Mostly Harmless Statistics
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Go Fund Me - Mostly Harmless Statistics Textbook
Rachel L. Webb is a Senior Instructor II in the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Portland State University. In addition to teaching statistics, Rachel is the statistics dual credit coordinator for the PSU Challenge Program, Math Computer Lab Manager, winner of the 2018 PSU John Elliott Allen Outstanding Teaching Award, and winner of the 2018 OLC Digital Learning Innovation Award. Rachel received her B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Statistics from PSU. Rachel has been using an active classroom environment for the past 10 years, incorporating group work, technology, simulations and activities into the curriculum.
Rachel strives to provide low or no cost materials to students. Rachel started compiling her lecture notes and combined other open source material to create a free introductory statistics textbook to her students. Rachel received a grant from the PSU Library to help publish the text called Mostly Harmless Statistics. The rough draft of the text is now over 500 pages with hundreds of illustrations and thousands of formulas.
Mostly Harmless Statistics makes a conscious effort to get rid of binary gender and sexist references that are riddled in traditional statistics textbooks. The text uses technology and has no references to “old school” probability tables. The text is written in a conversational style so that student’s can actually follow along as if they were in a lecture. In addition to the free textbook, the goal is to have an abbreviated version of the text geared towards a one quarter (vs two semesters) format, Instructor’s Solution Manual, Detailed Student’s Solution Manual, MyOpenMath online template course with a variety of free supplemental resources, including videos and algorithmic homework problems. The textbook will be available for at cost print on demand, or free as a .pdf, .mobi, or .epub format for phones, tablets or computer use.
So far, the grant money has covered payments for reviewers, definition checks, additional homework problems, and alternative text for images for screen reader accessibility. Last week the bid from Scribe came in way over the expected cost for the copy editing, production design and typesetting, exceeding the available grant money for the project. In addition to the editing, there are thousands of formulas that need alternative text for screen readers to make the text 100% accessible to visually impaired students. The rough draft is ready for the editor as soon as funds are available. Auxiliary materials will be added after editing costs are met. Please help with the continuation of this project and get a quality textbook in to the hands of students for free.
Approximate Project Costs:
Alt Text Formula Conversion $4,000
Comprehensive Editor $4,000
Scribe Editorial (medium copyedit): $12,000
Scribe Production (design, typesetting): $5,000
Scribe Admin: $500
Solution Manuals $2500
MyOpenMath Course $2000
Total: $30,000
Thank you so much for your time and support.
Rachel L. Webb is a Senior Instructor II in the Mathematics and Statistics Department at Portland State University. In addition to teaching statistics, Rachel is the statistics dual credit coordinator for the PSU Challenge Program, Math Computer Lab Manager, winner of the 2018 PSU John Elliott Allen Outstanding Teaching Award, and winner of the 2018 OLC Digital Learning Innovation Award. Rachel received her B.S. in Mathematics and M.S. in Statistics from PSU. Rachel has been using an active classroom environment for the past 10 years, incorporating group work, technology, simulations and activities into the curriculum.
Rachel strives to provide low or no cost materials to students. Rachel started compiling her lecture notes and combined other open source material to create a free introductory statistics textbook to her students. Rachel received a grant from the PSU Library to help publish the text called Mostly Harmless Statistics. The rough draft of the text is now over 500 pages with hundreds of illustrations and thousands of formulas.
Mostly Harmless Statistics makes a conscious effort to get rid of binary gender and sexist references that are riddled in traditional statistics textbooks. The text uses technology and has no references to “old school” probability tables. The text is written in a conversational style so that student’s can actually follow along as if they were in a lecture. In addition to the free textbook, the goal is to have an abbreviated version of the text geared towards a one quarter (vs two semesters) format, Instructor’s Solution Manual, Detailed Student’s Solution Manual, MyOpenMath online template course with a variety of free supplemental resources, including videos and algorithmic homework problems. The textbook will be available for at cost print on demand, or free as a .pdf, .mobi, or .epub format for phones, tablets or computer use.
So far, the grant money has covered payments for reviewers, definition checks, additional homework problems, and alternative text for images for screen reader accessibility. Last week the bid from Scribe came in way over the expected cost for the copy editing, production design and typesetting, exceeding the available grant money for the project. In addition to the editing, there are thousands of formulas that need alternative text for screen readers to make the text 100% accessible to visually impaired students. The rough draft is ready for the editor as soon as funds are available. Auxiliary materials will be added after editing costs are met. Please help with the continuation of this project and get a quality textbook in to the hands of students for free.
Approximate Project Costs:
Alt Text Formula Conversion $4,000
Comprehensive Editor $4,000
Scribe Editorial (medium copyedit): $12,000
Scribe Production (design, typesetting): $5,000
Scribe Admin: $500
Solution Manuals $2500
MyOpenMath Course $2000
Total: $30,000
Thank you so much for your time and support.
Organizer
Rachel Webb
Organizer
Portland, OR