Math 101: College Algebra
Math 101: College Algebra
College Algebra
Common Course ID: MATH 150
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait
Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a college algebra course for undergraduate students majoring in early childhood education, business, or the liberal arts by William Pierpoint, M.S., at Channel Islands California State University. The open textbook uses a "functions first" approach which is useful for students who will encounter spreadsheets in their business and education careers. Switching to an open textbook was driven by the desire to find better content at a lower price. Most students access the open textbook in pdf format.
Reviews: This book has been reviewed by two CCC faculty members (CCC1, CCC2) and one CSU faculty member from within the California higher education system.
About the Textbook
Description:
College Algebra is an introductory text for a college algebra survey course. The material is presented at a level intended to prepare students for Calculus while also giving them relevant mathematical skills that can be used in other classes. The authors describe their approach as "Functions First," believing that introducing functions first will help students understand new concepts more completely. Each section includes homework exercises, and the answers to most computational questions are included in the text (discussion questions are open-ended). Graphing calculators are used sparingly and only as a tool to enhance the Mathematics, not to replace it.
The authors also offer a Precalculus version of this text, which has two extra chapters covering Trigonometry.
Authors:
- Carl Stitz, Lakeland Community College, Ohio
- Jeff Zeager, Loraine Community College, Ohio
Formats:
The book is available as a PDF only. One can purchase a print copy for $12.61
Supplemental Resources:
Ancillaries including Powerpoint presentations, a formula summary sheet, checkpoint quizzes, engagement activities, a forum, and the source code for the textbook are available.
The supplemental resources on OpenMath include a training course, a support course, forums, and template courses from which you can initially build your course for your class. Some of the template courses and problems contain videos. There is a library with thousands of problems to choose from and you can create your own problems.
Peer Reviews:
This book has been reviewed by two CCC faculty members (CCC1, CCC2) and one CSU faculty member from within the California higher education system.
Cost Savings:
Students can experience significant savings depending on previous textbook selections. The previous textbook used for this class was Algebra and Trigonmetry by Stewart, Redlin, and Watson which cost currently retails on Amazon for $276. The open textbook is free online and paperback versions are available for under $20.
Accessibility and Diversity Statement from Publisher:
The most recent version of the PDF (July 2013) lacks logical structures which can make the reading order on screen readers and other devices incorrect. For online viewing, the Precalculus textbook is recommended since it includes bookmarks for easy jumping to different sections of the text.
License:
Except where otherwise noted, College of Algebra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the original author(s) and license their new creations under the identical terms.
About the Course
Math 101: College Algebra
Description:
The course is offered for non-math majors. It may be used to satisfy Mathematics Concentrations requirements for Liberal Studies students. This course is not designed to satisfy the University Writing or Language requirements. This course is not a General Education course. Topics include: basic set theory, number systems and their algebraic properties; systems of equations and inequalities; basic analytic geometry, matrix algebra and elementary functions; and problem solving.
Credit: 3 units
Prerequisites: Passing score on Entry Level Mathematics Examination
Student Learning Outcomes:
Through this course, students will be able to
- Improve their advanced algebraic skills
- Apply algebraic skills to problem-solving
- Apply functions and their graphs to problem-solving
- Organize and express ideas clearly and convincingly in oral and written forms
Curricular Changes:
Changing to the Stitz and Zeager College Algebra textbook did not affect the curriculum.
Teaching and Learning Impact:
More faculty collaboration:Somewhat
Wider range of materials:Yes
Student learning improved:Somewhat
Student retention improved:Seemed similar
Any unexpected results:No
The biggest impact on learning came from switching from manually graded homework to the free online homework system. MyOpenMath provides many useful statistics, such as how much time do students take to complete each problem and each problem set. It allowed me to see what effect an increased homework grading weight had on the student participation rate.
Students like using online homework since they instantly find out if their answers are correct or not. For the teacher, online homework eliminates the problem of a student just copying another student’s work since each student gets problems with random parameters.
Author Observation:
It seems to me that one thing a math teacher can do is help show students that math can provide a lens into the real world. A lot of articles in the newspapers or shows on tv have some statistical information to support a particular viewpoint. One recent example involves income inequality. Without getting into aspects of income inequality that would be better discussed in a political science or an economics class, a math class can look at some of the mathematical causes of income inequality.
For example, a recent column by a conservative pundit in our local newspaper, the Ventura County Star, said that the problem is not that the wealthy pay too little tax, but that they pay too much tax. He cited the fact that the top 5% of wage earners pay about 60% of all federal income taxes (at a top marginal tax rate of 35%). But a math class could dig a little bit into this. What was the situation say 35 years ago? Well in 1980, when the top marginal tax rate was 70%, the top 5% of taxpayers paid 37% of all federal income taxes. So after the top marginal tax rate has been cut in half, the top 5% of taxpayers actually pay a much bigger proportion of all income taxes. How is this possible? Rates went down and taxes went up? This seems very counter-intuitive of this, we have to consider the effect of time. These changes didn't happen overnight.
Lower taxes frees up more income for investing and the compound interest that comes with investing over time makes them more wealthy. Now I'm not saying that compound interest is the only reason that the rich get richer, but it is one major factor and one of the topics in this algebra class. People often underestimate the power of compound interest over an extended period of time. As a student now is the time to learn all about compound interest and how to make it work for you in the years ahead!
Sample Assignment and Syllabus:
A section on student loans is planned for the next version of the textbook because the authors saw the value of including this material in an algebra text.
Annuities and Loan Exercises
Calculating the interest for students loans and also cars and houses is featured. Solutions for exercises included.
Math 101 College Algebra Syllabus
Syllabus for College Algebra course offered in traditional classroom lecture with an open textbook and free online homework system.
Textbook Adoption
OER Adoption Process
I wanted to find a new textbook that had better content and was less expensive. About one-third of my students were majoring in early childhood education, about one-third were majoring in business, and the remainder were majoring in other liberal arts. I knew some were working either part-time or full-time, and other students were getting financial aid.
Some students didn’t purchase the textbook. They used the reference copy from the library and photocopied pages. A few students complained that the textbook was difficult to follow. I wasn’t particularly fond of the format either.
To determine which book to use, I surveyed a number of textbooks. I had received a few unsolicited textbooks that publishers had sent me and I ordered a half dozen used textbooks that sounded as if they might have a unique approach. But I found they all covered mostly the same material in the same way.
In searching the web for free college algebra textbooks, one of my searches came up with the Stitz and Zeager College Algebra textbook. I discovered they covered the same material as the expensive textbooks. They used a “functions first” approach that I liked since many of my students would be using functions in spreadsheets during their careers in business and education. I also liked that if students wanted to get a printed copy of the textbook, they could purchase a copy for less than $20.
Student Access:
The book is available as a PDF only. One can purchase a print copy for $12.61 The textbook is also available from the CSUCI course management system and the online homework system.
Student Feedback or Participation:
Some students have said they appreciated not having to buy an expensive textbook. About one-tenth of students bought the printed version.
I started teaching math at California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) in 2008. The first year I taught two remedial courses: Math 94 Elementary Algebra and Math 95 Intermediate Algebra. Since then I taught Math 101 College Algebra. Prior to my teaching career, I worked in government and industry for over 30 years.
As I taught algebra, it dawned on me that some students haven’t yet developed a good system for learning. This insight led me to teach algebra within a simple pedagogical framework:
(1) understand the terminology and notation,
(2) use simple rules that constrain solutions to problems and rules of thumb that estimate solutions, and
(3) solve problems using algebraic, graphic, numeric, and verbal/written methods.
Using this framework let me diagnose why some students didn’t get certain aspects of algebra. For example, when we are studying rational functions, students have to learn what an asymptote is. We learn some simple rules such as the graph of a rational function cannot cross a vertical asymptote (but can cross a horizontal asymptote). Then students are asked to find the vertical and horizontal asymptotes of a rational function and to graph the function. I was puzzled why some students had trouble with this. It turned out to be a language problem as some of these students couldn’t remember the correct orientation for the words horizontal and vertical. So I taught them some memory tricks. One is to look at word origins: horizontal comes from horizon, and means parallel to the horizon. Another trick is to use visualization: think of the v in vertical as a downward arrow.