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Introduction to Geography

Introduction to Geography

Grant Recipients:

Meera Chatterjee, Professor of Instruction, Department of Geosciences
Jeremy Spencer, Professor of Instruction, Department of Geosciences

Faculty Adoptions:

Meera Chatterjee, Professor of Instruction, Department of Geosciences
Jeremy Spencer, Professor of Instruction, Department of Geosciences

$

Savings to Date

Number of Students Benefited

$

Previous Course Material Cost

Project Synopsis:

We were interested in utilizing an open textbook for numerous reasons:

  1. Introduction to geography is a gen-ed course with relatively high enrollment.
  2. The textbook is exorbitantly priced (high) for a gen-ed course. Bringing OER will help students to save money.
  3. The sections of the course has College Credit plus students too.
  4. The course is offered 100% online as well face-to-face. This will help to bring OER to the online and classroom environment.
  5. I have always been interested in cutting back on the price of textbooks for students and willing to work to make it happen.

Quotes from Faculty:

“The cost of the text book has been on a steep rise. I didn’t want my students to pay so much for the course. In earlier semesters students have shown the reluctance to buy expensive textbooks especially for Gen-Ed courses. I had students fully relying on what is being taught in the class and not engaging with textbooks. This is mainly to due to the financial aspect of the textbooks.”
-- Meera Chatterjee

“Not only do students save money, but it’s also possible to develop open source materials that are more specifically tailored to the University. And while this is not specific to Introduction to Geography, I have used open source materials in several classes. The students highlighted money savings from not having to purchase textbooks as a huge factor for choosing classes. I think this also has the benefit of making knowledge in my field more accessible. So yes, I would participate in a process like this again.”
-- Jeremy Spencer

Created Resources and Reference Texts:

  • Introduction to Human Geography
    Dastrup, R. Adam. “Introduction to Human Geography.” Introduction to Human Geography , 1 May 2019, https://humangeography.pressbooks.com/.
  • Introduction to Human Geography
    Dorrell, David, et al. “Introduction to Human Geography.” GALILEO Open Learning Materials , 2019, https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/geo-textbooks/2/.
  • Introduction to Physical Geography
    Dastrup, R. Adam. “Introduction to Physical Geography.” Introduction to Physical Geography , 1 May 2018, https://physicalgeog.pressbooks.com/.
  • Maps, Society, and Technology
    Matson, Laura, et al. “ Maps, Society, and Technology.” Mapping Society and Technology , University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 5 Sept. 2017, http://open.lib.umn.edu/mapping/chapter/1-maps-society-and-technology/ .

This adaptation has reformatted the original text, and replaced some images and figures to make the resulting whole more shareable. This adaptation has not significantly altered or updated the original 2010 text. This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.