Links below to recent source code archives come from github. If you would like to participate in contributing to the book, you will want to use git. Then you can fork the repository on GitHub, or create a local copy of the source code by doing the following in a terminal window:. If you would like to make contributions to the book, sending a pull request via GitHub is welcome, or else a patch file produced by git.
If you wish to make substantial contributions, or create an alternate version, please save yourself some trouble and contact the author beforehand. Chapter 10 is not really a chapter but a short appendix with some area and volume formulas. Chapter 7 is missing its title.
Many sections if not most begin at the bottom of a page. The typesetting issues are so numerous that the text is actually unusable in its present form for students, anyway.
Fraction bars are missing, exponents are not superscripted, sometimes the radical symbol follows instead of preceding its contents, etc. Obviously, these errors are "minor" in the sense that it shouldn't take too many days for someone to clean them up. Hopefully this is in progress even as I write this review.
But my next question would be: where are the embedded video examples promised in the preface? Are these also under construction? It is impossible to assign a high score when I haven't had the chance to see all that is promised. Looking at the print version, I do like the ordering of topics well enough. None of the chapters have any motivating introductions, though; adding some would be a nice touch.
The only viewing option I have in March is to download the. I tried reading it on screen, but ended up printing it out 4 pages per sheet, double-sided, some trees were spared to write this review. As mentioned above, I have not been able to view any embedded videos, as promised in the book's preface.
If this were meant to be a print reference, then I might be able to give a high score once the many typesetting issues are resolved; if it is meant to be more than that, then I haven't had a chance to see what it will be. I went back and reread the preface. It says this book makes no assumption of prior algebra experience, though it certainly assumes a high proficiency in reading. I also saw, in the section on negative exponents, that it assumes a certain familiarity with the dimensional analysis method of converting units.
It also says this is "by far the best elementary algebra textbook offered under the creative commons license. With that done, however, I do expect this text could serve as an excellent reference… but then there is the question of whether it will have any embedded videos, and how good those will be.
It claims modularity, but I'm not seeing how this book is any more or less modular than any other math text. I do remember the author saying that learning to factor polynomials takes a lot of practice and patience, but I don't recall any specific exhortations to write out steps by hand. Obviously this is a work in progress, and I have not seen the final product.
Perhaps the author is fishing for some early feedback. Well, I'd say it's a great start, but later reviews will have to trump mine. The textbook covers all of the chosen topics very thoroughly. This book writes math problems using the traditional notation as well as textual notation, so it can be emailed and communicated electronically without a special keyboard or software.
This was the first time I have seen this. This is just one example of how I feel the textbook is current but yet has staying power. I can see it being reused for quite a while.
I felt it was a bit wordy but since it was clear I could deal with that. I also think a few more pictures would enhance the experience. This textbook presents topics in the same order as all other books I have used. This is the organization I would use. I like the Key Takeaways and Tips charts the author used.
I will probably adopt this book for my Fall class. I will add comments or re-review this textbook after that. It is essential to lay a solid foundation in mathematics if a student is to be competitive in today's global market. The importance of algebra, in particular, cannot be overstated, as it is the basis of all mathematical modeling used in applications found in all disciplines.
Traditionally, the study of algebra is separated into a two parts, elementary algebra and intermediate algebra. This textbook, Elementary Algebra, is the first part, written in a clear and concise manner, making no assumption of prior algebra experience.
It carefully guides students from the basics to the more advanced techniques required to be successful in the next course. This text is, by far, the best elementary algebra textbook offered under a Creative Commons license.
It is written in such a way as to maintain maximum flexibility and usability. A modular format was carefully integrated into the design. For example, certain topics, like functions, can be covered or omitted without compromising the overall flow of the text. An introduction of square roots in Chapter 1 is another example that allows for instructors wishing to include the quadratic formula early to do so. Topics such as these are carefully included to enhance the flexibility throughout.
This textbook will effectively enable traditional or nontraditional approaches to elementary algebra. This, in addition to robust and diverse exercise sets, provides the base for an excellent individualized textbook instructors can use free of needless edition changes and excessive costs! A few other differences are highlighted below:.
This text employs an early-and-often approach to real-world applications, laying the foundation for students to translate problems described in words into mathematical equations. It also clearly lays out the steps required to build the skills needed to solve these equations and interpret the results.
With robust and diverse exercise sets, students have the opportunity to solve plenty of practice problems. In addition to embedded video examples and other online learning resources, the importance of practice with pencil and paper is stressed.
This text respects the traditional approaches to algebra pedagogy while enhancing it with the technology available today. In addition, textual notation is introduced as a means to communicate solutions electronically throughout the text. While it is important to obtain the skills to solve problems correctly, it is just as important to communicate those solutions with others effectively in the modern era of instant communications.
He is now a professor of mathematics at the College of the Sequoias, located in Visalia, California. With over a decade of experience working with students to develop their algebra skills, he knows just where they struggle and how to present complex techniques in more understandable ways. His student-friendly and commonsense approach carries over to his writing of Elementary Algebra and various other open-source learning resources.
Content Accuracy rating: 3 The accuracy depends on the version you use. Clarity rating: 4 The book is clear and easy to understand. Consistency rating: 4 For the most part the consistency of the book is good.
Modularity rating: 4 I love how the book is broken down into short sections. Interface rating: 4 I did not have any problems with navigating through the textbook. Cultural Relevance rating: 4 I did not see any issues with the cultural relevance of the book. Comments I feel if the PDF version did not have the grammatical errors it would be a good text for any Elementary Algebra student.
Content Accuracy rating: 4 Good accuracy is seen in the online version of the book. Clarity rating: 3 For online users the clarity is good. Consistency rating: 5 I like the consistency of this book. Modularity rating: 3 For online access of the book: Modularity is a strong point of this book.
Interface rating: 3 There are lots of inconsistencies seen on the PDF version of the book. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 No grammatical error seen. Cultural Relevance rating: 3 For a diverse classroom some of cultural related questions can help students get a better understanding.
Comments Overall this is a good book. Content Accuracy rating: 4 Looking at the examples, and exercises given to students for practice, the book is accurate. Clarity rating: 5 The vocabulary use is clear and easy to understand for student of that age group. Consistency rating: 4 The book is consistent all the way. I gave a high rating for that.
Modularity rating: 5 The book is split in good and easy to read parts. Interface rating: 3 There is inconsistencies on the PDF version of the book. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not see or encounter any grammatical errors even though I did not read every sentence in the book. Cultural Relevance rating: 3 I did not see any relevance of cultural insensitivity, but looking at the diversity of our classrooms, the book should add some cultural items to help the minority students understand the topics using their cultural background.
Comments The book has a lot of potential to it. Content Accuracy rating: 5 I did not see any errors. Clarity rating: 5 The book is very clear.
Consistency rating: 5 The book is very consistent. Modularity rating: 5 The book is very modular and each chapter is broken up into short manageable sections that are easily accessed by clicking in the table of contents.
Interface rating: 5 Navigation is very easy and the charts and images are simple but powerful. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 Grammar is fine. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 The simple explanations and efficient wording of worded problems appear to have the effect that there should not be any offensive problems for certain races, etc. Comments I thought the book was one of the better introductory algebra books. Content Accuracy rating: 4 In reviewing the book, I saw very few content errors.
Clarity rating: 1 The clarity of this book seems in line with most other mainstream elementary algebra books. Consistency rating: 3 There is a very nice, consistent structure throughout the book. Modularity rating: 3 Chapters and sections are numbered, but then those numbers aren't referenced in the online version's table of contents.
Interface rating: 2 This is the area in which the book stumbles, somewhat. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 The book's English grammar is good and mostly at an appropriate reading level.
Comments Overall, I like this book. Content Accuracy rating: 3 Although almost all of the content is accurate, I scored this category lower 3 of 5 due to numerous 'errors' in the text, which are frequently typesetting errors. Clarity rating: 3 Similarly for accuracy above , while much all of the content is clear, I scored this category lower 3 of 5 due to numerous typesetting errors which will cause students to not find the content clear. Consistency rating: 4 The book is mostly consistent throughout, however, there are some minor inconsistencies such as the use of variables.
Modularity rating: 4 The text is pretty easy to divide into smaller reading sections, and reorganization should be fairly easy for most teachers, but certain sections will be challenging to reorder due to some implicit self-references.
Interface rating: 1 The text has significant interface issues, including the following. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 Although I have not read every sentence in the book, all of the grammar I saw seems to be correct. Cultural Relevance rating: 3 The text is not particularly insensitive to specific races or ethnicities that I am aware of, however, with a lack of emphasis placed on Federal accessibility standards, the text is not sensitive to students from different backgrounds who require implementation of the accessibility guidelines.
Comments This book has a lot of potential and I hope to see improvements in the future! Content Accuracy rating: 5 I found no biases in the book. Clarity rating: 4 The language is simple straightforward and presented clearly.
Consistency rating: 5 Terms are presented consistently and clearly. Modularity rating: 4 Sections and subsections of the book are presented in bite-sized chunks that would not overwhelm a student who has math anxiety or little previous experience with math. Interface rating: 3 The lack of the usual apparatus of a textbook table of contents, glossary, index, etc. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I found the text to be clear and almost entirely free from grammatical mistakes.
Cultural Relevance rating: 4 The book is not culturally insensitive or offensive. Comments There were excellent suggestions for historical research that would be a great stimulant to further learning and study by an interested student. Content Accuracy rating: 4 Notations and explanations seem fairly accurate in this book, although I did not do a detailed line-by-line reading to check if there errors to the solutions. Clarity rating: 4 The book has good clarity overall and is very readable to students at this level, except in a few places.
Consistency rating: 5 The book has really good consistency throughout sections and chapters. Modularity rating: 4 he book is fairly useful in its modularity except in a few places where references to materials covered in the previous section s are mentioned. Interface rating: 2 This area is the weakest aspect of the book.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not notice any grammatical error. Cultural Relevance rating: 4 The book does not have as many culturally inclusive examples as other traditional textbooks. Comments Overall, it is a well written book and I really like the formats and the flow of the book. Content Accuracy rating: 5 The book appears accurate throughout the chapters.
Clarity rating: 4 All terminology was used appropriately and accurately among the book. Consistency rating: 5 Each section started off with the section title, then the "Learning Objectives.
Modularity rating: 5 Each unit and subsection of each unit is broken down in such a way that as a teacher teaching 3 different 8 week courses, I could pick and choose what I need to cover for each course to meet the objectives easily. Interface rating: 3 Maybe it's just the online PDF version, but I'm struggling with the fraction section as many of the problems in the homework sets and within the lesson portion the fractions don't have fraction bars.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not notice any grammatical errors throughout the text. Cultural Relevance rating: 4 Although the book did use a variety of occupations, social standing, and students. Content Accuracy rating: 5 The book seems accurate in all the material that is presented.
Clarity rating: 3 The text was easy to follow as far as understanding. Consistency rating: 5 The text was very consistent in it's framework.
Modularity rating: 4 The text could easily by divided and reorganized and I would certainly suggest doing so. Fuente: The University of Kansas. Fuente: Directorate Of Technical Education. Fuente: Cengage. Fuente: NYU Wagner. Fuente: JCU Australia. Fuente: Hood College. Fuente: Lake Washington Institute of Technology. Fuente: Lamar University. If you found this list useful, do not forget to share it on your social networks.
Do you want more Mathematics books in PDF format? Here we present our complete selection of Algebra books:. Read Download. Burris and H. Chapter 4 seems to be redundant with chapter 2. I believe the short sections in chapter 4 should be realigned. I think the concepts of Linear Functions, Equations and Inequalites should be together in the first chapter.
Then the Analysis of Graphs including basic graphs, transformations and compostion of functions. Higher Order Polynomials after that. From that point in the book, the material flows nicely.
The interface is appropriate. It is confusing that the Try It problems don't have the solutions that are easy to access. The student has to scroll to the end of the chapter for those solutions, and that is cumbersome. The Solution links with the Example problems are very good.
I would suggest Solution links with the Try It problems also for the online version of the textbook. I did not notice any grammatical errors. There may be some, but in my overview, everything seemed to flow nicely. There are many real world applications that are very good. I'm not sure how useful they are for the students. There are Lots of word problems. This is generally a stumbling block for students. These word problems can be used by the instructor in Discussion posts to get the students to work on and respond to.
It would be nice to have pop up video links in the Online version of the book. There is a good chapter review at the end of each chapter with key equations, key formulas and key terms. This is very helpful. My main concern is the arrangement of the first couple of chapters. There is some redundancy. Otherwise it is a very thorough book and easy to follow with more infomation than most instuctors will need. Lots of resources is always a good idea.
This textbook covers all of the main topics of a typical College Algebra course, in addition to a few topics e. The index lists the main definitions, but usually links to a section in The index lists the main definitions, but usually links to a section in which to find the term. Because the textbook is available online, the errata are regularly incorporated in the version that many students access.
The text often includes examples that relate the topic to a real-world application that is likely to remain relevant for at least the foreseeable future e. The one improvement that could make it even more appealing for students would be to have alternative media, perhaps associated video content or more infographics. There are existing loosely aligned video options e.
Khan Academy that can be used to supplement the text in its current form however. The book is certainly written in an approachable format and provides thorough explanations, often explicitly giving the steps involved in a particular solution. The terminology is consistent throughout the book, and each chapter is organized in a logical manner.
Much of the material could be selected independently and used to supplement an existing curriculum. It is a bit repetitive to cover quadratic equations in chapter 2 and within the context of polynomial and rational functions in chapter 5, so perhaps a better curricular approach would begin with chapter 3 material on functions.
Depending on your institution however, it may be helpful to have so much prerequisite material available in the same textbook. As would be expected with any textbook, there are a few minor typos. Overall however they are rare and often corrected in the online version. Although the text does not seem to make specific efforts to be particularly inclusive or diverse, it is neither culturally insensitive nor offensive.
After having looked through a number of different Open Educational Resources for College Algebra, I think Open Stax has one of the best textbooks currently available. The text thoroughly covers all of the topics I would expect from a College Algebra text and more.
It has extensive review material as well. The text has a large index of terms, properties and theorems. A click of your mouse on any index item takes A click of your mouse on any index item takes you to the appropriate section. I would like to see an irrational number defined as any number that cannot be expressed as a fraction of two integers and, when written in decimal form, is a non-terminating and non-repeating decimal. It is also nice to show how a repeating decimal can be written as a fraction, thus demonstrating that a repeating decimal is a rational number.
In looking over this text, I did find two errors, one in the solution to Section 3. I did report these errors and one typo in 5. There are thousands of exercises in this text and I am sure they are completed with an extremely high degree of accuracy! Most information for the word problems is general in nature and covers a wide range of topics. However, some word problems were dated. For example, in section 4.
In section 4. Updated information and dates would be nice and would be fairly easy to implement. Information is given clearly with terminology explained fully. Each objective has notes with rules and detailed explanation.
Every example has a detailed solution available with the click of the mouse. The book is extremely consistent in its framework. Each chapter begins with a list of its sections. Each section begins with the learning objectives for the section followed by a Real World Example to spark interest. There are many exercises and every section has extensions and Real World Applications as well. The end of each chapter contains vocabulary, formulas, section concepts, review exercises and a practice test.
I did find one case where I felt there was inconsistency in terminology. Since each chapter is divided into sections, a section works very favorably as a lesson plan for each class. Each section has its own learning objectives, examples, videos and exercises. Some of the sections could be rearranged or skipped altogether. Overall, the organization of topics and materials is excellent.
The learning objectives are in bold print. There are Extensions and Real World Applications as well. I would like to see a little more detailed explanation of pi, when it is first used in Chapter 1. Also, multiplying binomials and FOIL are introduced in 1. I found it extremely easy to navigate around from various sections, to problem answers and to media with the click of the mouse.
The index is very user friendly as well. I never ran into any distortions or dead ends! I found nothing culturally offensive in this text.
The word problems are primarily general in nature and cover a wide variety of topics. I believe this text is a great offering for a College Algebra course and you can't do better than free! It is apparent that a great deal of time and effort have been put into this text and its framework. College Algebra, by Jay Abramson, would work extremely well for an online course, and we may see a few this semester!
The College Algebra textbook contains a wide range of topics that we currently cover in our College Algebra course, such as polynomial, rational, exponential, and logarithmic functions. The course material is presented in a logical order with a The course material is presented in a logical order with a seamless transition from one topic to another.
The textbook offers many meaningful exercises to practice the concepts covered in each section. The textbook contains no errors as I read through the examples, or in the section exercises and their solutions.
The textbook includes many word problems and applications; that will continue to support the students in understanding the concepts of algebra for a long time. The concepts of the textbook are clearly explained. The author includes a lot of examples in each topic and provides many ways while presenting the contents using visual methods such as highlighting the rules, graphs, and illustrations to make it clear for the students to achieve a better understanding of mathematical reasoning.
The text is organized in a logical and consistent format while reading within topics. I noticed that the author used the same mathematical terminology throughout the book.
The students will be pleased with the flow of reading without any disruption. The topics are presented in a logical order and building in each other concept-wise. The chapters can be accessed easily using the table of contents.
I found no interface issues; I navigate through the sections without having any distraction or confusion.
The textbook is free of any offensive language or anything that will disturb the reader based on cultural relevance. As the prices of many commercial textbooks are rising high, this book will be just a good fit for students who are financially challenged.
I'm pleased with the material in this textbook and the way it was presented to the reader. The text covers material comparable to the text I currently use. The text is broken into logical sections comparable to the text that I currently use to teach with. This textbook covers all standard topics in College Algebra textbook, including prerequisite materials. There are two versions of the book: a PDF version and an online version.
The online version has more capabilities such as hypermedia links to Overall, the examples and applications are up-to-date and all of the media hyperlinks that I have opened are working properly. The author uses a consistent narrative text that develops learner curiosity. Each chapter is organized around a set of learning objectives that are listed explicitly at the beginning of each section. Reasonings to why a specific method is used while finding the answer is given and that should eliminate the need of any outside sources.
The Text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework with no notable exceptions. The text is divided into chapters and therefore it would be easy to use only parts of the text. The sections are of a reasonable length to teach in a regular class time setting. The paragraphs are not too long and should be easy for students to read and follow. The author makes all kind of efforts to keep the textbook clear and to the point in a logical way.
For example, each section is supported by one or more worked examples and followed by a set of exercises that are organized by question type. I really like the inclusion of many hyperlinks for YouTube explanation videos in the Media part toward the end of each section. I just thought that this could be enhanced by adding more hyperlinks for YouTube videos next to each example.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. The book uses general names and places and gets data from trusted sources such as the United States Census Burea. I believe that more questions, animations, and videos could be added to make more connections between the learners and the learning objectives. The textbook contains all standard topics in modern College Algebra textbooks. Compare to our current textbook, which is from a commercial publisher, it covers the "Conic Sections" topics under the " Analytic Geometry".
And the textbook does not And the textbook does not have a section covering "Mathematical Induction". However, we do not cover both topics in current semester 15 weeks course. Hence it does not affect our current course. The textbook seemed to go through proof reading by many people. I didn't check all the details line by line. However, with a scan through review of the textbook, it seems that the textbook has adequate accuracy in both explanation and computation.
I would not worry about the text will be obsolete or out of dated within a short period of time as College Algebra is pretty much settled subject. In addition, the textbook can be mainly distributed by electronic form, such as PDF format or direct web access, the authors or instructors can easily add extra up-to-date material or topic if they need to do so.
The text seems more friendly to students to read than a typical textbooks on the market. It try to deliver the idea in a short sentence rather than a more lengthy but rigorous way. In some sense, the clarity to students and the clarity of instructors might different. However, for the level of mathematics course that students are taking, it should be acceptable level.
From the textbook preface, I found that there are nine additional contributing authors in addition to the main author. As an author of a textbook which was written with several co-authors, I know it is a hard process to keeping the consistency in terminology, notations, and the tone of explanations. However, this text seems maintain the consistency reasonably well. I cannot noticed any particular chapter was written by different author.
This is a bit too much to asking for the mathematics text. As mathematics textbook authors consider a certain structural development in sequential way, it is hard to write a text that is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course.
However, I personally do not over concern for this aspect in choosing a text. As we described the text seems to written for easier access to students. Also I believe students will like "How To…" blocks as they can easily imitate the algorithm to solve the problem.
The textbook has adequate format and spacing.
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