Getting Textbooks to Zero Student Cost: ZTC and OER

This is based on Michael Ritter's “The Physical Environment: An Introduction to Physical Geography" and was adapted with his support.

This textbook was designed especially for College of the Canyons students, as a resource to instill the knowledge and adventure that the discipline of geography holds for so many of us. The following units will cover a wide array of topics such as: Earth’s grid system, rivers, oceans, deserts, basic geology, and cartography.

This lab manual is a cross-institutional project from British Columbia (BC), Canada that provides 24 labs to be implemented within first year post-secondary physical geography courses. The labs have been developed to be easily adapted for various course structures, durations, and differing laboratory learning objectives set out by instructors. Instructor notes are available for each lab that outline the instructional intent of the lab author, along with some suggestions for modifications.

The Physical Geography Lab Manual was supported in part by the Academic Senate for California Community College's Open Educational Resources Initiative.

Digital Cartography covers foundational cartographic principles that are needed to make effective maps. lt explores such concepts as data, lettering, along with multivariate and uncertainty visualization. By the end of this book, a reader will be able to: (1) Describe how cartographic concepts such generalization, scale and projection will affect mapping products; (2) Identify the medium, purpose, and spatial data requirements to create a map that is appropriate to a specific audience; (3) Evaluate maps produced by peers and various organizations; and (4) Construct maps that effectively use color, font, and other design elements using ArcGIS Pro.