August
25, 2004
Blackboard Launches
Enterprise Learning Object Repository
Blackboard Inc.,
has released Learning Object Catalog as part of the newest release of
its Blackboard Content System, which will enable faculty to access educationally
rich learning materials in a central open repository. Learning objects
are instructionally useful curriculum resources (such as documents,
images or multi-media assets) that can be experienced independently,
or combined to form a larger resource. For example, learning objects
can be individual pieces of content (such as documents, images or multi-media
assets), or standards-based self-paced learning modules (such as SCORM
objects). Content developers can share their Learning Objects with the
public and institutions can share learning objects with other institutions.
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Pearson Provides
Menu of Low-Cost Textbook Options
Upon returning to
campus this fall, college students and instructors across the nation
will discover a range of choices in formats and prices for hundreds
of leading textbooks offered by Pearson Education. The PearsonChoices
program will provide the capability to access course material through
a variety of print and online options. In addition to Pearson's best
selling textbooks from leading authors, PearsonChoices offers: SafariX
WebBooks; Text/Web Combinations MyLab and OneKey; Alternate Print Editions;
and Pearson Custom Texts. For more information, visit http://www.pearsonchoices.com
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Rice University
Receives $1.25 Million Grant for E-Content Site
Rice University
received $1.25 million in grants from the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation to fund the second phase of its online electronic publishing
system, Content Commons. The second phase, Connexions, contains educational
modules equivalent to a two- to three-page lesson from a textbook.
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TAA Now Accepts
Business Card-Sized Ads
Book Indexer Heidi
Blough (http://www.heidiblough.com)
became the first advertiser to purchase a business-card sized ad in
the September issue of The Academic Author. If you would like to place
a business card-sized ad, or any size ad, in the December issue of The
Academic Author, or on the TAA website please contact TAA's new advertising
manager, Aaron Gregerson, at AMGreger5431@webmail.winona.edu.
For ad rates and submission form, click
here.
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Author Shares
Tips for Working with a Compositor
William Stallings,
author of 10 books including Computer Organization and Architecture,
a three time winner of a Texty Award, and Local and Metropolitan Networks,
winner of a 2001 McGuffey Award, shares tips for working with a compositor
(the person who sets the book's type) in the upcoming issue of The Academic
Author, due out in September. One of those tips includes requesting
a hard copy of the first set of page proofs. The compositor may provide
these in hard copy or PDF files, but it's far easier to work with the
hard copy, he says: "You can sit down and read them more easily in a
comfortable chair and comfortable position than on a screen."
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Author Shares
His Thoughts on Price of College Texts
Robert W. Christopherson,
professor emeritus of geography at American River College in Sacramento,
and author of three best-selling physical geography texts, shares his
insight into the cause of rising textbook costs in the September issue
of The Academic Author. Here's a sneak peek: "I agree that textbooks
are expensive. Although, text costs are rising at a rate less than other
educational costs are increasing. Most modern textbooks have high production
values, with limited markets in many academic fields, and require large
capital investments. But there is more to the story. I see the root
cause for textbook costs differently than those shouted by critics....Another
item of concern, unmentioned by cost critics, is the fate of the sample
copies, 'desk copies,' sent to professors. Some professors resell their
free sample copies to bookstores/used book buyers."
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