New Online Portal for Evaluating Textbooks
A new online portal where faculty can review and evaluate textbooks for possible adoption launched today. The Akademos Textbook Adoption Tool enables faculty to access and compare textbooks across 3,600 subjects and 2 million books, according to a statement released today by the company.
Akademos's new portal allows users to search for courses and view textbook options (by school adoption). The library includes print and digital textbooks as well as Open Educational Resource (OER) materials. Users can also track textbooks with the portal's "follow" option.
The textbook portal also features peer reviews from faculty. “Professors and instructors seek an unbiased way to assess textbook quality and fit, thus professor reviews of textbooks and ancillary materials they have used are key,” said John Squires, CEO of Akademos. “Faculty feedback also suggests that discovering more affordable textbooks is a challenge because non-commercial materials such as OER texts are difficult to find and compare. What we think professors really want to know is, ‘How do I find the highest quality textbook with the best affordability, which fits my coursework and my students’ needs?’”
Faculty can access and use the new textbook portal at no charge. For more information, visit the Akademos Web site.
About the Author
Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].