BC Open Textbook Summit 2017

Initiated separately by many members of our department, with various individual reasons and motivations, the Department of Mathematics at UBC has developed and integrated a variety of open course resources and textbooks into our first and second year math courses that have impacted many thousands of students.

As a mathematical biologist, I felt that default calculus course was not very appropriate for life science students. I will describe one effort that has been invested in designing, creating, and evolving Life-Science-specific open resources directed at a 1st year sequence of calculus courses (Math 102-103), from its inception to recent experiences in the classroom. Aside from an open book, we have assembled flexible learning technologies that include videos, online homework (WebWork), and multi-stage quizzes, and others.

I will also briefly survey several independent ventures by my colleagues that are all directed at customizing the syllabus of courses they teach, helping the students avoid costly texts, and offering a range of material for student learning.

Leah Keshet is a Professor in the Dept of Mathematics at UBC, where she has been a faculty member since 1989, teaching, carrying out research, supervising graduate students, and helping with departmental administrative duties. She is the author of two traditional published books in Mathematical Biology, and former president of the Society for Mathematical Biology. She has been developing curriculum for first year calculus suitable for Life-Science students since the 1990’s, and continues to be involved, with other colleague in her department, in developing that course to this day.