5 ms·

American Institute of Mathematics: Approved Open Textbooks

91 points by __rito__ 2y ago

tfhfj 2y ago
[flagged]
__rito__ 2y ago
Evaluation Criteria To gain our seal of approval an open source mathematics textbook must be able to serve as the primary text in a mainstream mathematics course at the undergraduate level in U.S. colleges and universities. That means that we are not evaluating instructional modules, Java applets, supplementary lecture notes, or other materials that are designed for limited use within a course. Since the minimum length of a traditional course is 10 weeks with 30 hours of class instruction, the books we evaluate must have enough material for that, and most will have more since most college courses are 14 or 15 weeks in length with at least 40 hours of class time. We are looking for books that we can recommend for consideration to any of our colleagues, books that are suitable for use in traditional university courses. Books must be mathematically sound and written in standard English with evidence that they have been proofread and edited. They need not have color, flashy graphics, or ancillary materials. They must have exercises, and though it would be desirable to have short answers to many of the problems, it is not necessary for approval. It would also be desirable to have more complete solutions available—at least to an instructor. Furthermore, we expect books of the quality we seek to be class-tested. They should have been used (and be in current use) by faculty other than the author. We are certainly interested in fostering the writing of open source books, and so we may encourage people to try out a book that looks promising, but we would not label such a book as having our full recommendation. We do not require any particular form of license, although the Gnu Free Documentation License and the Creative Common licenses (in its many varieties) are what we recommend. These licenses allow the book user the greatest flexibility in making use of the material. We will approve a book with copyright restrictions as long as the book is available in some format at no cost. It is not necessary that printed copies be available from a print on demand service like Lulu, but many students and faculty are willing to spend $25 to get a paperbound or spiral bound copy of a 500 page text. We are impressed with books that have a support system, signs of which are a website that is maintained, a community of users, a means for submitting support material from faculty such as test questions and project ideas, and a mechanism for improving the book by correcting errors, publishing errata lists, and displaying user comments. For books that use mathematical software, we consider it desirable to use Sage, which is open source. It makes little sense to have a free textbook that requires expensive proprietary software. The evaluation process is ongoing. We began several years ago with texts for linear algebra and abstract algebra and now we can recommend books in 19 different course categories. To recommend a book for consideration, please send a message to textbooks@aimath.org.
- CoastalCoder 2y ago
  I'm curious what their take would be regarding books that require non-monetary payment from users. E.g., registration on some website, or the book only being accessible by some medium that pushes ads.
  - jimhefferon 2y ago
    I have a book on the list. I'm lucky enough that at this moment I'm at an institution that will cover the download traffic. But my prior school actually withdrew that support at some point, and in any event I will retire someday. I don't think I can ask my wife for us to pay for that. (I won't mention the possibility of a deadly bus encounter.) In thinking about where the work might live in order that I could hope it is available, say, for the next decade, it is reasonable to look at people who can use the traffic to keep their lights on.
    - __rito__ 2y ago
      Forgive me if I am saying something wrong. But what stops you from uploading a PDF file to GitHub, GitLab, or Archive.org?
      - sebbu 2y ago
        DMCA requests and getting your whole account/email banned.
        __rito__ 2y ago
        What if the one of the authors themselves do it? And it is also meant to be free according to them?
        jimhefferon 2y ago
        I am the author. They are Free.
stainablesteel 2y ago
correct me if im wrong but i tried getting some of the books and it looks like they're only available to "registered teachers"? that doesn't sound open to me
- jimhefferon 2y ago
  Which books? These folks work hard to get it right, is my experience, but of course stuff happens.
- maroonblazer 2y ago
  Try again? I was able to access the Precalc/Trig book easily.
- globalnode 2y ago
  Linear algebra books are working for me, not sure which ones you are trying to access. I'm actually relieved to have another source for the awful course I'm sitting through at the moment. I wonder what teaching quals a lot of the teachers I've had to suffer through actually have :(
  - hilbert42 2y ago
    Calculus isn't for me.
    - Jtsummers 2y ago
      I just tried each one of the calculus books (there isn't just one so your comment could have helped here by specifying which). They were all accessible.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - hilbert42 2y ago
        Sorry, it's 'Differential Equations'. Tried quite a few times and nothing happens except the download link returned to 'ready to download' (highlighted) again without error or message. It' s strange because 'Trigonometry' downloaded but the file I got was mfg.pdf — Modeling Functions and Graphs. So I don't know what's going on. I can only assume that there's some mixup in their files upload. If you get it to work then signal as such and I'll try again. Good luck.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
We also need open and transparent curriculums. Schools often refuse to share curriculums with parents to avoid scrutiny and transparency (especially if there’s something politically sensitive like how they cover race relations or whatever), but they often do so behind weak claims of not being allowed to share copyrighted material.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mcshicks 2y ago
Fun fact for those of you in California and some other states in the US. AIM was founded by one of the founders of Fry's electronics, John Fry. https://aimath.org/about/history/ https://aimath.org/about/history/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Electronics

91 points by __rito__ 2y ago

[flagged]

Evaluation Criteria To gain our seal of approval an open source mathematics textbook must be able to serve as the primary text in a mainstream mathematics course at the undergraduate level in U.S. colleges and universities. That means that we are not evaluating instructional modules, Java applets, supplementary lecture notes, or other materials that are designed for limited use within a course. Since the minimum length of a traditional course is 10 weeks with 30 hours of class instruction, the books we evaluate must have enough material for that, and most will have more since most college courses are 14 or 15 weeks in length with at least 40 hours of class time. We are looking for books that we can recommend for consideration to any of our colleagues, books that are suitable for use in traditional university courses. Books must be mathematically sound and written in standard English with evidence that they have been proofread and edited. They need not have color, flashy graphics, or ancillary materials. They must have exercises, and though it would be desirable to have short answers to many of the problems, it is not necessary for approval. It would also be desirable to have more complete solutions available—at least to an instructor. Furthermore, we expect books of the quality we seek to be class-tested. They should have been used (and be in current use) by faculty other than the author. We are certainly interested in fostering the writing of open source books, and so we may encourage people to try out a book that looks promising, but we would not label such a book as having our full recommendation. We do not require any particular form of license, although the Gnu Free Documentation License and the Creative Common licenses (in its many varieties) are what we recommend. These licenses allow the book user the greatest flexibility in making use of the material. We will approve a book with copyright restrictions as long as the book is available in some format at no cost. It is not necessary that printed copies be available from a print on demand service like Lulu, but many students and faculty are willing to spend $25 to get a paperbound or spiral bound copy of a 500 page text. We are impressed with books that have a support system, signs of which are a website that is maintained, a community of users, a means for submitting support material from faculty such as test questions and project ideas, and a mechanism for improving the book by correcting errors, publishing errata lists, and displaying user comments. For books that use mathematical software, we consider it desirable to use Sage, which is open source. It makes little sense to have a free textbook that requires expensive proprietary software. The evaluation process is ongoing. We began several years ago with texts for linear algebra and abstract algebra and now we can recommend books in 19 different course categories. To recommend a book for consideration, please send a message to textbooks@aimath.org.

CoastalCoder 2y ago
I'm curious what their take would be regarding books that require non-monetary payment from users. E.g., registration on some website, or the book only being accessible by some medium that pushes ads.
- jimhefferon 2y ago
  I have a book on the list. I'm lucky enough that at this moment I'm at an institution that will cover the download traffic. But my prior school actually withdrew that support at some point, and in any event I will retire someday. I don't think I can ask my wife for us to pay for that. (I won't mention the possibility of a deadly bus encounter.) In thinking about where the work might live in order that I could hope it is available, say, for the next decade, it is reasonable to look at people who can use the traffic to keep their lights on.
  - __rito__ 2y ago
    Forgive me if I am saying something wrong. But what stops you from uploading a PDF file to GitHub, GitLab, or Archive.org?
    - sebbu 2y ago
      DMCA requests and getting your whole account/email banned.
      - __rito__ 2y ago
        What if the one of the authors themselves do it? And it is also meant to be free according to them?
        jimhefferon 2y ago
        I am the author. They are Free.

stainablesteel 2y ago

correct me if im wrong but i tried getting some of the books and it looks like they're only available to "registered teachers"? that doesn't sound open to me

jimhefferon 2y ago
Which books? These folks work hard to get it right, is my experience, but of course stuff happens.
maroonblazer 2y ago
Try again? I was able to access the Precalc/Trig book easily.
globalnode 2y ago
Linear algebra books are working for me, not sure which ones you are trying to access. I'm actually relieved to have another source for the awful course I'm sitting through at the moment. I wonder what teaching quals a lot of the teachers I've had to suffer through actually have :(
- hilbert42 2y ago
  Calculus isn't for me.
  - Jtsummers 2y ago
    I just tried each one of the calculus books (there isn't just one so your comment could have helped here by specifying which). They were all accessible.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - hilbert42 2y ago
      Sorry, it's 'Differential Equations'. Tried quite a few times and nothing happens except the download link returned to 'ready to download' (highlighted) again without error or message. It' s strange because 'Trigonometry' downloaded but the file I got was mfg.pdf — Modeling Functions and Graphs. So I don't know what's going on. I can only assume that there's some mixup in their files upload. If you get it to work then signal as such and I'll try again. Good luck.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

We also need open and transparent curriculums. Schools often refuse to share curriculums with parents to avoid scrutiny and transparency (especially if there’s something politically sensitive like how they cover race relations or whatever), but they often do so behind weak claims of not being allowed to share copyrighted material.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

mcshicks 2y ago

Fun fact for those of you in California and some other states in the US. AIM was founded by one of the founders of Fry's electronics, John Fry. https://aimath.org/about/history/ https://aimath.org/about/history/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Electronics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Electronics