[Ecommerce] Slashdot: Textbooks online

[Cem Kaner]

www.testingeducation.org is a similar project in spirit. I am the
author of the best selling book in software testing. My lab is
developing course notes, video lectures, articles (which we'll use
instead of chapters), exercises and exam questions. Several other
leading teachers have donated lecture notes and are assisting us in the
writing. All of this goes on the web, available at no charge. The
rationale is:

(a)	In a field changing this rapidly, printed textbooks are too static.
They need rapid update as we learn.

(b)	Many universities are just developing their courses in software
testing. This sets a baseline level of quality for course-support
materials from other authors and commercial publishers.

(c)	For students stuck in courses that use outdated materials, this
gives students a modern set of supplementary readings and lectures.

(d)	The field is international;  our goal is to influence practice
around the world.

(e)	Many people practicing in the field, in the U.S. and elsewhere,
have no access to university courses in the subject. This helps
practitioners catch up, rather than becoming obsolete over time or
uncompetitive in comparison to recent graduates.

We're just another example of a trend.

Cem Kaner
Director of the Center for Software Testing Education & Research,
Florida Institute of Technology

On May 10, 2004, at 9:57 AM, Manon Ress wrote:

> Slashdot:
>
> Posted by timothy on Sunday May 09, @06:22AM
> from the visit-manila-for-M1T-diploma dept.
>
> An anonymous reader writes " The (sci-tech) Library Question is
> reporting, "The third edition of A Heat Transfer Textbook, written by
> John H Lienhard V (MIT) and John H Lienhard IV (U Houston), has been
> made available on the web. The book is an introduction to heat
> transfer,
> geared towards engineering students. It may be downloaded free of
> charge. The authors explain: We are placing a mechanical engineering
> textbook into an electronic format for worldwide, no-charge
> distribution. The aim of this effort is to explore the possibilities of
> placing textbooks online -- effectively giving them away. Two potential
> benefits should accrue from doing this. First, in electronic format,
> textbooks can be continually corrected and updated, without the delays
> inherent in printed books (second and later editions are typically
> published on a five-year cycle). Second, free textbooks hold the
> potential for fundamentally altering the economics of higher education,
> particularly in those environments where money is scarce."
>
> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/09/0313254
>
> --
> Manon Anne Ress
> Consumer Project on Technology
> www.cptech.org
> PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
> manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ecommerce mailing list
> Ecommerce@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ecommerce
>
>
Cem Kaner, Professor of Software Engineering
Director, Center for Software Testing Education & Research
Florida Institute of Technology, 150 West University Blvd., Melbourne,
FL 32901.
http://www.kaner.com, http://www.testingeducation.org,
http://www.badsoftware.com
Senior author of
	Lessons Learned in Software Testing
	Testing Computer Software, and
	Bad Software: What to Do When Software Fails.