Open Textbooks
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Open Textbooks are freely available online and licensed for redistribution. Some open textbooks are also licensed for editing and modification. For more information about Virginia Tech Libraries' Open Education Initiative, see our OER Guide or contact Anita Walz.
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- Introduction to Earth Science, second editionLaura Neser (Department of Geosciences in association with the Open Education Initiative and Virginia Tech Publishing, 2025-01-30)
Introduction to Earth Science, Second Edition is an open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice. The sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts. It has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Similar to the layout of the first edition, this book dedicates one chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our Solar System. Additionally, the second edition includes a new chapter on meteorology, and combines the previously separate chapters on deserts and glaciers into a single, comprehensive chapter that explores these extreme environments. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience2e.
The PDF and EPUB versions are available to download on the left-hand side of the screen.
An online, interactive, accessible version of this book is available here.
A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-962841-24-5
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-962841-25-2
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-962841-23-8
ISBN (print): 978-1-962841-22-1
Table of contents
1. Understanding Science
2. Plate Tectonics
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes
5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. Geologic Time
8. Earth History
9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes
10. Mass Wasting
11. Water
12. Earth's Coastlines and Oceans
13. Deserts and Glaciers
14. Meteorology
15. Global Climate Change
16. Energy and Mineral Resources
17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System
Find, adapt, and share resources If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the instructor portal
About the author
Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021. Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental Science, Astronomy, Environmental Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology. Project support
Support for content development and project oversight was provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Neser, Laura (2025). Introduction to Earth Science, Second Edition. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience2e. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. View errata | Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The text, images, and links in the PDF version of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. We are continuously working to improve accessibility and welcome any feedback from readers. Cover design: Kindred Grey - Methods of Teaching Agriculture, third editionL. H. Newcomb; J. David McCracken; J. Robert Warmbrod; M. Susie Whittington (University Libraries at Virginia Tech in association with the Open Education Initiative, 2025)
Providing a clear and concise framework for teaching and problem solving in agricultural education, Methods of Teaching Agriculture, third edition is a necessary text for any teaching methods course. It includes a comprehensive examination of theory and research in guiding principles for how students learn best. Numerous illustrations and graphs clarify all concepts discussed within the text. Methods of Teaching Agriculture, third edition is a republished work. This text was originally published by Pearson Prentice Hall in 2004 (ISBN 0131134183). Rights to the book have been reverted to the authors. The book was reformatted and republished in its entirety in 2025. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/methodsofteachingagriculture.
The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats, including: PDF, ePub, and HTML (Pressbooks).
A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-962841-17-7
ISBN (HTML): 978-1-962841-18-4
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-962841-16-0
ISBN (print): 978-1-962841-15-3
Table of contents
Part #1: Foundations for Methods in Agricultural Education
1. Factors Influencing Decisions About Teaching
2. Principles of Teaching and Learning
3. Planning the Course of Study
4. Learning as Problem Solving
Part #2: Methods for Teaching and Learning
5. Planning for Instruction
6. Group Teaching Techniques
7. Individualized Teaching Techniques
8. Managing Student Behavior
Part #3: Application of Learning
9. Application of Learning: The Laboratory
10. Application of Learning: Supervised Agricultural Experience
11. Application of Learning: FFA
Part #4: Teaching Special Populations
12. Teaching Learners with Special Needs
13. Teaching Adults
Part #5: Evaluation of Learning
14. Evaluation of Learning
Appendix A: Sample Unit of Instruction
Appendix B: Vocabulary Useful in Developing Objectives and Test Items at Various Cognitive Levels
About the editors
L. H. Newcomb
Professor of Agricultural Education
Price Chair in Teaching, Advising, and Learning
Senior Associate Dean, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
J. David McCracken
Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Education
J. Robert Warmbrod
Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Education
M. Susie Whittington
Associate Professor of Agricultural Education
Teacher Education in Agricultural Education Suggested citation
L. H. Newcomb, J. David McCracken, J. Robert Warmbrod, and M. Susie Whittington (2004, 2025). Methods of Teaching Agriculture, third edition. Blacksburg. https://doi.org/10.21061/methodsofteachingagriculture. Licensed with CC BY NC 4.0. View errata | Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, headings, and links in the PDF and HTML versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Please contact publishing@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. - Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical StudentsJennifer L. Cleveland; Andrew P. Binks; Renée J. LeClair (Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in association with the Open Education Initiative and Virginia Tech Publishing)
Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical Students is a peer-reviewed open textbook designed to fill a gap in undergraduate medical education (UME) and support medical school pre-clerkship education. It covers the areas of immunology, microbiology, systems-based infections, and global mechanisms of treatment. It is aligned to USMLE® (United States Medical Licensing Examination) and modified from OpenStax Microbiology. The organization of this resource is driven by curricular structure to enhance integrated, multidisciplinary content delivery. This specific resource is intended to be used in various ways, mainly as a student quick-reference guide. The sections are not intended to be all-inclusive, but are primers for applied content delivery. The resource is organized into small chapters that can be used to support student preparation in any arrangement. Similarly, clinical context is only briefly discussed (or purposefully omitted) in order to allow the user to apply the basic content presented here in the clinical context used by their specific curricular structure. As cases and clinical correlates change regularly, it is beneficial to have flexible, short resources that can be applied to many scenarios. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access the book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/micropharmimmuno.
The PDF and EPUB versions are available to download on the left-hand side of the screen.
An online, accessible version of the book is available in Pressbooks.
A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-962841-04-7
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-962841-05-4
ISBN (Print): 978-1-962841-02-3
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-962841-03-0 Table of contents 1. Host Defenses, Immunodeficiencies, and Autoimmune Disorders 2. Basic Microbiology 3. Systemic Infections of the Skin 4. Systemic Infections of the Oral Cavity and GI 5. Systemic Infections of the Respiratory Tract 6. Systemic Infections of the Circulatory and Lymphatic Systems 7. Systemic Infections of the Urinary System 8. Systemic Infections of the Nervous System 9. Foundations of Disease Management Find, adapt, and share resources
If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the instructor portal. Attribution
The base of the book is from OpenStax Microbiology by Nina Parker et al, which is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license, much of which was reworded and reorganized. About the adapters
Jennifer L. Cleveland is an assistant professor in the Department of Basic Science at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She received a PharmD and MBA degree from Shenandoah University and has practiced in a variety of settings including hospitals, home healthcare, and independent pharmacy. She began her journey in clinical education at Jefferson College of Health Sciences, where she was instructor of clinical pharmacotherapeutics for physician assistant students for nine years. In 2017, she transitioned to Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine where her role includes teaching pharmacology to first- and second-year medical students, codirecting the problem-based learning curriculum, integrating pharmacology within clinical science, and facilitating small group sessions in the Health Systems Science and Interprofessional Practice program. With her background in clinical pharmacy and board-certification as a pharmacotherapy specialist, she brings a unique blend of expertise in her role as a medical educator. Andrew P. Binks is a cardiopulmonary physiologist who gained his BSc (Hons) in Physiological Sciences at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and a MSc in Human and Applied Physiology from King’s College, London. He returned to Newcastle to complete his PhD and study the underlying physiological mechanisms of dyspnea, the cardinal symptom of cardiopulmonary disease. He continued investigating dyspnea at Harvard School of Public Health as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a research scientist. After seven years at Harvard, Andrew took his first faculty position at the University of New England where he taught cardiovascular and pulmonary physiology to health professionals and medical students. He continued to teach heart and lung physiology after moving to the University of South Carolina’s Medical School in Greenville where he also directed the school’s heart and lung pathophysiology courses. Andrew currently teaches heart and lung physiology and pathophysiology at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, directs the heart and lung pathophysiology course, and has previously served as the departmental director of faculty development. Renée J. LeClair is an Associate Professor in the Department of Basic Science Education at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Her role is to engage activities that support the departmental mission of developing an integrated medical experience using evidence-based delivery grounded in the science of learning. She received a PhD at Rice University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Maine Medical Center Research Institute in vascular biology. She became involved in medical education, curricular renovation, and implementation of innovative teaching methods during her first faculty appointment, at the University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine. In 2013, she moved to University of South Carolina, School of Medicine, Greenville. The opportunities afforded by joining a new program and serving as the Chair of the Curriculum committee provided a blank slate for creative curricular development and close involvement with the accreditation process. During her tenure she developed and directed a team-taught, student-centered undergraduate medical course that integrated the scientific and clinical sciences to assess the six-core competencies of medical education. Suggested citation
Cleveland, Jennifer L., Binks, Andrew P., and LeClair, Renée J. (2025). Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Immunology for Pre-Clinical Students. Roanoke: Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.21061/micropharmimmuno. Licensed with CC BY 4.0. Report an error | View errata Funding and project support
This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Accessibility statement
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The text, images, and links in the PDF version of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. We are continuously working to improve accessibility and welcome any feedback from readers. Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter or consult the source material from OpenStax before redistributing. - Content Operations From Start to ScaleEvia, Carlos (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2024-03-06)An introduction to Content Operations (ContentOps), its place in the organization, and how we can use its principles to deliver better content at scale. An edited collection of essays that makes Content Operations teachable across silos and departments. A convergent approach for industry-based training and college level courses covering a broad spectrum of professional content. The edited collection includes ideas for teaching and exploring key concepts and topics related to ContentOps based on available resources and scale. The purpose of this collection is to provide the equivalent of a guest lecture from an industry expert to inform decision makers in industry or to inspire research and teaching ideas in academia. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/content_operations_evia. The book is freely available online in multiple formats including PDF, EPUB, and Mobi. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-87-3
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-74-3 Suggested Citation Evia, C., 2024. Content Operations fromStart to Scale: Perspectives from IndustryExperts. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/content_operations_evia. Accessibility Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Please contact publishing@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. - Fostering Communities of Transformation in STEM Higher Education: A Multi-institutional Collection of DEI InitiativesBriganti, Jonathan S.; Sible, Jill C.; Brown, Anne M. (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2024-02-01)
Dive into the multifaceted landscape of inclusive excellence in STEM education with Fostering Communities of Transformation in STEM Higher Education. This scholarly work examines transformative initiatives from Virginia Tech, Radford University, Trinity Washington University, and Towson University, showcasing their role as catalysts in cultivating inclusive excellence across diverse STEM disciplines. Take inspiration from their projects and guidance from their lessons learned with this collection. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/fosteringcommunities.
The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats including PDF and EPUB.
A paperback print version (in color) is available and can be ordered here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-84-2
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-83-5
ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-82-8
Table of contents 1. Preparing STEM Teachers to Be Change Makers 2. Resequencing the Chemistry Curriculum to Retain Chemistry Majors 3. Delayed Enrollment in General Chemistry Recitation 4. Assessing Changes in Student Engagement Using a Mixed-Methods Approach 5. Development and Assessment of a Four-Week Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates 6. Creating Impactful Moments 7. Community, Curriculum, and CUREs 8. We’re All in This Together
VIGNETTE: Reflecting on the Impact of Engelpalooza 9. Teaching to Make Math Resonate 10. Strategies for Creating and Sustaining Inclusive Makerspaces 11. Creating a Space in the Curriculum for Effective Mentoring to Foster Student Connections and Agency 12. Gunpowder Code Club 13. Using Departmental Book Clubs to Bridge the Faculty-Staff-Student Gap 14. Institutionally Advancing Inclusive Excellence 15. From the Soul
About the editors
Jonathan S. Briganti
Jonathan S. Briganti works in the Virginia Tech University Libraries as the manager of the DataBridge program, which trains undergraduate students from across all disciplines in applied data science and consults with partners across and beyond campus to improve the quality of their data and its outputs. He received both his BS and MS from Virginia Tech and has since found passion in creating open-source educational resources and accessible research environments to bring a more engaged and diverse pool of researchers to the table. Jill C. Sible
Jill C. Sible serves as Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech where she has worked since 1998. She is the Program Director of Virginia Tech’s Inclusive Excellence project, which has empowered science faculty and departments to apply a learning mindset and data-informed approach to changing classes, curricula, and culture to be inclusive of all students, especially those historically marginalized in science and higher education. Anne M. Brown
Anne M. Brown is an Associate Professor and Associate Director in Research and Informatics under University Libraries, Virginia Tech and is an Affiliate Professor in the Biochemistry Department. As a computational biochemist, her research focuses on computer-aided drug discovery and the aggregation process of amyloids. She is committed to undergraduate research and outreach. Today, she continues in her lifelong mission to create and expand opportunities for students of all backgrounds and provide them with mentorship to facilitate their success. Suggested citation
Jonathan S. Briganti, Jill C. Sible, and Anne M. Brown, eds. (2024). Fostering Communities of Transformation in STEM Higher Education: A Multi-institutional Collection of DEI Initiatives. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Publishing. https://doi.org/10.21061/fosteringcommunities. Licensed with CC BY 4.0. View errata | Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Please contact publishing@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. Cover design: Catherine Freed - Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First EditionEllingson, Steven W. (Bradley Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech in association with Virginia Tech Publishing and the Open Education Initiative at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech., 2023-12)Using a systems framework, this textbook provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the performance, analysis, and design of radio systems for students and practicing engineers. Presented within a consistent framework, the first part of the book describes the fundamentals of the subject: propagation, noise, antennas, and modulation. The analysis and design of radios including RF circuit design and signal processing is covered in the second half of the book. Key features - Numerous examples within the text involve realistic analysis and design activities, and emphasize how practical experiences may differ from theory or taught procedures. - RF circuit design and analysis is presented with minimal involvement of Smith charts, enabling students to more readily grasp the fundamentals. - Both traditional and software-defined/direct sampling technology are described with pros and cons of each strategy explained. - 517 pages. Licensed CC BY NC 4.0. "This textbook gives engineering students a complete overview of radio systems and provides practicing wireless engineers with a convenient comprehensive reference." Patrick Roblin, Ohio State University Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition was previously published by Cambridge University Press (2016) ISBN 9781107068285. This version is © Steven W. Ellingson and has been lightly updated to correct known errata, minor issues with text and figures, and to present examples in color highlight boxes and some figures in color. It is made freely available and under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial International License (CC BY NC 4.0). Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form.
Join the instructor group to connect with other instructors interested in this resource. How to access the book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/radiosystemsengineering-revised1st.
The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats including PDF and HTML [forthcoming].
A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-76-7
ISBN (HTML): 978-1-957213-77-4 (accessible version forthcoming)
ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-75-0 Table of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Antenna Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Propagation
Chapter 4: Noise
Chapter 5: Analog Modulation
Chapter 6: Digital Modulation
Chapter 7: Radio Link Analysis
Chapter 8: Two-Port Concepts
Chapter 9: Impedance Matching
Chapter 10: Amplifiers
Chapter 11: Linearity, Multistage Analysis, and Dynamic Range
Chapter 12: Antenna Integration
Chapter 13: Analog Filters & Multiplexers
Chapter 14: Frequency and Quadrature Conversion in the Analog Domain
Chapter 15: Receivers
Chapter 16: Frequency Synthesis
Chapter 17: Transmitters
Chapter 18: Digital Implementation of Radio Functions
Appendix A: Empirical Modeling of Mean Path Loss
Appendix B: Characteristics of Some Common Radio Systems About the author
Dr. Steven W. Ellingson
Steven W. Ellingson is an Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University. He held senior engineering positions at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Raytheon, and the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory before joining the faculty of Virginia Tech. His research is in the areas of antennas and propagation, applied signal processing, and radio frequency instrumentation, with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the commercial communications and aerospace industries. Dr. Ellingson serves as a consultant to industry and government on topics pertaining to radio frequency systems. Project support
Support for editorial work, accessibility, publication assistance, and project management was provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Ellingson, Steven W. (2023). Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition. Virginia Tech Publishing: Blacksburg. https://doi.org/10.21061/radiosystemsengineering-revised1st. Licensed with CC BY NC 4.0. Errata and error reporting
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Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Cover image: © Vallefrias. Used under license from Adobe.
Cover design: Kindred Grey - The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic LearningWhittington, M. Susie; Rudd, Rick; Elliot, Jack; Drape, Tiffany; Faulkner, Paula; Greenhaw, Laura L.; Jagger, Carla; Mars, Matt; Marsh, Marla; Marsh, Monica; McCubbins, O.P.; McKim, Aaron J.; Odom, Summer; Redwine, Tobin; Rice, Amber H.; Rubenstein, Eric; Scherer, Hannah H.; Smith, Kasee L.; Specht, Annie; Vincent, Stacy K.; Wang, Hui-Hui; Warner, Wendy; Westfall-Rudd, Donna (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-12)
The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning is a 240-page methods of teaching book. Specifically, it is a collection of thoughts, best practices, strategies, and techniques for planning, delivering, and assessing teaching and learning. This resource is assembled from among the best teaching professors in agricultural communication, education, and leadership in America. The authors offer the opportunity to build confidence in planning, delivering, and assessing the depths of the variables inherent in learning for secondary and postsecondary educators in both formal and nonformal educational environments. You will quickly grasp the four fundamental keys of solid, basic, time-tested formal and nonformal teaching: Laying the Foundation, Connecting with Students, Designing Instruction, and Applying Learning. These keys are shared with you through the unique voices of the authors to provide a multiperspective approach to teaching. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/teachagriculture.
The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats, including: PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks.
A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-71-2
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-957213-72-9
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-70-5
ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-66-8
Table of contents
Key #1: Laying the Foundation
1. The Discipline of Agricultural Education
2. Psychology of Learning
3. Principles of Teaching and Learning
Key#2: Connecting with Students
4. Learning as Problem Solving
5. Inclusive Teaching
6. Dynamics of Teaching
Key #3: Designing Instruction
7. Planning for Effective Instruction
8. Delivering Content With Technology
9. Assessing Agricultural Education
Key #4: Applying Learning
10. Applied Leadership Development through FFA
11. Supervised Agricultural Experiences
12. Effective Use of the Agriculture Laboratory Environment to Support Student Learning
About the editors
M. Susie Whittington
M. Susie Whittington, Ph.D. is a Distinguished Professor of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and Executive Director of the Second-Year Transformational Experience Program at the Ohio State University. She was the first woman inducted as a Fellow in the American Association for Agricultural Education. Rick D. Rudd
Rick D. Rudd, PhD, is the Community Viability Chair of Excellence and Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education (ALCE) at Virginia Tech. Rudd served as ALCE Department Head from August 2006–July 2019. He served as Interim Associate Dean and Director of Virginia Cooperative Extension and Professor in 2009–2010. He received his PhD from Virginia Tech in 1994. He earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the Ohio State University. Jack Elliot
Jack Elliot, PhD, is the Regional Director for Africa for the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development. He serves on the USAID Higher Education Learning Network Steering Committee and leads the Council of Research and Evidence (CORE). He is a professor in the Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) where he served two terms as the Department Head. Elliot received his BS and MS in Agricultural Education and Agricultural Economics from Washington State University. He earned his PhD in Agricultural Education from the Ohio State University. He was awarded the FFA National VIP Award in 2023. Project support
Support for editorial work, graphic design, accessibility, publication assistance, and project management was provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Whittington, M. Susie, Rick Rudd, and Jack Elliot, ed. (2023). The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education. https://doi.org/10.21061/teachagriculture. Licensed with CC BY NC 4.0. View errata | Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Open Education Initiative is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, headings, and links in the PDF and HTML versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. Illustration and cover design: Kindred Grey - Conducting Mixed-Methods Research: From Classical Social Sciences to the Age of Big Data and AnalyticsVenkatesh, Viswanath; Brown, Susan; Sullivan, Yulia (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-12-19)Scholars in the social sciences are increasingly expected to incorporate both quantitative and qualitative techniques and methods into their research. The growth of “mixed-methods” research is evident in social science disciplines ranging from psychology and management to marketing and information systems. This book is designed to provide principles, strategies, and guidance specifically for researchers in these disciplines so that they can use mixed-methods research more effectively. In thirteen chapters, Conducting Mixed-Methods Research takes readers through the research process, from defining research questions to writing articles using a mixed-methods approach. For those who are well trained in either qualitative or quantitative methods, the book shows them how to think about the purposes of mixed-methods research, design mixed-methods studies, and develop meta-inferences by integrating findings from both methods. Throughout, the discussion is grounded in examples taken from published research, carefully chosen to highlight best practices, thus opening a window into a broad body of mixed-methods research applications. A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here.
- EpidemiologyBaker, Charlotte (Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech, 2023)
Epidemiology is an openly licensed text designed for medical degree–seeking clinical students without a prior background in public health. Using sports medicine and injury prevention examples and applications, it aims to provide students with the basics of epidemiology terms and concepts and is intended to guide medical school students as they prepare for the USMLE Step 1 Exam and to transition from student to clinician. It includes an introduction to general concepts and terminology of epidemiology, study designs and their relationship to clinical questions, and the use of epidemiology in clinical diagnosis and screening of disease. Concluding sections of the book present sources of errors in epidemiologic studies, including bias, confounding, and effect modification. The book is notable for its use of accessible, inclusive figures and examples, and end-of-chapter study guides that summarize the chapter visually. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access the book - The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/epidemiology. - The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats, including PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks. - A paperback print version (in color) is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-63-7
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-957213-65-1
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-64-4
ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-62-0 Table of contents 1. Epidemiology in Sum 2. Measuring Things in Epidemiology 3. Study Designs 4. Diagnostics and Screening 5. The Wrecking Ball: Bias, Confounding, Interaction and Effect Modification About the author
Charlotte Baker, DrPH, MPH, CPH
Charlotte is the director of Epidemiology and Health Equity Lead at Truveta. She was formerly a member of the faculty in the Virginia Tech Data and Decisions Destination Area and PI of the analytic epidemiology I-SPY DATA Lab in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. As a certified data nerd, her research lab and consulting efforts prioritize bridging the methodological and data gaps in sports injury research by using advanced statistical analysis and large data sets, especially to address disparities in sport and recreation caused by social and structural determinants of health. A former epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, her favorite use of data includes helping communities improve themselves, keeping kids safe when being physically active, and helping all of us to live our best (and healthy) lives no matter where we started. Project support
Support for editorial work, graphic design, accessibility, publication assistance, and project management was provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Baker, Charlotte (2023). Epidemiology. Blacksburg: Charlotte Baker. https://doi.org/10.21061/epidemiology. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
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Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Open Education Initiative is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, headings, and links in the PDF and HTML versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. Cover image: Clay Banks via Unsplash | Unsplash license
Illustration and cover design: Kindred Grey - Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection(2023-11-02)
The Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Reference materials for facilitators introduce key concepts, youth-facing fact sheets present these concepts at a 6th grade level, and four hands-on activities integrate agriculture and cyberbiosecurity concepts. Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. The Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection was developed through a project aimed at supporting formal and non-formal agricultural educators in integrating cyberbiosecurity topics and research-based strategies for engaging middle-school-aged girls in STEM into their educational programs. The project is an outreach effort of the Virginia Tech Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture and was supported, in part, by the CCI Southwest Virginia Node Cyberbiosecurity Seed Grant program and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields (WAMS) Grants Program, award #2020-38503-31950. The open educational resources in this collection were developed through partnerships with scientists, middle school teachers, and Extension agents. Are you reviewing or adopting this collection for a course?
Please help us understand your use by completing this form. How to access the collection
The main landing page for this collection is https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity. Published as open educational resources, all resources are provided in durable (PDF) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are also hosted on the free, open-access, open educational resource repository called OERCommons in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://oercommons.org/curated-collections/1765. ISBN for Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Reference Guide
PDF: 978-1-957213-61-3 Included resources
1: Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Reference Guide, which includes background information on key topics in agricultural cyberbiosecurity (Fact Sheets), a glossary, and context for the overall project and contributors - Agricultural_Cyberbiosecurity_Reference_Guide.pdf
2: Fact Sheets, which cover nine topics (Big Data, Bioeconomy, Biomanufacturing, Biosecurity, Biotechnology, Cyberbiosecurity, Data Literacy, Precision Agriculture, Sensor) with separate facilitator and youth versions - Big_Data_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Bioeconomy_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biomanufacturing_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Biotechnology_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Cyberbiosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Data_Literacy_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Precision_Agriculture_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Sensors_Fact_Sheet_Facilitator.pdf - Big_Data_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Bioeconomy_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biomanufacturing_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Biotechnology_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Cyberbiosecurity_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Data_Literacy_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Precision_Agriculture_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf - Sensors_Fact_Sheet_Youth.pdf
3: Activities, which includes a Facilitator Guide and a Youth Activity Guide that address vulnerabilities in agricultural systems, traceability in hydroponic greens production, cybersecurity concerns with technologies commonly used in the livestock industry, and data quality in automation of food production. - Food_System_Vulnerabilities_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Food_System_Vulnerabilities_Youth_Guide.pdf - Hydroponics_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Hydroponics_Youth_Guide.pdf - Livestock_Tracking_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Livestock_Tracking_Youth_Guide.pdf - Soil_Nutrient_Facilitator_Guide.pdf - Soil_Nutrient_Youth_Guide.pdf MS Word documents are available as an editable, customizable option for items 1-3. - Fact_Sheets_Facilitator_PDF_and_Customizable.zip - Activities_Facilitator_and_Youth_Guides_PDF_and_Customizable.zip - Editable_templates.zip Resources were developed for use with a middle school youth audience, can be used in formal or non-formal educational settings, and are aligned with Virginia Standards of Learning for science and computer science and Career and Technical Education Competencies for agricultural education. About the editors
David Smilnak
David is a Ph.D. student and graduate assistant at Virginia Tech. His work involves individual research towards his dissertation as well as writing papers, giving presentations, and coordinating groups of people for those projects. Generally, he's working with graduate students and faculty members at Virginia Tech, or agricultural professionals including teachers, Extension Agents, and farmers. He is working on a couple of projects, one of which is Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls. He enjoys the different types of people he gets to work with and occasionally he gets to go to a farm as well! Hannah H. Scherer
Hannah is an Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at Virginia Tech. She is interested in how to make education more interesting and relevant to learners. In this role, she works with teachers, students, 4-H agents, and lots of other folks to try out new ideas for lessons and collect information to understand what works and what doesn’t. As part of this work, she was able to direct the Initiating the Rural Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Pipeline Through Empowering Agricultural Educators and Supporting Middle School Girls project and help make everything happen. Special thanks
This work is supported through the CCI Southwest Virginia Node Cyberbiosecurity Seed Grant program, the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fields (WAMS) Grants Program, award #2020-38503-31950, with design, publication assistance, and project management support from the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Smilnak, David, and Hannah H. Scherer, eds. (2023). Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make these resources more accessible. - Class Slides for Fundamentals of Business fourth editionPoff, Ron (2023)Class slides for Fundamentals of Business, fourth edition (2023) are freely-available, screen-reader friendly, openly-licensed, and editable. The slides align with the freely-available open textbook, Fundamentals of Business, fourth edition, which was designed for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business. The collection includes chapter-level .ppt slides for chapters 1 - 8 and 10. The remaining chapter slidedecks will be added as they become available. The open textbook, Fundamentals of Business, fourth edition, is freely available in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks, and other formats at https://doi.org/10.21061/fundamentalsofbusiness4e An online, interactive, accessible version of this book is available at: https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/fundamentalsofbusiness4e. About the license Unless otherwise noted, the book, slides, and contents therein are licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike (CC BY NC-SA) 4.0 license (human readable version) | legal code, which allows anyone to remix, tweak, and build upon the work for uses which are primarily non-commercial. New works must acknowledge the original work and be non-commercial. Derivative versions must be licensed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. See Creative Commons' Best Practices for Attribution for further information. Help us! If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook and/or slides, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/business-interest How to adapt and share the slides Instructors are encouraged to customize the slide deck by adding their own content and examples. According to the Creative Commons BY NC SA license, customized and shared versions of the slides must: - Retain the original copyright statement - Be released under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY NC SA) 4.0 license - Include a link to the original slide deck source: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/105157 - Include brief statement regarding whether or not changes were made - List the name of the adapter Find, adapt, and share resources Instructors are encouraged to share their versions and other resources created for this content area via the Instructor Resource Portal in OER Commons. Errata and error reporting http://bit.ly/business-feedback Accessibility Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. All figures within the slides have alternative text. Contributors Slide creation: Ron Poff Accessibility: Heather Blicher Figure design: Kindred Grey Project management: Anita Walz
- Supplementary Teaching Materials for Fish, Fishing, and ConservationOrth, Donald J. (2023-06)
These supplementary teaching resources align to the open textbook, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation which is a 389-page, peer-reviewed publicly-available, openly-licensed textbook intended for undergraduate students who are exploring majors in Fish & Wildlife. It is also relevant to a general audience or for use in courses which explore social and ethical aspects of fish, fishing and conservation. The open textbook, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation, is freely available at https://doi.org/10.21061/fishandconservation. Supplementary teaching resources include a sample course syllabus, schedule, and a variety of assignments. Individuals who wish to share their materials relevant to teaching in this subject area are encouraged to join and share their openly-licensed resources via the Fish, Fishing, and Conservation instructor group in OER Commons. Are you reviewing or adopting Fish, Fishing, and Conservation for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. - Fish, Fishing, and ConservationOrth, Donald J. (Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation in association with Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-06-14)
Fish, Fishing, and Conservation is a 389-page, peer-reviewed open textbook intended for undergraduate students who are exploring majors in Fish & Wildlife. It is also relevant to a general audience or for use in courses which explore social and ethical aspects of fish, fishing and conservation. People, places, and approaches to fishing are as varied as the diverse fish fauna that exist on the planet. As conservation planners recognize the value of substantial engagement of stakeholders in decision making and ineffectiveness of rigid top-down management approaches, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation asserts that all peoples must play a role in conservation. Through case studies, engaging narrative and graphics, and exercises, the text explores major motivations for fishing and non-fishing related values, responsible fisheries practices, the rights of all people to decide how to manage and conserve fish, their habitats, and how they are utilized in the context of overfishing as a pressing global problem for which appropriate solutions are not easily found nor implemented. Introductory chapters examine fish, fishing, and why fish matter and examine the role of values in driving conservation initiatives. Fish and their unique sensory capabilities are described along with a review of recent studies to examine issues of pain, sentience, and learning in fishes living in a foreign, underwater world. The text incorporates these new findings in conservation and management leading readers to evaluate and adopt suitable approaches to ethical reasoning which consider the welfare needs of wild and cultured fishes. Later chapters focus on the role of gender in fishing, conservation organizations, recreational fishing, and a focus on specific fisheries that reveal the principles of conservation and management as they play out in major controversies. Additionally, the textbook contains audio recordings of professional profiles by Virginia Tech students. These are linked at the beginning of each end-of-chapter Professional Profile.
Audio recordings are also available on Spotify. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/fishandconservation.
The text is available in multiple formats, including PDF, ePub, and online Pressbooks version.
Click here to order a print copy. Teaching resources
Additional teaching resources including a sample syllabus, course schedule, and selected assignments related to this book are available at http://hdl.handle.net/10919/115425. Individuals who wish to share their materials relevant to teaching in this subject area are encouraged to join and share their openly-licensed resources via the Fish, Fishing, and Conservation instructor group in OERCommons. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-27-9
ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-28-6
Click here to order a print copy
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-957213-31-6
Online (Pressbooks)
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-29-3 Table of contents 1. Fish, Fishing, and Why They Matter 2. Values Drive Fish Conservation 3. Sensory Capabilities of Fish 4. Ethical Reasoning and Conservation Planning 5. Pain, Sentience, and Animal Welfare 6. Public Aquariums and Their Role in Education, Science, and Conservation 7. Gender and Fishing 8. Angling and Conservation of Living Fishy Dinosaurs 9. Fly Fishing’s Legacy for Conservation 10. Recreational Fishing and Keep Fish Wet 11. Integrating Fishers in the Management of Arapaima 12. Conserving Tunas: The Most Commercially Valuable Fish on Earth 13. Groupers and Spawning Aggregations 14. Menhaden and Forage Fish Management 15. Takeaways for Successful Fish Conservation Suggested citation
Orth, Donald (2023). Fish, Fishing, and Conservation. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. https://doi.org/10.21061/fishandconservation. Licensed with CC BY 4.0. About the author
Donald J. Orth is the Thomas H. Jones Professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has taught the following courses: Ichthyology, Stream Habitat Management, Fisheries Management, Fish Population Dynamics, Fish, Fishing, and Conservation, and First-Year Experience in Natural Resources. His principal interests are in population and community ecology, stream fish ecology, regulated rivers, instream flow and stream habitat assessment, fisheries management, and fish population dynamics. He has guided numerous undergraduate research projects and advised 33 graduate students during his career. Don attended Eastern Illinois University (BS) and Oklahoma State University (MS and PhD). He is a Life Member of the American Fisheries Society and a Certified Fisheries Professional. He is also a Fellow of the American Fisheries Society, the American Institute of Fisheries Research Biologists, and the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. Don has published more than 150 primary papers and 50 technical reports on fish, fisheries, and riverine management. Much of his research was also communicated with a general audience in over 180 popular articles. He has received numerous awards for his teaching and contributions to conservation and public outreach. Most recently, the Virginia Chapter of the American Fisheries Society awarded him the Eugene W. Surber Award for years of significant contributions to the field of fisheries science. Selected acknowledgments
Publication of this work was made possible in part by grants from VIVA, the Virtual Library of Virginia, and the University Libraries at Virginia Tech through its Open Education Initiative, which provides development assistance and financial support to Virginia Tech faculty who wish to use, create, or adapt openly licensed teaching materials to support student learning. The University Libraries also contributed faculty and staff support. Donald Orth’s contributions were supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Program and Virginia Tech Polytechnic Institute and State University. Additional funding support was provided by the Thomas H. Jones Endowment. View errata
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Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Open Education Initiative is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, and links in the PDF versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Audio recordings of each profile in fish conservation are available as mp3 files via Spotify and Pressbooks. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. Cover art: Nora Ligus
Cover design: Kindred Grey - Class Slides for Sustainable Property ManagementHopkins, Erin A. (Virginia Tech, 2023)
Class slides for Sustainable Property Management (2023) are freely-available, screen-reader friendly, openly-licensed, and editable. The slides align with the freely-available open textbook, Sustainable Property Management, which is the required text for Virginia Tech's Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, PM 3674, Property Management Operations. The collection includes chapter-level .ppt slides with questions and activities for each of the eight chapters. The open textbook, Sustainable Property Management, is freely available in PDF, ePub, Pressbooks, and other formats at https://doi.org/10.21061/sustainable_property_management. About the license
Unless otherwise noted, the book, slides, and contents therein are licensed with a Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0 license (human readable version) | legal code, which allows anyone to remix, tweak, and build upon the work for uses which are primarily non-commercial. New works must acknowledge the original work and be non-commercial. Derivative versions must be licensed under the same CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. See Creative Commons' Best Practices for Attribution for further information. Help us!
If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook and/or slides, please help us understand your use by filling out this form How to adapt and share the slides
Instructors are encouraged to customize the slide deck by adding their own content and examples. According to the Creative Commons BY NC SA license, customized and shared versions of the slides must: - Retain the original copyright statement - Be released under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY NC SA) 4.0 license - Include a link to the original slide deck source: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/11342 - Include brief statement regarding whether or not changes were made - List the name of the adapter Find, adapt, and share resources
Instructors are encouraged to share their versions and other resources created for this content area via the Instructor Resource Portal in OER Commons. View errata
Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. All figures within the slides have alternative text. This work is published by Virginia Tech's Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management in association with the University Libraries' at Virginia Tech Open Education Initiative. Contributors
Slide creation: Erin A. Hopkins
Accessibility: Heather Blicher, Kindred Grey
Figure design: Kindred Grey
Project management: Anita Walz - Sustainable Property ManagementHopkins, Erin A. (Virginia Tech Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management in association with Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-05-05)
Sustainable Property Management is a 150-page, peer-reviewed open textbook intended for students majoring in property management and real estate at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. It can be incorporated into an existing property management operations course or used for a stand-alone course focused on sustainable property management. Although sustainability, as used in the real estate context, is about preserving the environment, it is about more than that. In sustainable property management, sustainability encompasses three spheres—environmental, social, and economic. Sustainable property management is about reconciling these three spheres throughout the operations and maintenance phases of the building lifecycle in such a way that a balance is achieved between economic development and the protection of environmental and social resources. This textbook explains how ecologically sustainable concepts may be implemented throughout the property management operation functions while also considering the other spheres of sustainability. It also incorporates the theme of sustainable building practices as a human science as well as a building science by highlighting motivations and impacts to various stakeholders. The author draws on industry examples to illustrate these concepts and provides many experiential activities through which students can apply these concepts. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Please help us understand your use by filling out this form. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/sustainable_property_management. The open textbook is freely available online in multiple formats, including PDF, ePub, and Pressbooks.
A softcover print version is available for order here. ISBNs
ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-38-5
ISBN (Pressbooks): 978-1-957213-40-8
ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-39-2
ISBN (print - color): 978-1-957213-37-8
Order a print copy Table of contents 1. Introduction to Sustainable Property Management 2. The Three Spheres of Sustainable Property Management 3. Stakeholder Motivations for Sustainable Property Management Practices 4. Sustainable Building Maintenance and Repair Practices 5. The Intersection of Sustainable Property Management and Risk Management 6. Integrating Sustainable Practices into Marketing and Leasing 7. Financial Evaluation of Sustainable Building Initiatives 8. Human Health Considerations Find, adapt, and share resources
Customizable class slides for this book are available. Instructors are encouraged to share their relevant, original, and openly-licensed teaching resources via the instructor resource portal in OER Commons. About the author
Erin A. Hopkins, PhD, serves as an Associate Professor of Property Management within the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, where she teaches courses in property management operations and sustainability in the built environment. She has been awarded Virginia Tech’s Teacher of the Week and has received recognition in Virginia Tech’s “Thank a Teacher” program multiple times. She has twenty-three published journal articles and has served as an associate editor for the textbook Practical Apartment Management (7th ed.), Journal of Green Building, Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and Encyclopedia of Sustainability in Higher Education. She also serves on the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) Foundation’s Board of Directors and IREM’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Advisory Council. Funding and project support
This project was funded in part by a VIVA Open Grant from VIVA, Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium. Development, editorial, graphic design, accessibility and publication assistance was provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Suggested citation
Hopkins, Erin A. (2023). Sustainable Property Management. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management. https://doi.org/10.21061/sustainable_property_management. Licensed with CC BY NC-SA 4.0. View errata
Report an error Accessibility
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Cover art: Danist Soh via Unsplash
Illustration and cover design: Kindred Grey - Original Études for the Developing ConductorCaldwell, Jonathan; Shapiro, Derek (Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts in association with Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-04-28)
Original Études for the Developing Conductor is a collection of supplemental études designed to enhance contemporary conducting pedagogy by amplifying the voices of composers from historically excluded groups. Each étude was commissioned from and composed by a living composer, the majority of whom are woman-identifying composers and/or composers of color. Each étude also addresses multiple specific pedagogical goals common to all conducting classrooms. Conducting textbooks commonly include musical examples to expose student conductors to various musical challenges and situations. However, due to the relative ease of using only music from the public domain, most examples found in commercially published books are excerpts of larger works composed by deceased cisgender white men of European descent. Often, this music bears little relation to a significant portion of the music contemporary students engage with and perform. These excerpts also tend to be quite short (i.e., less than a minute) and do not create cohesive, self-contained musical arcs. Are you reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use by filling out this form. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact. This book was awarded Highly Commended for ALPSP's 2023 Impact Award.
2023 ALPSP Award Winners.
A video [4:56] introduction to the book is available at: https://youtu.be/xcbWwbXkYV4. How to access this book
The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/conducting. This text is available in multiple formats including: 1. High resolution PDF of scores and parts (linked on the left side of your screen) 2. Low resolution PDF of scores and parts (linked on the left side of your screen) 3. High resolution PDF of scores only (linked on the left side of your screen) 4. Low resolution PDF of scores only (linked on the left side of your screen) 5. A spiral-bound softcover print version (scores only). Click here to order a print copy. 6. MIDI realizations (MP4s) are available via a YouTube playlist or in the zip file (linked on the left side of your screen) 7. Files containing the score and parts for each étude (linked on the left side of your screen). These enable easy printing and use in apps for accessibility and annotation such as MuseScore. 8. A version with alt text embedded for each étude and part. [coming soon] ISBNs
ISBN (PDF - scores and parts): 978-1-957213-51-4
ISBN (PDF - scores only): 978-1-957213-52-1
ISBN (print - scores only): 978-1-957213-53-8
Click here to order a print copy Features of the book - The chart "Musical Opportunities by Étude" differentiates the études by tempo, style, meter, and potential pedagogical goals. - The PDF version of this book is designed to be easily navigable. Hyperlinks and QR codes are provided throughout the text to help you move from the Table of Contents into composer biographies, scores, parts, and from parts back to the Table of Contents, Score, or to the main landing page for the resource. - The clickable "Jump To" menu on each composer biography page and first page of every score links to the table of contents or transposed parts in C, B-Flat, F, E-Flat, and alto clef. Instead of scrolling, use the links found in the footers of each transposed part. - For print users, a spiral-bound, scores-only, print-on-demand version is available for order here. Book pages may also be self-printed. The table of contents has all the page numbers you need, and you can still use the QR codes, URLs, or the DOI at the bottom of every page to find your way back to the complete book. - MIDI realizations are provided for all études on this page, and via a YouTube playlist. - Each étude’s composer biography page includes the composer’s biography and photo, a link to the composer’s website, information regarding length, meter, tempo, and style of the etude, potential pedagogical goals, the composer’s description of the Étude, and an audio realization (linked to YouTube). - The text and images in the PDF versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. The music in the PDF versions of this text is machine readable through outside tools such as MuseScore. Featured composers 1. Arias, Spencer: The Jester 2. Biedenbender, David: Swirl 3. Botti, Susan: Vespers (Walking in Beauty) 4. Bozone, Judy: Lyrah 5. Browne, Matthew: Saunter 6. Browne, Matthew: Tarantella 7. Bumgarner, Trevor: Choppy Frontier 8. Chen, Yi: Ban (Beat) 9. Davids, Brent Michael: Native American Étude 10. Flagello, Gala: Bulletproof 11. Grafe, Max: Fanfare With Afterimages 12. Herryman Rodriguez, Ivette: Tumbao Pesante 13. Jolley, Jennifer: Legend of the Moonlight Above 14. Joyce, Molly: Offbeat 15. Lamb, Alexis: Addolcimento (Sweetly, Softening) 16. Lambrecht, Lynnsey: Festive Fugue 17. Li, Shuying: Étude for Conductors 18. Lorenz, Ricardo: Estudio a Cuatro Voces 19. McCune, Sally Lamb: Pony Hollow Trail 20. Purrington, Hilary: Keepsake 21. Rowe, Will: Loose Canon 22. Sherwood-Gabrielson, Christopher: Last Waltz in Paris 23. Specht, Elena: Fortress 24. Tann, Hilary: Moonrise 25. Zare, Roger: Reverie About the editors
Jonathan Caldwell, Lead Editor
Jonathan Caldwell is the director of bands and assistant professor of conducting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting. Prior to his appointment at UNCG, Caldwell held positions at Virginia Tech, the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and Garner Magnet High School (Garner, NC). His writing has been published in the Journal of Band Research and the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series. He has given presentations for the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the College Band Directors National Association, the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik (IGEB), and at music educator conferences in North Carolina and Virginia. Derek Shapiro, Lead Editor
Derek Shapiro is the director of bands and assistant professor of music at Virginia Tech, where he conducts the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble and teaches conducting. Prior to his appointment at Virginia Tech, he held positions at Eastern Michigan University, Georgia Southern University, and Cypress Creek High School. A strong advocate for music education with nine years of public school experience, Shapiro has taught at the middle school and high school levels. He has been published in the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series and has presented at clinics in Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Virginia. Suggested citation
Caldwell, Jonathan and Shapiro, Derek (2023). Original Études for the Developing Conductor. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts. https://doi.org/10.21061/conducting. Licensed with CC BY NC-SA 4.0. Report an error
View errata Accessibility statement
Virginia Tech is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Open Education Initiative is committed to continuous improvement regarding accessibility. The text, images, and links in the PDF versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Links to external websites are provided as QR codes. Audio recordings of each score are available as MIDI realizations via YouTube. Alternative text for scores and parts is scheduled to be available in late 2023. Please contact openeducation@vt.edu if you are a person with a disability and have suggestions to make this book more accessible. Special thanks
This project was made possible in part by financial support from the University Libraries at Virginia Tech Collaborative Research Grant, University of North Carolina at Greensboro University Libraries’ Textbook Affordability Program (TAP) Grants, and additional funding, technical, and publishing support from the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., composer headshots) not covered by the CC BY NC-SA license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use in light of your intended use. - Making Open Educational Resources with and for PreK12: A Collaboration Toolkit for Higher EducationWalz, Anita R.; Farley, Julee P. (2023-04-21)
Welcome to Making Open Educational Resources with and for PreK12: A Collaboration Toolkit for Higher Education. This toolkit is designed to address known gaps in knowledge and practice which limit the development of generative relationship-building processes between higher education faculty and PreK12 educators. Higher education and PreK12 are vastly different domains. Well-intended, collaborative relationships do not always result in hoped-for creation of useful and reusable learning materials for PreK12 classrooms, nor of effective partnerships. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/OER_PreK12_highered. The toolkit is also available at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/higheredk12collaborationtoolkit. Associated slides, handouts, and other downloadables are available at this site and other sites linked within the toolkit. A print version is available for order here. The toolkit is part of the Scholarly Communication Notebook and is intended to prepare and position practicing and future academic librarians and interested higher education faculty, staff, and students consulting with librarians to address gaps related to outreach to PreK12. It aims to expand use and re-usability of learning resources through informed practices regarding copyright, open-licensing, and accessibility. Designed for use in formal graduate-level library and information science courses and relevant for self-study by academic librarians already in practice, this toolkit includes videos, presentations, transcripts, activities, guides, assignments, and assessment tools for learning and delivery by librarians to faculty and students in higher education, and for use by interested instructional designers, other faculty, staff, and graduate students seeking to improve their service to PreK12 educators. Are you a professor or academic librarian reviewing or using this toolkit? We would love to hear from you. Please use the form at https://bit.ly/interest_hek12 to leave your feedback. Errata | Report an error - Virginia Cooperative Extension Gardener Handbook(Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2023-03-13)
Virginia Cooperative Extension Gardener Handbook is a guide for all gardeners in Virginia. It covers a variety of topics important for beginning and experienced gardeners, including soil health, native plants, and integrated pest management. This manual provides an understanding of the basics of gardening in Virginia and helps to build a strong foundation of gardening knowledge. Resources for additional reading can be found at the end of each chapter. We encourage readers to take a deeper dive into the topics that interest them and continue their learning journey. How to access this book
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ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-49-1 Table of contents 1. Botany 2. Soils and Nutrient Management 3. Entomology 4. Plant Pathology 5. Abiotic Stress Effects on Plant Growth and Development 6. Diagnosing Plant Damage 7. Integrated Pest Management and Pesticide Safety 8. Plant Propagation 9. The Vegetable Garden 10. Fruits in the Home Garden 11. Lawns 12. Indoor Plants 13. Woody Landscape Plants 14. Pruning 15. Herbaceous Landscape Plants 16. Landscape Design 17. Water Quality and Conservation 18. Habitat Gardening for Wildlife 19. Virginia Native Plants About Virginia Cooperative Extension
Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) is the outreach and engagement branch of Virginia Tech and Virginia State University, Virginia’s land-grant universities. Through VCE, Extension agents, specialists, and volunteers work to share knowledge and advance the wellbeing of all Virginians. This handbook serves as the main training text for new Extension Master Gardener volunteers. If you are passionate about horticulture, environmental conservation, or gardening education, we invite you to join us by becoming an Extension Master Gardener. Are you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use by filling out this form. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact. Suggested citation
Virginia Cooperative Extension (2023). Virginia Cooperative Extension Gardener Handbook. Blacksburg: Virginia Cooperative Extension. https://doi.org/10.21061/vcegardener. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Accessibility statement
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Report an error
View errata Acknowledgments
This version of the Virginia Extension Gardener Handbook was made possible in part by financial and technical support from the Open Education Initiative at the University Libraries. Additional financial support was provided by the Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. Thank you to contributors and editors of this handbook: - Kathleen Reed (2022 project advisor, editor, and contributor) - Devon Johnson (2022 project manager and image author) - Kindred Grey (2022 image author and Pressbooks formatter) - Stacey Morgan Smith (2022 handbook editor) - Emma Freeborn (2022 alt text and editorial assistance) - Anita Walz and the Virginia Tech Publishing team (2022) - The 2021/22 Handbook Review Team: Barb Wilson, Beth Kirby, Carol King, Courtney Soria, Doug Levin, Elaine Mills, Elizabeth Brown, Fern Campbell, JC Gardner , Jim Revell, Khosro Aminpour, Maraea Harris, Margaret Brown, Meagan Shelley, Melanie Thompson, Michael Cole, Mimi Rosenthal, Nancy Brooks, Nancy Butler, Patricia Lust, Ralph Morini, Sabrina Morelli, Shawn Jadrnicek, Sherry Kern, Stacey Morgan Smith, Susan Dudley, Susan Perry, Wendy Silverman and all other volunteers who contributed. Previous versions: - Dave Close, State Coordinator, VCE Master Gardener Program & Consumer Horticulture Specialist (2015 project advisor) - John Freeborn, Assistant State Coordinator, VCE-MG Program (2015 editor) - Sue Edwards (2015 editorial assistant) - Diane Relf, Retired Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture (original compilation, revision, and editing) - Judith Schwab (original compilation, revision, and editing) - Elissa Steeves (original compilation, revision, and editing) - R. Peter Madsen (original compilation, revision, and editing) - Virginia Nathan (original compilation, revision, and editing) Thank you to the many Extension Master Gardener volunteers and agents who have contributed feedback or made suggestions for this handbook over the years. Thanks also to the original contributors, including the Northern Virginia Master Gardeners, the Utah Cooperative Extension Service, and the Georgia Cooperative Service for use of their handbook material and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and N.C. State for the use of their revised and expanded versions of this handbook (circa 2009). According to the 2009 version of this handbook, “material was taken from many Extension publications written in Virginia and other states.” We have worked to identify, rewrite, and attribute this content. The original edition of the Virginia Master Gardener Handbook was printed January 1985. The handbook was revised January 1986, January 1987, July 1990, November 1994, December 1999, July 2009, and December 2015. Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing. - Pioneers in Human AnatomyNolan, Michael; McNamara, John (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2023-02-24)
Pioneers in Human Anatomy provides an opportunity for those who may be interested in those pioneers in anatomy or who may have learned (or forgotten) some eponymonic descriptions in the past, to test their knowledge (or memory) of these historical designations or to link particular individuals to anatomical structures and features previously unknown. While students and teachers of anatomy may might have a professional interest in knowing who, in the history of anatomy, has been associated with a particular structure, others including medical historians, biographers and medical artist might also find this information of interest. This collection of free-answer quiz questions is divided into three sections. In the first section a brief description of an anatomical structure, feature, tissue, cell or pathway is presented followed by a blank line in which the reader may insert the name(s) of the individual(s) commonly associated with that structure, feature, tissue or pathway. The descriptions and individuals included here are limited to those associated with the four traditional sub-disciplines of anatomy: gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, microscopic anatomy and developmental anatomy. Within these major anatomical subdisciplines, the descriptions are further categorized to better organize the material. Some eponyms have come into the literature because that individual was the first to report on a particular topic (aqueduct of Sylvius) or may have provided the most definitive description of the topic (Parkinson disease). Others recognize the committed effort or discovery of a single individual (islets of Langerhan) while others signify the combined or collaborative efforts of two or more dedicated persons (Marchiafava-Bignami disease). Some refer to normal structures (Hunter’s canal) or functions (Starling’s law), while many others relate to abnormal observations (Babinski sign). Countless numbers are associated with diseases (Tay-Sachs disease) or injuries (Colle’s fracture), procedures for evaluating functions (McMurray’s test) or techniques for treating specific disease or injuries (Epply maneuver). Eponymonic designations are used to identify tools and surgical instruments invented for particular purposes (Kerrison Rongeur) and surgical procedures (Whipple procedure). Some eponyms are associated with other, frequently more descriptive terms (Poupart’s ligament / inguinal ligament) while others indicate structures, processes or procedures for which no other name exists (McBurney’s point). As can be appreciated from this brief synopsis, eponyms are well ingrained into almost all facets of medicine. - Applied Human NeuroanatomyNolan, Michael F.; McNamara, John P. (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2022-12-15)
This 155-page manual is comprised of two types of learning activities: 1. Free response fill-in-the blank questions focused of the facts and principles of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology that underpin the neurologic examination and specifically developed exercises that demonstrate how the facts and principles are related to the particular tests and procedures that comprise the neurologic examination. Free response questions form the bulk of the Neuroscience Review section of each chapter and are intended as a review of information previously or concurrently being learned regarding the structure, function and organization of the nervous system. Some questions focus on anatomical or physiological facts and relationships that help explain why certain techniques are performed as they are, such as why non-nociceptive tactile stimuli are required in order to activate nerve impulse transmission in the lemniscal system. Other questions are intended to revisit facts and concepts that are needed to properly interpret the elicited findings. 2. The application exercises of each chapter are designed to demonstrate how neuroanatomical and neurophysiological information is used in the design of particular clinical tests of neurologic function. The application exercises are also intended to help users learn how to perform and become comfortable with the various clinical maneuvers and tests that comprise the routine neurologic examination. An important outcome of performing these exercises is that, as a member of a learning group, each individual has the opportunity to experience the neurologic examination from the point of view of the subject (patient)—an experience that arguably provides insight and understanding that can be gained in no other way. The questions and exercises in the manual are designed as group learning exercises that might complement and reinforce learning acquired in more traditionally structured courses dealing with the clinical examination of a patient. The “group activity” approach, in which the student performs each exercise on a small number of “normal” subjects (classmates), is founded on the belief that the ability to recognize an abnormal finding on clinical examination requires a familiarity with the range of normal findings in the otherwise healthy population. This is particularly true for new learners who may be for the first time, learning about the structure and function of the nervous system. The clinical assessment of neurologic function is often viewed as an exercise involving difficult to master techniques that frequently generate difficult to interpret findings. The authors argue that the neurologic examination is a reasonable and logical exercise involving the clinical application of basic principles of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. One of the goals in developing this manual is to convince the reader of the truth of this perspective. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/applied-human-neuroanatomy Table of contents 1. Sensory Systems 2. Motor Systems 3. Reflexes 4. Cranial Nerves 5. Mental Status 6. Answer Key About the authors
Michael F. Nolan is professor of Basic Science Education at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke. He received his Physical Therapy training at Marquette University and his PhD in Human Anatomy from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Nolan spent the first 34 years of his career teaching gross anatomy and neuroanatomy to medical students and resident physicians at the University of South Florida. He has received more than 20 awards for excellence in teaching including the Master Teacher Award in 2014 from the International Association of Medical Science Educators and the John M. Thompson Outstanding Teacher Award in Neurosurgery in 2006. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters as well as four textbooks in human gross anatomy and neuroanatomy. John P. McNamara is the Director of Anatomy and Assistant Professor of Basic Science Education at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke. His doctoral training is in chiropractic from Life University (Marietta, GA) with undergraduate (Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania) and graduate (Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania) degrees. He is also ABD from Virginia Tech in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. For nearly the past 30 years, McNamara has maintained a private practice in Salem, VA, and taught full-time anatomy and physiology, gross anatomy, neuroanatomy, and pathophysiology at the College of Health Sciences (Jefferson College) in Roanoke. From 2013 to 2017 he taught the gross anatomy course for the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Radford University in Roanoke. He is licensed to practice as a Doctor of Chiropractic in both Virginia and Pennsylvania, and he is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in Virginia.
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