding his praxis in the theoretical context quite explicitly.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"The content examines the biases inherent in writing assessment and how to shift writing instruction away from a white middle-class habitus. The author acknowledges how his own views as an Asian American were formed through his experiences in and out of school and how his practices teaching college writing have upheld and challenged the biases endemic to academic writing instruction. Thus, it’s not possible to rate accuracy and bias here, as lived experiences are literally the premise of the book. Regarding how it represents previous scholarship, I can only speak to my own training in sociolinguistics. To that end, I would say Inoue gets it right, but uses some problematic or outdated terminology like ‘BEV’ and ‘ghetto’; if these are terms he truly wishes to use, they should have some contextual explication.","relevance_rating":4,"relevance_review":"The author is a writing professor at Fresno State and his experiences there feature heavily. This is not to say that many of the points presented are not more widely applicable. Statistics are cited which will become dated after some years, but those can be updated. If the last couple of years are any indication, a considerable amount of literature on antiracist teaching is forthcoming, which may prompt Inoue to incorporate these new insights.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The text is clear. The author walks the fine line of writing about accessibility in writing while himself writing in a canonical academic register for others at a similar level of education. In so doing, he proves his point of the capacity of poor students of color to excel at writing for a highly educated audience, but he also refutes his own point by writing in a style that is strongly associated with white, middle- and upper-class practices.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The text is terminologically consistent. I found the framework surprising – this is not a textbook, as I had expected, nor is it similar in presentation to any teacher guide or resource book I’ve encountered. Inoue (p.3) suggests that his main audience is writing teachers and writing program administrators writ large who are interested in antiracist writing practices. The book begins with what I can call an extended dialogue with theorists in a range of areas and finishes with a reflection on one of his own classes’ experience with his antiracist instructional methods.","modularity_rating":2,"modularity_review":"The text is definitely not readily divisible – there are five chapters ranging from 18 pages to over 100. There are subheadings, but they are not “chunkable” over a semester. I would be likely to use it as a supplemental or recommended text for students of literacy and writing education, but probably not in its entirety.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"Topics flowed logically, though there was a fair degree of repetition.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"Interface is fine.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There were a few grammatical and typographical errors but nothing that impeded understanding.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The book was entirely about cultural relevance, so bases are covered that way. The multicultural context here was particular to Inoue’s student population but the ideas could be applied to readers’ contexts.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"I appreciated the honest reflection on how the course was executed and that the author let the students’ voices shine. Lots of great quotes and considerations for the reader to sit with. I’m inspired to do more interdisciplinary reading in addition to self-questioning.","created_at":"2021-05-07T20:59:43.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-05-07T20:59:43.000-05:00"},{"id":5017,"first_name":"Nydia","last_name":"Sánchez","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of San Diego","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"Drawing from antiracist and social justice theories and concepts, Dr. Inoue provides a critical and comprehensive argument for building antiracist writing assessment ecologies. Geared towards college writing instructors, the book starts with a foundation about how structural racism is embedded in writing classrooms and then moves into how readers can intervene with specific examples included in the appendix.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book does not contain any inaccuracies. Dr. Inoue very clearly states his positionality, more specifically his antiracist agenda, and the intended audience.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The content is quite timely. I am writing this review in 2021. I also think the book's relevance extends beyond the intended audience. I am not a college writing instructor. I read this book because I work with graduate-level students (M.A. and Ph.D) and we use a lot of writing assignments in our program. It gave me a lot to think about, particularly with regards to the use of theses and dissertations in our program.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Very well-written book and easy to read. Dr. Inoue covers complex issues in a way that is accessible; he uses some jargon and technical terminology but not in a way that obfuscates the purpose of his work.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Dr. Inoue consistently frames his work as part of a larger antiracist project and consistently uses terminology and frameworks in line with antiracist and social justice theories and concepts.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter could be read on its own, with the first few chapters serving as the foundation for the rest of the book. The book is readily divisible into small reading sections by chapter.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Nicely organized.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The PDF version did not have any interface issues. Did not use the ebook.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"No major grammatical or spelling errors.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"Dr. Inoue's book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way and references a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I highly recommend this book! While geared to college writing instructors, I found it to also be useful for thinking about how we prepare graduate students for lengthy thesis and dissertation projects.","created_at":"2021-06-01T06:55:46.000-05:00","updated_at":"2021-06-01T06:55:46.000-05:00"},{"id":33580,"first_name":"Megan","last_name":"Marshall","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"Marshall University","comprehensiveness_rating":4,"comprehensiveness_review":"Inoue's text is well organized and framed nicely by an introduction that explains the contextual framework for the book, specifies who his primary audience is (graduate students, composition instructors, and writing program administrators), provides an authentic explanation of his own subjective position as an instructor of writing, and ends with an overview of the book's organizing structure and goals. The chapters that follow keep to the outline he provides, and each build on one another in logical ways. While the text doesn't have an index or glossary, Inoue does offer an extensive section for his notes as well as two appendices that provide readers with models for two important tools for composition instructors to consider (and use) when designing antiracist composition curricula and assessments: a grading contract and a sample \"Problem Posing\" exercise in which students are asked to reflect on their process of evaluating the writing of their peers.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"This text is driven by the argument that racism is still inherent in composition pedagogy and assessment and for that reason, which might imply Inoue's work cannot be seen as \"unbiased.\" Yet, the goal of the text is to engage readers with difficult conversations about race in the classroom, and Inoue makes clear that his critique on antiracist writing assessment is not meant to pinpoint blame on specific individuals and/or instructors. He returns to this point throughout the book, which serves as an effective reminder to his audience that instructors of writing should acknowledge their various subjectivities when considering the roots of their pedagogy.   Inoue’s strategy of reminding the audience that he is not placing blame helps combat a potential misunderstanding and defensiveness in his readers. As Inoue notes that the majority of composition instructors are “white, middle class, and female” he also discusses that though individual instructors are not necessarily racist, they play “a part [in] systemic racism, a structural racism in school and society that we don’t control, and may not even be fully aware of” (30-31).","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Issues of racial and cultural inequity in education are always relevant, and given the focus that's been placed on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the past year or so, Inoue's text is even more timely. By pointing out the hidden ways that race has played a role in our teaching, he helps to underscore why CRT is such an important framework for understanding schools, teaching, and assessment.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Given that he clearly acknowledges his specific audience of the book in the introduction, the language, terminology, and theoretical lenses used are suitable for his readers and written is such a way to be easily accessible for readers with only a scant background in critical theory.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Inoue’s guiding framework builds on the idea that composition instructors need to reflect upon their ecologies and consider how to integrate more inclusive ecologies into the classroom. To that end, he has organized his book so that each chapter builds on the next. To begin, he efficiently breaks down ecologies, first defining the role of race in writing assessments. Then he begins to provide examples of theorized antiracist writing assessment ecologies that integrate elements of “Marxian political theory,” “Freirean critical pedagogy,” and “Buddhist rhetoric” (77). He eventually provides example of how he integrates antiracist writing assessment ecologies in his own classroom by creating contractual assessments between himself and his students and uses the last chapter to dive into how instructors can design their own antiracist ecologies. Essentially, each chapter helps instructors further their understanding of what antiracist writing assessment is and how to implement it in the classroom.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Although I would likely have graduate students read this all at once (within a two or three week time frame), I can see how these chapters could serve as stand-alone articles (especially the first two) and/or be paired with similar texts throughout a longer graduate seminar.","organization_rating":4,"organization_review":"As stated earlier, the introduction explains the books' organizing structure, and his chapters uphold what he promises readers from the start.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"This is an easy text to access and read with no issues or noticeable glitches in terms of navigation of the material.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"There are no issues with grammar or basic conventions of writing. Text is easily readable and engaging.","cultural_rating":4,"cultural_review":"Although I would argue that there is nothing offensive about this text, I'm sure that someone might find otherwise given the socially pertinent topics being addressed throughout.","overall_rating":9,"overall_review":"Overall, I think this is a valuable text and it has helped me to reconsider some of my beliefs about writing assessment and given me new tools to reframe my courses and approach. However, I believe that some of his suggestions to be difficult to execute, especially when considering that he maintains his primary audience is (at least in part) instructors of multi-level composition courses. For instance, in Chapter 4, Inoue breaks down his own assessment ecology where he uses a grading contract “to understand the class as a burgeoning antiracist writing assessment ecology” (177). He leaves room for negotiations, dedicating time mid-way into the semester for students to voice their concerns and/or provide critiques on the grading system (191). In his ecology, Inoue looks specifically at the labors of the students rather than the quality of the writing (187). He provides a chart that goes over the grading system in lass, and at first glance, both the “A” and “B” grade category have the same requirements. Inoue states that in order for a student to receive an “A,” then the student’s works needs to be “twice the length and depth as the students’ peers who are shooting for a ‘B’” (Inoue 188). Though I like Inoue’s idea of providing an assessment contract, I believe his description of “A” vs. “B” is weak and impractical, especially when considering freshmen-level composition courses. From my experience teaching new writers (mostly freshman but not always) students across different racial and cultural backgrounds generally desire course and assessment structure to be straightforward. While I can see Inoue’s ecology working in higher-level English courses, I don’t believe it is as universal as he portrays this ecology to be. I think if Inoue would have provided more information about his specific students it would have strengthened his points throughout Chapter 4. Since he did not, my final assessment makes me believe that Inoue’s ideas of having a contract-based assessment is interesting but perhaps not always practical. Still, overall, the book does address what it said it would address; having instructors reflect upon their own ecologies and consider other, more inclusive ecologies. Even my small quibble with of Inoue’s contract-based assessment has compelled me to consider how to integrate different ecologies into my composition courses and to think deeply about the ties between assessment and racism. And ultimately, this is essentially what he wanted his book to do.","created_at":"2021-12-27T10:52:12.000-06:00","updated_at":"2021-12-27T10:52:12.000-06:00"},{"id":33681,"first_name":"Shelly","last_name":"Page","position":"Law Professor","institution_name":"Southern Illinois University Carbondale","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook should be required reading for all professors who assess the writing of students. It more than covers the ways in which assessment can be skewed and viewed from a very narrow perspective creating discrimination of a student’s writing skills and content.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The text is very accurate as to what it claims to contain. It is explicit, well reasoned and an easy read.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"I believe this topic is very relevant to our educational environment today. I also believe one can see how the current SATs and ACT‘s are being re-examined in college admissions processes.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"The writer writes with clarity and the book is self-explanatory and not difficult to read.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The messages in the book are consistent. The author allows his thoughts to flow clearly in the reader is able to follow along with the thought process.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Is textbook would be amenable to a professor assigning chunks of the book, or sections of the book to students throughout the semester.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The text is well organized and flows very well.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The text has no interface issues.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text has one grammatical error that I saw.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"This text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in anyway. The author uses clear examples of race and its impact in writing assessment.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"I thought this was a great book, very insightful, thought-provoking, well reasoned and crucial for educators wanting to assess how their actions in grading could negatively impact students.","created_at":"2022-02-01T03:01:59.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-02-01T03:01:59.000-06:00"},{"id":33979,"first_name":"Rebecca","last_name":"Smith","position":"Assistant Professor","institution_name":"University of Portland","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This text explicitly connects theory to practice.","accuracy_rating":4,"accuracy_review":"While the author draws on their own experiences and cultural identities, there is always a connection back to research. The author consistently calls on educators and students to use reflective practices, which helps to promote critical change in our thinking and our teaching. The author anticipates push back on the conception that racism exists in writing assessment and provides credible counterarguments.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"The author provides practical assessment ideas for teachers in helping their students think critically about whiteness and language diversity.\r\nInoue also shares their own stories of teaching through an antiracist lens, which is very helpful for reconceptualizing how I teach in higher education myself. \r\nThe inclusion of rubric and contract grading exemplars are also very useful.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"The writing can be quite dense, but the use of headers helps clarify main points in each chapter.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"The writing is accessible while still being strongly research-based. For instance, the author provides guiding questions for each chapter, such as: How might we define race and understand its function in classroom writing assessments so that we can articulate antiracist writing assessments?","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Concepts related to antiracist assessment build on each other through each chapter. The concept of community-based pedagogy is a consistent theme, which creates a broader understanding of methods for promoting antiracist practices in education.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"Each chapter is written consistently and could be read as an independent piece of writing.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The online format is easy to navigate.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Writing is very academic.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is a strong focus on culture and race in this text, and there are connections to prior research, Buddhist, and relational pedagogies that promote cultural diversity and inclusion.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"Inoue calls on teachers to  use assessment ecologies that \"(re)create places for sustainable learning and living\" (p. 14). While the text is not as accessible for pre-service teachers as I had hoped, it can still be utilized to help educators consider methods and mindsets that promote equitable assessment practices.","created_at":"2022-08-09T12:38:59.000-05:00","updated_at":"2022-08-09T12:38:59.000-05:00"},{"id":34313,"first_name":"Beatrice","last_name":"Mendez Newman","position":"Professor","institution_name":"University of Texas Rio Grande Valley","comprehensiveness_rating":3,"comprehensiveness_review":"The title shows the focused, targeted scope of this book. However, Inoue’s argument is contextualized within a broad spectrum of rhet/comp theory and integrations from other disciplines.  It is a book about the racial politics that Inoue perceives in writing classrooms, but his examples are drawn exclusively from his own experiences. The introduction and first three chapters are rich in foundational scaffolding as Inoue posits that teaching writing is essentially a racist activity anchored in what he labels “white racial habitus.” Inoue references not only established rhet/comp scholars including Peter Elbow, Victor Villanueva, Kenneth Burke, Paulo Freire, and many others, but also Shakespeare, Antonio Gramsci, Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Sigmund Freud, and a diverse assortment of figures from interesting disciplines that he connects to his writing assessment ecologies. Whether or not we agree with his assertion about “white racial habitus” dominating the teaching of writing, we have to acknowledge that he makes a compelling case for the way racism can creep into writing classrooms, especially in decisions about assessment. A glossary of terms and names would have been extremely helpful. And there is no index. In a book like this one, where the author is building a case for a position that resists the status quo, having ready access to names and ideas he integrates would have made the reading experience much more accessible. While this would be a fine book to include in graduate classes, students would have to do quite a bit of supplementary, supporting reading to fully comprehend Inoue’s discussion. The list of References would be an excellent resource for graduate students exploring the pillars of rhetoric and composition studies.","accuracy_rating":3,"accuracy_review":"Given Inoue’s starting premises that writing classrooms support racism, that writing assessment harms students, and that social justice and equity are not promoted in writing classrooms, I have to say that this is a very biased book. There is never a consideration that some classrooms, some writing instructors might in fact actually be promoting social justice and equity and fair assessment practices in their classrooms. This failure to acknowledge the good work being done by instructors in college classrooms all over the U.S. creates an obstacle to easy acceptance of Inoue’s fundamental claims about racism. To the extent that Inoue’s ideas are shaped by his own experiences as a child, we have to say the content of the book is “accurate” since his view of teaching and assessing writing is founded on the unfairness he felt he experienced socially and academically. Regardless of whether the book is unbiased or fair, it definitely engages you as a reader because you are constantly stopping to fully consider Inoue’s accusatory comments. Yes, his tone seems consistently accusatory and absolute with no consideration of other views. Take for example, his assertion in Chapter 4 that “[students] get no say in grading.” I suspect that most college writing instructors would vehemently disagree with that statement. Nonetheless, because of his passion in his fight for equity and grading justice, we are compelled to read carefully, attentively, and even respectfully. In other words, while the tone seems biased and terribly one-sided, he makes us think, he makes us want to change what we are doing to make sure we are creating antiracist writing classroom ecologies.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"Inoue’s ideas about labor-based contract grading have been embraced by the rhet/comp community, so this foundational book will stay relevant as a platform for continued discussions. Since he is a prolific scholar, the “updates” and expansions are readily available in Inoue’s newer publications and presentations.","clarity_rating":3,"clarity_review":"The introduction and chapters 1-3 are extremely dense not because they are badly written but because the amount of supporting information Inoue draws on is overwhelming and at times seems like deep background. Thus, the writing cannot be described as “lucid.” Some context is provided for terms and concepts, but full understanding, especially when he draws on ideas from far outside rhet/comp, calls for stopping in mid chapter to look up his references so as to fully comprehend his arguments. Of course, this enriches our individual knowledge of the issues, but it’s also frustrating to feel lost in Inoue’s discussion and to have to read and reread to ensure that no relevant point has been missed. And, since there is no index or glossary, previous references to the topics or individuals mentioned cannot be checked in the text.","consistency_rating":4,"consistency_review":"This is a book centered on the idea that “white racial habitus” pervades and persists in writing classrooms. It is the starting assertion in the book and it is the core of every chapter. And from the opening pages, there is the expectation that after all the premises are laid out, there will be an illustration of what an antiracist writing assessment ecology looks like. While Chapter 4 (which is over 100 pages long) provides anecdotal evidence from Inoue’s classrooms, there is never a full syllabus to illuminate the framework for a class built on antiracist writing assessment ecologies.","modularity_rating":3,"modularity_review":"This is a highly self-referential text with Inoue constantly citing his previous work (citations of his previous works take up a full page of the References). His citation of a vast assortment of other scholars is impressive, prompting readers to interrupt their reading to look up cited articles and books. Chapter 4 where he finally explains what a writing assessment ecology of writing might look like in a classroom is over 100 pages long, which is about one third of the content of the book. If this book were to be assigned in a class, it would be a good idea to start with Chapter 5, where Inoue clearly explains how he came to feel that his writing didn’t matter (based on how his teachers focused on errors in his writing). Inoue’s personal story informs his “white racial habitus” mindset about writing classrooms, and it offers important context for the Introduction and then Chapters 1-3.  While there are level 1 subheadings in the chapters, level 2 and level 3 headings would have made this a much more modularly accessible text.","organization_rating":3,"organization_review":"Chapter 5 should be the Introduction. The current Introduction and Chapters 1-3 offer a compelling argument about what Inoue perceives to be “white racial habitus” in writing classrooms. Compelling but not necessarily persuasive. Overall, there is clarity as the Introduction and Chapter 1-3 set up definitions, premises, and conclusions, and Chapters 4 provides some illustration of what Inoue considers an antiracist writing assessment ecology. A notable missing feature of this book is a full syllabus that would have enabled instructors and students to see how such a class could be set up. There should have been an Appendix C with a full, sample syllabus.","interface_rating":3,"interface_review":"This is a straightforward, ordinary text. There are a few figures to enhance the discussion, including one example of student work that includes highlighting and an inset shaded box. The full PDF download from Open Textbook does not allow highlighting, and that, in my opinion, limits usability. The ebook chapter-by-chapter download allows highlighting and comments, but, if you like moving back and forth as you read perhaps to check earlier references to a topic or name and to reinforce understanding of ideas, you are limited to the single chapter you’ve downloaded.","grammatical_rating":4,"grammatical_review":"This is arguable. Inoue clearly enjoys playing with language and there are some nuanced syntactic and semantic structures. A lot of sentences require repeated readings because of the interesting syntax, which occasionally drifts into questionable constructions, as if the sentence derailed at some point and was not ever revised.","cultural_rating":2,"cultural_review":"I think that some white readers would find Inoue’s theory of “white racial habitus” offensive. He is unapologetic about his stance, asserting that writing classrooms are racist because they promote dominant discourses and ideologies. The chapters, however, do make us think about our own classrooms, critically and reflectively. Inoue’s “evidence” for his theory is his experience in teaching at Fresno State, and his examples integrate voices from Hmong, Latino, Asian, African-American, and white students. Additionally, he asserts that white students who are used to being “at the top of the grading pyramid” tend not to like the labor-based contract grading approach. So, there is notable racial insensitivity, but as Inoue points out repeatedly, there needs to be resistance to the hegemony that, in his opinion, pervades classrooms.","overall_rating":7,"overall_review":"Every college writing instructor should read this book, slowly, reflectively, with an eye toward changing what we do in the classroom. It is far more a book about holistic pedagogy than a book about writing assessment. The explanation of how classrooms are ecological systems can truly make one think about what we do in our classroom. The discussion of the seven elements of classroom assessment ecologies—power, parts, purpose, people, processes, products, places—contextualizes pedagogy into an integrated whole. These principles are shown in lucid diagram form on p. 176 of the book, a diagram that perhaps should be featured earlier in the book as a reference point. Reading this book, even if you don’t buy into the labor-based contract approach, will change how you teach. In a graduate class, this book would be a great anchor text, but it would have to be balanced with other works that present comprehensive aspects of assessment and teaching and social justice. Nonetheless, this is a compelling, highly engaging book. I’ve read it several times and each time brings new discoveries, new ways of thinking about teaching. \r\nThis is a good book for a graduate class focused either on pedagogy or on social justice. It is too complex for most undergraduate classes; however, Chapter 5, which is narrative in tone and structure, can be used as a launching point for discussions of students' own experiences with racism or perceived unfair assessment of their writing.","created_at":"2022-12-19T14:10:52.000-06:00","updated_at":"2022-12-19T14:10:52.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/antiracist-writing-assessment-ecologies-teaching-and-assessing-writing-for-a-socially-just-future","updated_at":"2025-12-15T02:11:17.000-06:00"}],"links":{"self":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education.json?page=1","total_pages":16,"total_count":154,"next":"https://staging.open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/education.json?page=2"}}