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Textbooks - Are they effective?



Teaching involves assembling an array of resources and experiences that
help students learn. One component in this array often involves students
interacting with a textbook. But how do I know whether the textbook I
have selected is effective in helping my students learn? Should I switch
textbooks next year? Here's a simple way find out from your students.
- In less than 10 minutes, you can visit the TextRev website
(http://www.textrev.com) and initiate a free web-based survey of your
students.
- TextRev will generate a customized survey for your course. The survey
will provide you with a picture of how much time your students spend each
week using the textbook, CD-ROM, website, solution manual, etc. It will
also inform you of how helpful students find particular features of the
text, e.g., images, sample problems, real-world examples. You can even add
up to five of your own questions to the survey.
- You will receive a unique TextRev URL to give to the students in your
class. Your students can then go to the website and complete the survey
on-line in less than 5 minutes.
- TextRev will analyze the data daily and provide you with a detailed
summary report. Confidence limits are calculated for every numerical score
along with a ranking that compares your class' responses to national
averages.
- TextRev also posts aggregate reviews of textbook titles. At present,
reviews of one physics title and ten common chemistry textbooks are posted
at http://www.textrev.com/textbook.cfm. More titles will be added as the
TextRev survey database grows.
TextRev is a national project to help instructors and authors better
understand how students use and value textbook resources. All services are
completely confidential and free of charge. We strongly encourage you and
your colleagues to use the TextRev site. Now is the perfect time to survey
your class before the term ends.


Dennis Jacobs
Professor of Chemistry
University of Notre Dame

P.S. We have recently published some of our TextRev data on the study
patterns of General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry students. See,
Smith, B. D., Jacobs, D. C. (2003) "TextRev: A Window into How General and
Organic Chemistry Students use Textbook Resources" Journal of Chemical
Education, 80:99-102. We hope to gather a similar set of data in the near
future about student usage of textbook resources in introductory physics
classes.