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For my classes, I have dropped all my standard textbooks and spent time making sure all material is online specifically within my course material. (No online books, or libraries or external URLs) I know all can't do this but it surely helps with safety and fairness. For fairness ( a big issue for me) as different students will have different levels of access ( wifi, screens, time zones, shared family rooms/computers, noise in the house, ... ), I want to know the material has no external issues that might affect uneven access/fairness among my students. Which I can best ensure by having all of it in a homogeneous look and feel way on my own repository so I can 'guarantee' that access is as even as I can make it, and is downloadable locally for them if need. As external sources can have uneven viewing times, archaic online publisher rules and displaying limitations that work differently on different devices and other problems that external systems can impose.
- Steve DiPaola, PhD - -
- Prof: Sch of Interactive Arts & Technology (SIAT);
- Member: Cognitive Science Program;
From: Sylvia Roberts <sroberts@sfu.ca>
Sent: June 3, 2020 5:47 PM To: Nicky Didicher; Behraad Bahreyni; Nancy Forde; academic-discussion@sfu.ca Subject: Re: Textbooks for courses Hello all, The Library has a page about putting items on reserve, at https://www.lib.sfu.ca/borrow/request-materials/reserves-requests-covid-19
At present, we are only putting electronic texts on reserve because there are no staff in the building to process print reserves. If your preferred text is only available in print, we're happy to help you try to find an alternative, whether an Open Educational Resource or other text that's available digitally.
I would encourage you to contact Reserves staff with your course readings requests as soon as possible so they have enough lead time to help you find alternatives, if needed.
Best,
Sylvia Roberts, MLIS Liaison Librarian for Contemporary Arts & Communication 778-782-3681 / sroberts@sfu.ca / she, her, hers
I'm also available by Skype or other communication platforms. Contact me and give me your preferred options.
At Simon Fraser University, we live, work and play on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations
and Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm) Nations. From: Nicky Didicher <didicher@sfu.ca>
Sent: 03 June 2020 16:15:35 To: Behraad Bahreyni; Nancy Forde; academic-discussion@sfu.ca Subject: Re: Textbooks for courses I teach literature, so what I’m doing may not work for you. For this summer, I have one course where we’re only using online databases and archives to source texts from 1770-1830, and one where I’m combining some excerpts I can PDF in Canvas with some works students can get on Kindle from Amazon. Turns out a couple of students found at least one book free on Internet Archive. Some ordered print copies from Amazon. In the Fall, I have one course that I’ll do all short legal excerpts as reading materials, and another in which one is free from Gutenberg and the rest are available on Kindle (kobo, audible, etc). Only a couple of my Summer texts were available from VitalSource, and they cost more than on Amazon, so I don’t think many students used it. Nicky
From: Behraad Bahreyni <bba19@sfu.ca>
Sent: June 3, 2020 4:06:50 PM To: Nancy Forde; academic-discussion@sfu.ca Subject: RE: Textbooks for courses In some cases, SFU can have a deal with the publishers to make their books available through SFU library. I am doing this for a couple of courses. I would assume that publishers might not do this for their more lucrative textbooks, but it might be worth checking with our librarians. Cheers
From: Nancy Forde <nforde@sfu.ca>
Hi all,
Recent comments from others at SFU have got me thinking about textbook requirements for fall courses. Normally I put my course text on reserve at the library (along with recommended but not required texts), so that students who may not wish to / are not able to afford the text book can still access the material. There is quite a cheap alternative text for the course I’m scheduled to teach this fall ($10 for the ebook rather than $120 for the ebook text I’m currently using), which is financially very appealing, but pedagogically it doesn’t match the needs of the course and our students’ background as well. In reaching a decision, I am trying to weigh all aspects of access and learning. I’d be very interested in hearing others’ thoughts on this, and what you are planning to do about texts for the fall.
Thanks, Nancy
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