Members of the Gordon faculty have collaborated on the authorship of this guide, and it is targeted directly at Gordon students to help them with their writing across the GSC curriculum. This guide provides at least three distinct advantages over other guides: it is specifically targeted to Gordon State students, it covers writing across the whole curriculum, not just English; and it is free.

Many approaches to crafting this guide were entertained, but the authors decided that what students really want from a composition guide are practical examples of writing that they might actually encounter in their classroom experiences at Gordon. Many guides try to do this, but this guide uses real Gordon professors and real Gordon class assignments as a starting point. This results in what we feel is a substantial improvement over other available writing guides.

This textbook examines U.S. History from before European Contact through Reconstruction, while focusing on the people and their history. Prior to its publication, History in the Making underwent a rigorous double blind peer review, a process that involved over thirty scholars who reviewed the materially carefully, objectively, and candidly in order to ensure not only its scholarly integrity but also its high standard of quality. This book provides a strong emphasis on critical thinking about US History by providing several key features in each chapter. Learning Objectives at the beginning of each chapter help students to understand what they will learn in each chapter. Before You Move On sections at the end of each main section are designed to encourage students to reflect on important concepts and test their knowledge as they read. In addition, each chapter includes Critical Thinking Exercises that ask the student to deeply explore chapter content, Key Terms, and a Chronology of events.

This is a preliminary Open Textbook composed of original instructional materials created for the OER-based course, and the team is working to create a full open textbook at a later date. Separate files are included in the Additional Files section in a compressed .zip format for editing and quicker uploads/downloads within classes. Grammar and vocabulary pre-class activities, lectures, and post-class homework are included within these seven chapters:

This set of lecture slides was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant with an accompanying question library for tests and quizzes. The course uses the free and open Human Development sections of Boundless Psychology. Topics covered include:
Nature vs. Nurture
Piaget
Attachment
Freud
Erikson
Kohlberg
Childhood Development
Adolescent Development
Adulthood Development
Late Adulthood

This set of questions for use with quizzes and tests was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant with an accompanying PowerPoint lecture set. The course uses the free and open Human Development sections of Boundless Psychology. Topics covered include:

Nature vs. Nurture
Piaget
Attachment
Freud
Erikson
Kohlberg
Childhood Development
Adolescent Development
Adulthood Development
Late Adulthood

This Instructor’s Guide contains the brief outlines of Chapters 12-21 as found in Concepts of Biology, though some underwent revision. Also, instructors will find detailed outlines of the text for use in lecturing, as well as structured outlines that may be used by students to take notes while reading the chapter or during lecture. All outlines are derived from the OpenStax text. Additionally, study guides that contain a variety of questions are provided for students.

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses.
Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

Welcome to your journey to becoming a communication scholar! We developed this workbook to guide you through the semester as you learn how understand and conduct scholarly research. What does it mean to be a scholar? A scholar is someone who specializes in a particular area of study. For you, this area is communication. And how do you become a scholar? By doing research.

But why is it important for you to learn research skills? You might be thinking, I want to be a journalist or make TV shows or work in public relations, why do I need to learn how to do research? Well, if you want someone to watch your TV show, read your article, or listen to your campaign, you will need to conduct research to see if the audience you’re targeting even exists. You will need to research to find out if your ideas are original, what the person you’re interviewing for an article has done in the past, or what makes a successful public relations campaign. You’ll need data in order to pitch your new TV show idea.

To be successful in organizational and business communication, it is essential that you learn how to effectively promote successful communication in any institution. This may include writing training manuals, employee handbooks, or conducting in-depth personnel research to ensure overall satisfaction of employees. Also, scholarly research is the foundation of any discipline, and many of the core principles of this field are derived from scholarly research.

Because we want you to succeed in the industry, we will spend the semester learning how to conduct research in the field of communication. We’ll start by providing you with a short history of communication research, show you how to gather academic research, and teach you how to write a literature review. Let's get started!

Introduction to Ecology is an open course remix of the OpenStax Biology open textbook. The remix includes a modular revision of parts of the text with supplemental questions added.

This course uses the basic principles of biology and earth science as a context for understanding environmental policies and resource management practices. Our planet is facing unprecedented environmental challenges, from oil spills to global climate change. In ENSC 1000, you will learn about the science behind these problems; preparing you to make an informed, invaluable contribution to Earth’s future. I hope that each of you is engaged by the material presented and participates fully in the search for, acquisition of, and sharing of information within our class.

This open course for Introduction to Human Development is an adaptation of PsychologyWiki materials and was created under a Round Nine Textbook Transformation Grant.

Authors' Description:

In our transformation of PSYC 2103 Human Development we decided to divide the content into three units.

Unit 1: Overview, History and Biological Beginnings
Unit 2: Early Childhood to Adolescence
Unit 3: Young Adulthood to Death
Each unit includes:

Learning objectives
Things to consider: questions students should be thinking about while engaging with the content
PowerPoint Presentation
Readings from a variety of open text books
Activities
Supplemental readings and videos
If you have questions or would like access to the question/test bank please contact either

Elizabeth Dose, edose@highlands.edu

Katie Bridges, kbridges@highlands.edu

Geography is a diverse discipline that has some sort of connection to most every other academic discipline. This connection is the spatial perspective, which essentially means if a phenomenon can be mapped, it has some kind of relationship to geography. Studying the entire world is a fascinating subject, and geographical knowledge is fundamental to a competent understanding of our world. In this chapter, you will learn what geography is as well as some of the fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline. These fundamental terms and concepts will be interwoven throughout the text, so a sound understanding of these topics is critical as you delve deeper into the chapters that follow.

This set of lecture materials, laboratory notes, and activities are ancillary materials created for use with OpenStax Microbiology. The materials were created under a Round Nine Textbook Transformation Grant.

Topics covered include:

The Cell
Prokaryotes
Eukaryotes
Acellular Pathogens
Microbial Metabolism
Microbial Growth
Biochemistry of the Bacterial Genome
Microbial Genetics
Microbial Growth
Antimicrobial Drugs
Pathogenicity
Epidemiology
Immune System

This textbook is a comprehensive lab manual for the core curriculum Introductory Geosciences classes with both informational content and laboratory exercises. Topics include basic laws and theories in Geology, the Earth's interior and plate tectonics, water and climate change, igneous rocks and volcanoes, and earthquakes.

Microbiology for Allied Health Students is designed to cover the scope and sequence requirements for the single semester Microbiology course for non-majors and allied health students. The book presents the core concepts of microbiology with a focus on applications for careers in allied health. The pedagogical features of Microbiology for Allied Health Students make the material interesting and accessible to students while maintaining the career-application focus and scientific rigor inherent in the subject matter.

The scope and sequence of Microbiology for Allied Health Students has been developed and vetted with input from numerous instructors at institutions across the U.S. It is designed to meet the needs of most microbiology courses allied health students.

With these objectives in mind, the content of this textbook has been arranged in a logical progression from fundamental to more advanced concepts. The opening chapters present an overview of the discipline, with individual chapters focusing on cellular biology as well as each of the different types of microorganisms and the various means by which we can control and combat microbial growth. The focus turns to microbial pathogenicity, emphasizing how interactions between microbes and the human immune system contribute to human health and disease. The last several chapters of the text provide a survey of medical microbiology, presenting the characteristics of microbial diseases organized by body system.

The University of North Georgia Press and Affordable Learning Georgia bring you British Literature I: From the Middle Ages to Neoclassicism and the Eighteenth Century. Featuring over 50 authors and full texts of their works, this anthology follows the shift of monarchic to parliamentarian rule in Britain, and the heroic epic to the more egalitarian novel as genre.

Features:

Original introductions to The Middle Ages; The Sixteenth Century: The Tudor Age; The Seventeenth Century: The Age of Revolution; and Neoclassicism and the Eighteenth Century
Over 100 historical images
Instructional Design, including Reading and Review Questions and Key Terms
Forthcoming ancillary with open-enabled pedagogy, allowing readers to contribute to the project
This textbook is an Open Access Resource. It can be reused, remixed, and reedited freely without seeking permission.

Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.

A collection of free and open primary texts in digital formats for the study of early world literature in English translation. Multiple English translations are provided for comparison and study, as well as open secondary and supplemental resources.

Included are open-source reading materials, learning objectives, suggested readings and resources, and activities organized into content modules for undergraduate Foundations of Education courses. The specific course included here is EDUC 2110: Investigating Critical and Contemporary Issues in Education.

The following open course for Organismal Biology was created under an Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grant:

https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/biology-collections/14/

Included are four units containing a comprehensive set of learning modules with outcomes listed:

Biodiversity
Growth and Reproduction
Chemical and Electrical Signals
Nutrition, Transport, and Homeostasis

This open course for Plants, Society, and the Environment was created under a Round Six ALG Textbook Transformation Grant. Topics include cell structure, photosynthesis, taxonomy, biomes, domestication, agriculture, and medicine.