American Government Textbook: An Update from the Field

Dr. Tim Lenz and I have been working on editing the textbook and identifying students to work on the text over the summer.

Using information from surveys and informal feedback from students, along with feedback from faculty members who have used the text, we have identified several areas that need work in the text. For example, students are interested in accessing information in the text directly from their laptops, tablets, and phones, so we need to ensure that links work with multiple types of devices.

Additionally, students are very interested in linking video and audio content, so we are working on finding and linking to those files. As an example, the image on the left of the Tea Party protest links to a video about the event and a slideshow of images from the protest, allowing the students to emerge themselves in the content.

Dr. Lenz and I have also presented the text twice in our university’s Teaching with Technology showcases, pictured below. We have gotten a lot of very good feedback through these presentations and (hopefully) inspired others to also create open textbooks!