[Textbook-l] distinct books

Tue Aug 12 19:56:56 UTC 2003

Op di 12-08-2003, om 18:35 schreef Karl Wick:
> We would ideally also have the option to limit searches to
> one textbook at a time. 

Yes.

> 
> About interchangeable modules (that is, using one module
> for multiple textbooks): this solution may be inideal
> because the goals of each textbook are different 

Are the goals different? Or rather the background of the readers and the
level of the course?

If I want to learn something about DNA, I just want a part that is
suitable to me. The other 300 pages of the book might not interest me.

> and editing a module for one book will sometimes make it less
> suited to other books. 

"Books" are a very paper-based concept, just like chapters and pages.
In E-learing one talks about "learning units" or "learning objects".
Creating a course is then selecting units from a respository.

Just take a look at the Connexions Project.
Their courses are made from distinct modules.

Books make a learning experience very linear.
By modules you can create different paths, according to the wishes of
the targeted audience and the level of learning they want.

Some learners want some very advanced modules if topic X, but just touch
slightly upon topic Y. And others vice versa.

> Even if I were to take my own
> organic chemistry book and rearrange it I would have to
> rewrite many parts of it to make sure that supporting ideas
> arent being thown out there before they have been properly
> covered. 

If something is not covered why not just provide a link to a relevant
modules that does cover it?
Mozilla has a nice browser-addon called Dynamic Links:
by just control-clicking a word (yes, any word in a html-document), you
can sent that word the any search-engine you want, like Google of
Wikipedia. With this, you don't even have to provide a link.
http://dynamiclinks.mozdev.org/

> 
> The advantage to reusing modules is that it saves a little
> bit of copying and pasting, right ? 

David Wiley of Educommons.org wrote his PhD-tesis on reusability and
learning objects:
http://www.reusability.org/
http://www.reusability.org/read/

Wouter Vanden Hove
www.opencursus.be
www.open-education.org

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