Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed
Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres · Kwantlen Polytechnic University · 2018
Welcome to university! Whether this is your first time in post-secondary education, or whether you are returning to studies, you’re arriving with some goals you want to achieve. Perhaps you are taking a focused program to lead you into your desired career. Perhaps you are exploring courses in different areas, providing a foundation for future specialization. Wherever you are in your journey, you find yourself in a learning environment that is different from one you have experienced before. A good foundation for university is learning how to learn. By taking the time to read this book and work through the exercises included, you are investing in the skills that will support you in all of your classes and future learning. Successful students share a set of skills and habits in common. The good news is that these skills are not a secret; anyone can learn the skills that support successful learning. By taking some time to learn proven study strategies, you will be able to reach your learning goals, and avoid the pitfalls that can take you off-track. Who is this book for? This book focuses on the skills you’ll need to be successful in undergraduate courses or other adult education classes. If you are: new to university studies returning to university after some time away a mature student an international student or a continuing student who wants to improve their current skills and strategies this book is meant to support you in your journey.
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Noteworthy: Reading Strategies in Practice
Rebecca Campbell · University of Arizona Global Campus · 2025
Noteworthy: Reading Strategies in Practice introduces students to skills and strategies for college reading. This reader-style textbook contains excerpts from several texts that serve as both explorations of reading strategies and opportunities for students to practice using those strategies. Original chapter features, including introductions and Tip! boxes, present new topics and guide students as they engage with each reading.
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College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success
Barbara Hall; Elizabeth Wallace · University System of Georgia · 2018
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success is designed as a comprehensive grammar and writing etext for high intermediate and advanced level non-native speakers of English. We open the text with a discussion on the sentence and then break it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences with paragraphs and larger academic assignments. Following that, we provide instruction in paragraph and essay writing with several opportunities to both review the fundamentals as well as to demonstrate mastery and move on to more challenging assignments.We have structured the etext into three basic parts. Part I, Composing Strategies and Techniques, includes a sequenced discussion from composing effective sentences through paragraph and essay writing. This includes the prewriting and planning stages of writing as well as the revising and editing stage in the first five chapters. Part II, Language Use, Grammar, and Mechanics, is meant to be used as a grammar and mechanics handbook as well as the practice and review of idiomatic wording. Part III, All About Writing: Samples, Topics, and Rubrics, has chapters with additional writing topics for practice, sample student papers, and rubrics for evaluating writing.
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Strategies for Conducting Literary Research
Barry Mauer; John Venecek · University of Central Florida · 2022
This book, built in PressBooks with financial support from the UCF Digital Learning Course Redesign Initiative, contains 14 chapters, each of which contains two to six pages about the process of literary research. Pages contain learning objectives, infographics, videos, examples, key takeaways, and exercises. The course contains numerous discussion areas and quizzes. It also contains a “Foundational Materials” assignment that provides a platform for student success with whatever research project their instructor assigns. The book is highly flexible and instructors may use all or any part of the book within their own webcourse.
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The STEM Advantage: Career Planning and Internship Strategies for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Postgraduate Students
Ben Archer · James Cook University · 2025
This comprehensive guide bridges the gap between academic learning and professional application, offering a structured framework developed through experiences of students successfully completing their internship programs. Educators and students alike will benefit from practical methodologies that transform theoretical knowledge into workplace readiness, with strategic guidance for creating personalised career trajectories and maximising internship experiences.
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A Handbook of Higher Education Leadership
Ed Ray · Oregon State University · 2024
Thirty-five experienced and accomplished higher education leaders have come together to provide twenty-five essays on twelve topics about which all leaders, aspiring leaders and students of higher education should be informed. This is a labor of love, provided for free electronically, and there are no star turns here. Each essay is focused on providing the reader with advice based on wisdom acquired from lessons learned. Some topics covered include: beginning and completing a leadership position, responding to authority, establishing accountability, budget policy, long-term planning, affordability and student success, creating a safe community, fundraising, research funding, college athletics, and crisis management.
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Digital Circuit Projects: An Overview of Digital Circuits Through Implementing Integrated Circuits
Charles Kann · Gettysburg College · 2014
Digital circuits, often called Integrated Circuits or ICs, are the central building blocks of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). To understand how a computer works, it is essential to understand the digital circuits which make up the CPU. This text introduces the most important of these digital circuits; adders, decoders, multiplexers, D flip-flops, and simple state machines. What makes this textbook unique is that it puts the ability to understand these circuits into the hands of anyone, from hobbyists to students studying Computer Science. This text is designed to teach digital circuits using simple projects the reader can implement. But unlike most lab manuals used in classes in Digital Circuits or Computer Organization classes, this textbook is designed to remove the barrier of a laboratory infrastructure needed in a face-to-face environment at a college or university. This textbook is designed to be used by the reader to create the circuits in their own homes. The textbook is free. The cost of the kits needed to do the labs is reasonable. And the projects are well documented and can be implemented by even novices to electronic projects. This text allows professors to add laboratory projects in digital circuits to students in online classes in Computer Organization. This enhances these classes with interesting and fun exercises that reinforce the classroom topics. This text can also be used by a hobbyist who wants to learn more about digital circuits and how computers work. The material is presented at a level that someone with no experience in digital circuits and electronics can successfully complete the projects, and gain an understanding of the circuits which go into making up a computer.
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Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach
Lori Anderson; Dirk Buengel; Joseph Simpson · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2025
Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach is intended for students in undergraduate business programs taking a course in strategic management. Because strategic management synthesizes many business topics and takes a holistic view of business, strategic management courses are often senior-level capstone courses. Most undergraduate business school students begin their business education with a broad introductory business course and then concentrate on courses in their major. Then they return to a broader lens of business to cap off their business education at a higher-level of learning. This textbook supports this level of comprehensive learning. If used with a senior-level capstone course, this textbook supports seniors to synthesize their business education through the lens of strategic management and helps them understand how businesses become successful by leveraging their competitive advantage. This textbook integrates strategic management and case analysis, with cases linked from an open access collection of business strategy cases, RMIT Strategic Management Case Studies. Students will get the most out of this textbook if it is used with cases that students analyze. Strategic Management and Case Analysis: An Integrated Approach, integrates strategic management as a research-led field of study and practice-informed area of business practice with an experiential learning approach to conducting a case analysis. The book explains how strategic leaders and managers analyze their firm’s organizational performance, and external and internal environments; formulate corporate level and business level strategy, and innovation, sustainability and ethics, technology, and multinational strategy, which are embedded in business level strategies; and implement strategy across an organization. Students are in an active and engaged role with the subject and practice of strategic management as they apply the theories, concepts, and analytical frameworks and t
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Introduction to Business
Lawrence Gitman; Carl McDaniel; Amit Shah; Monique Reece · OpenStax · 2026
Introduction to Business 2e provides a strong, multidimensional foundation in the concepts, skills, and real-world examples of contemporary business. Welcoming and relevant narratives support students as they engage in core themes such as decision making, ethics, customer satisfaction, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing technological and societal changes. The material includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations. Extensive illustrations, case studies, review materials, and assessments offer instructors and learners the tools needed to develop a deep, practical understanding. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for success in further studies and careers. The Second Edition was written with extensive input from faculty, industry experts, and students. Revisions focus on currency, emerging technologies, changing business practices, and evolving legal and ethical dynamics. The authors emphasize course-wide themes, including the impacts and implications of artificial intelligence, the changing nature of the workplace, and new approaches to team dynamics. A detailed transition guide is available in the instructor resources.
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The Path to Funding: The Artist’s Guide to Building Your Audience, Generating Income, and Realizing Career Sustainability
Zane Forshee; Christina Manceor; Robin McGinness · The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University · 2022
Based on coursework developed at Peabody Conservatory, this book breaks down the process of developing an artist mission statement, generating new ideas for creative projects, and creating an engaging project description. It also covers methods for artists to identify their audience, generate a comprehensive project budget, collect compelling work samples, and identify potential funders to support their creative work. Written by a team of active artists and educators, this resource provides creatives with tools and strategies to communicate passionately and effectively about their work and take control of their financial and artistic future.
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Business Writing Style Guide
John Morris; Julie Zwart · Oregon State University · 2020
It is the goal of this book to help students do the following:• Apply basic concepts for effective and concise business writing.• Compile a well written report acceptable within a business context.• Follow a writing process designed for business students.• Demonstrate critical thinking, reasoning, and persuasion.• Communicate in writing using a business model.• Apply resources for improving business writing skills.
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Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order
Jeffrey Russell; Wayne Pferdehirt; John Nelson; Brian Price · University of Wisconsin - Madison · 2018
The Technical Project Management class is designed to help students build on their past experiences and develop effective strategies for managing complex technical projects, with an emphasis on applying project management concepts to real-world problems. In the weekly web conferences, the class comes together in community to discuss the lesson topics, considering the practical applications of the concepts in each subject area.
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Human Relations
Laura Dias · LibreTexts · 2012
Human Relations by Laura Portolese-Dias addresses all of the critical topics to obtain career success as they relate to professional relationships. Knowing how to get along with others, resolve workplace conflict, manage relationships, communicate well, and make good decisions are all critical skills all students need to succeed in career and in life. Human Relations is not an organizational behavior; rather, it provides a good baseline of issues students will deal with in their careers on a day-to-day basis. It is also not a professional communications, business English, or professionalism textbook, as its focus is much broader — on general career success and how to effectively maneuver in the workplace. From communication challenges to focusing on one's own emotional intelligence, the examples throughout Human Relations will help students understand the importance of the human side in their career. This book's easy-to-understand language and tone is written to convey practical information in an engaging way. Every chapter opens with a realistic example which introduces a concept to be explained in detail later. Each chapter contains relevant examples, YouTube videos, figures, learning objectives, key takeaways, exercises, and a chapter-ending case that offer different ways to promote learning. Many of the end-of-section exercises offer self-assessment quizzes, so students may engage in self-understanding and development.
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Technical and Professional Writing Genres: A Study in Theory and Practice
Eric Howerton; Michael Beilfuss; Katrina Peterson; Staci Bettes · Oklahoma State University · 2019
This modern, open-source guide to technical and professional writing explores workplace composition through theoretical and practical applications. Discussions of multiple writing genres will assist you in understanding how to apply for jobs, how to compose clear and precise business communications once the job has been acquired, and how to create documents -- such as proposals and reports -- that will be instrumental in helping to advance your career.
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Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand relating to real estate (an especially important business asset), as well as estate planning and insurance. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to property rights and duties, estate planning, insurance, secured transactions, mortgages, and related topics. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need when working with these concepts, which are critical to business planning and success.
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Corporate Governance
Cornelis de Kluyver · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Corporate Governance by de Kluyver is a primer on corporate governance. It is designed to help students understand corporate governance by looking at the subject from both a macro- and micro-perspective. Historical data and examples including the recent scandals that have torn the fabric of capitalism pave a pathway to the principal challenges facing today's corporate boards, and how to successfully manage them. Topics Include: Clear coverage on why proper corporate governance has become a moral imperative and how to corporations achieve it. Discussions on recent governance reforms in the United States. Outlines of the roles that each individual in the corporate governance process must take on and how to effectively execute on those roles. Exploration on the future of corporate governance in the epilogue Take some time to review Corporate Governance by de Kluyver to see if it is a good fit for your strategy courses.
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Strategic Management
Kennedy Reed · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2020
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT offers an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The authors draw on examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today’s firms—and how they go about implementing those strategies. Students will learn how to conduct a case analysis, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses. In short, they will understand how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. An older version of Mastering Strategic Management (2015) by University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing can be found here: https://open.lib.umn.edu/strategicmanagement/
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Business English for Success
Scott McLean · Saylor Foundation · 2011
Business English for Success is a creative solution to a common challenge across Business Communication courses: Business English or Business Presentations? Some classes place an equal emphasis on oral and written communication. If that's the case for you check out our text Business Communication for Success. If, however, your class places the emphasis squarely on written communication and writing proficiency, then Business English for Success is for you. Business English for Success provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. This step-by-step approach provides a clear path to student-centered learning. A wide range of writing levels and abilities are addressed, helping each student prepare for the next writing or university course. The text opens with a discussion on the sentence and then breaks it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences, paragraphs, and larger assignments. Then, starting in Chapter 9: Effective Business Writing, the discussion applies lessons learned from the previous foundational chapters into common business issues and applications. From paraphrasing and plagiarism to style to the research process, the expectations increase as several common business documents are presented, including text messages and e-mail, memorandums and letters, the business proposal, business report, resume, and the sales message. This textbook has been used in classes at:Arizona Western College, Hostos Community College, Virginia State University, Truckee Meadows Community College, San Jose State University, Concordia University - Irvine, University New Brunswick - Fredericton, Cerritos College, University of Houston - Downtown, Flat World Knowledge University, A-C Central High School, University of The People, Truckee Meadows Community College, Danville Community High School
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The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business
Terence Lau; Lisa Johnson · Saylor Foundation · 2011
Terence Lau & Lisa Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a book for today's student, who expects learning to be comprised not only of substance, but also of interactive exercises and multimedia. This book streamlines the presentation of material to ensure that every page is relevant, engaging, and interesting to undergraduate business students, without losing the depth of coverage that they need to be successful in their academic journeys and in their professional careers. This is not Legal Environment of Business (LEB) ”light.“ Rather, this is LEB without risk of students' eyes glazing over in boredom or from lack of comprehension. This is LEB presented in an exciting way, where every page is interesting to students and relevant to real life. The authors recognize that the sheer volume of information to be covered in a LEB course makes it one of the more challenging courses for the business undergraduate. Not only do typical LEB texts read like the first year curriculum at law school, but also the LEB course is grounded in the humanities, which can make the subject even more demanding for students who are also taking statistics, economics, finance, and accounting. Each chapter contains not only substantive law, but also illustrative videos, interactive exercises for hands-on learning, and discussion questions for critical thought. Additionally, each chapter presents ”A Question of Ethics“ section, which contains real world ethical dilemmas relevant to the topic under study. These videos, exercises, discussion questions, and ethics sections all provide opportunities for students to apply concepts that they are learning in the context of relevant LEB topics that shape or restrain actual decision-makers' actions. It's real world practice in the safety of the classroom environment. Lau & Johnson's The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business is a textbook that students will enjoy reading. This will encourage them to come to class prepared, and fre
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Project Management from Simple to Complex
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing · 2016
In a world that is becoming more virtual, more global, and more complex, the project manager's ability to function in this environment becomes critical to the success of the project. Project Management from Simple to Complex explores project management within this complex, virtual, and global environment. This is not a standard textbook that was adapted to the new publishing paradigm; it was designed from the beginning to utilize its capabilities. The book is written in collaboration by an expert in Project Management and an expert in writing instructional textbooks and using technology for communicating online to create a unique learning environment that prepares students to manage projects in a global, multicultural, and online environment. Project Management from Simple to Complex features a new model for managing projects, as well as, exploration into the personal dynamics of project management and the role those dynamics play in project outcomes.