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Our shared collection with BCcampus breaks down resources by subject area. You can also filter by ancillaries, accessibility criteria, review or adoption status, as you search for the best fit in your courses. We’re always here to help if you’re not sure where to start.
You can also browse a growing collection of Made-in-Manitoba resources by visiting our PressbooksEDU catalogue.
Introductory Algebra by Izabela Mazur, Thompson Rivers University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Introductory Algebra
Description: This textbook is aligned with the British Columbia Adult Basic Education learning outcomes for Mathematics: Intermediate Level Algebra. The textbook introduces the fundamental concepts of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry while addressing the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles. Each topic builds upon previously developed material to demonstrate the cohesiveness and structure of mathematics. This text was adapted from Elementary Algebra and Prealgebra, textbooks originally published by OpenStax.
Posted: March 25, 2021 | Updated: March 2, 2022
Author: Izabela Mazur, Thompson Rivers University
Subject Areas
Adult Basic Education, Math
Original source
opentextbc.ca
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Reviews (2)
Avg:
Institution:Camosun CollegeTitle/Position: Math: Instructor/Instructoral Assistant
Q: The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary
Yes the text flows well:
Starting with Numbers, Operations, Measurement (Perimeter, Area, Volume), Ratio/Percent, First Degree Equations and Linear Graphing, Powers/Roots, Polynomials, and Trigonometry.
The Index/Glossary is provided at the end of each Chapter Section
Suggestion: Chapter Section Index/Glossary could also be condensed at the then of the Chapter or the back of book for quick reference/review.
Comprehensiveness Rating: 4 out of 5
Q: Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased
Content is well organized, diagrams are clear and proportional, work/questions I checked (3-10 random ones at the end of each section) were correct.
Suggestion: Maybe the book could come with a test generator, also diagram 21 & 22 on pg. 418 the "3" is not in the correct place or hard to know what side it refers to.
Content Accuracy Rating: 4 out of 5
Q: Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement
Introductory Math content has not changed or will not change for some time so no issues here. All the chapters cover the material thoroughly. Text is written in a simple yet organized way that one can easily add or remove questions and material. This simplicity is also helpful for student who take this course as they may/will have anxiety with Math, consistency helps.
Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used
Text is clean and concise, at the end of each section "Key Concepts", "Glossary of Terms", and questions are provided.
Clarity Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework
The text is very user friendly, in each chapter section the Learning Objectives are in Black, Examples are in Red, Vocabulary/Key Ideas are in Green, and Examples to test your learning are in Blue. End of each section there are ample questions with answers provided on the next page, this is great so you are not wasting time to look for the answers at the back of the book.
Consistency Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.
Yes, again the author has done well here. There are 9 Chapters with 3-8 sub-sections in each chapter. This allows for the instructor to cover all or just parts of the chapter. You can also use this with future Math courses when you need to just review one r two concepts.
Modularity Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion
Yes clean and clear as discussed in questions 4, 5, and 6. Ch. 3 and Ch. 4 could be interchanged, as for me Ratio/Percent tie into fractions easily. Although, revisiting the concepts after/again is always good practice in an introductory course.
Organization Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader
No issues here, text is provided in simple clean text format. The text is also available in various text types (hard copy, PDF, Word, etc.
Interface Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text contains no grammatical errors
For the many pages I read, grammar/spelling was not an issue. Although, I did not read every page of the text.
Grammar Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds
Yes, within the word problems these were addressed with care.
Cultural Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: Are there any other comments you would like to make about this book, for example, its appropriateness in a Canadian context or specific updates you think need to be made?
Overall, yes very good book that is available as online version or as a hard copy. This flexibility will be useful to many instructions as we shift more to a blended learning model.
Institution:Camosun CollegeTitle/Position: Math faculty and chair
Q: The text covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary
The text covers all of the learning outcomes as outlined in the B C Articulation guide. The concepts are explained in an easy and non-intimidating fashion. A reasonable amount of practice problems and examples are provided for the students. Since it is an open source textbook, it provides a wonderful flexibility of adapting the materials according to the needs of an instructor. There is no glossary included.
Comprehensiveness Rating: 4 out of 5
Q: Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased
There are some mistakes in the textbook and given the size of the project it is to be expected. The content is unbiased and mostly accurate.
Here is very short list of errors (please note that there are many more):
1) p 1064 line b) in solution "Her"
2) p 1052 solution part a) mistyped equation
3) p 1089 Problem b) gives solution as -11 - should be 11
4) p. 1103 missing spaces in middle line of solution (Evaluate ...)
5) Throughout this whole section (3.1 Metric) there is a space in the word "millilitre s"
6) p. 318 Section heading "Use ..." should say Metric System. The following sentence needs to be fixed as well.
7) p. 321 Example 12 500 becomes 50 in middle line of solution
8) p. 322 Example 13 - solution answer in ounces instead of miles
9) Example 7 in 4.4 solution, step 3 should have “gives” instead of "give”
10) Error in Q9 in 9.3 the answer is correct for 38o instead of 28o
11) There is a lack of questions based on applications of areas of a circle
12) In chapter 3.4 ex 4.1 and 4.2 are same
13) In Chapter 1.4 ex.5(c) the first 9 should be -9
14) Section 1.5 Example 5, solution to b) should be -16.
There were also some mistakes in the answer keys.
Overall, if at all possible I would advise that someone proofread and edit the textbook for content accuracy. I found the book also to be very picture heavy which makes it a little bit tricky to adapt as a printed textbook but it is absolutely fine if it is adopted as a digital source.
Content Accuracy Rating: 3 out of 5
Q: Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written and/or arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement
Yes, I completely agree that this textbook could be used for a long time.
Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for any jargon/technical terminology used
Since this is a math textbook, all the terms are explained before being used in the content. I am not sure though, if an e-text reader would be able to read the content for a vision impaired student.
Clarity Rating: 4 out of 5
Q: The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework
Absolutely!
Consistency Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course (i.e., enormous blocks of text without subheadings should be avoided). The text should not be overly self-referential, and should be easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader.
Yes
Modularity Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion
Yes
Organization Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader
I have reviewed both the printed copy and the digital copy of this textbook. I did not come across any distortion of images or charts and overall found navigating through the content quite natural. In the printed copy though, there were some pages completely blank or due to the size of images there was a lot of white space.
Interface Rating: 4 out of 5
Q: The text contains no grammatical errors
As mentioned earlier there are some minor spelling mistakes in the textbook but I believe I did not come across many grammatical errors. Once again it would be worth investing the time in editing the content for such errors.
Grammar Rating: 3 out of 5
Q: The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It should make use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds
Math is a universal language and it's quite difficult for it to be not diverse. I did not come across any insensitive or offensive language in the content. I was glad to see examples based on Canadian society and geography.
Cultural Relevance Rating: 5 out of 5
Q: Are there any other comments you would like to make about this book, for example, its appropriateness in a Canadian context or specific updates you think need to be made?
Absolutely, in fact I have adapted this textbook and will be piloting it with my upgrading math students in fall 2021 term. As mentioned earlier, the beauty of an open source textbook is that you don't need to be afraid of making the changes to the content to better meet your needs and I'm extremely grateful that this textbook provides a good starting point for it.
