[HN Gopher] Mathematics for the Liberal Arts (2020)
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       Mathematics for the Liberal Arts (2020)
        
       Author : rfreytag
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2021-02-05 14:51 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (courses.lumenlearning.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (courses.lumenlearning.com)
        
       | curiousllama wrote:
       | I wrote out a snarky response to the implication that math isn't
       | part of liberal arts, but then looked again at the link...
       | 
       | This is actually a great course: it's math _as_ a liberal art.
       | Great course; odd title.
        
       | a3n wrote:
       | I notice that the open book that this course is based on was
       | developed with some relationship to the Washington State
       | community college system.
       | 
       | I wonder if community college systems could save us from the
       | tyranny of expensive commercial text books and their vicious
       | cycle of edition after edition, causing perfectly good used books
       | to not be "relevant" for next year's class.
       | 
       | University professors are probably more incentivised to develop
       | expensive traditionally published textbooks, both to keep up
       | their prestige, and to trade on that prestige.
       | 
       | Community college teachers probably have less natural prestige,
       | and may thereby be more free to focus on student needs than their
       | own.
       | 
       | In any case, I've started reading through this course, and it's
       | fabulous.
       | 
       | https://lumenlearning.com/
        
         | dan-robertson wrote:
         | Are expensive commercial textbooks an American thing or does it
         | just depend on the university? I studied in the U.K. and I
         | think we weren't meant to be examined on things that weren't
         | either on the blackboard or in homework. A few lecturers had
         | written their own books but they weren't super expensive and no
         | one bought them because the libraries had them and the material
         | went on the blackboard anyway. I also feel like my professors
         | wouldn't want to teach a course that required an expensive
         | textbook for moral reason, but maybe that's just me thinking
         | too highly of them.
        
           | avogato wrote:
           | Expensive textbooks are the norm. Even worse, it's common now
           | to package the book with a key for some online quiz service.
           | You have to buy the brand new $100-200 book to get a valid
           | key, so you can't try to get by with an old edition or share
           | books.
        
             | enriquto wrote:
             | This is really shitty. How do students put up with that?
        
           | a3n wrote:
           | Expensive commercial anything is an American thing.
           | Textbooks. Education in general. Medical care. Rent vs
           | income.
        
         | waterheater wrote:
         | Depends entirely on the professor. Some professors develop
         | their own textbooks and release them for free.
         | 
         | https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/
        
       | snicker7 wrote:
       | Mathematics IS a liberal art!
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-07 23:01 UTC)