What a Difference 30 Years Makes!Adventures in Mathematics Textbook Publishing
Ken LevasseurMathematical Sciences
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Google: Applied Discrete Structures
Applied Discrete Structures for Computer Science
by Al Doerr and Ken Levasseur
• 1st Edition, 1984• SRA
2nd Edition, 1989
SRA Macmillan
• 1st Edition: written on a Wang Word Processor• 2nd Edition: OCR of 1st Ed and edited with Word and MathType• SRA : “no TeX”• Features included Pascal and Ada “notes”• No internet or computer algebra system• By 2010: out of print for years, copyright held by Pearson, but it had
been moderately successful while in print.
ContentsAvailable in separately or together in pdf or hard copy (lulu.com)
Part 1• Chapter 1: Set Theory I• Chapter 2: Combinatorics• Chapter 3: Logic• Chapter 4: More on Sets• Chapter 5: Introduction to Matrix Algebra• Chapter 6: Relations and Graphs• Chapter 7: Functions• Chapter 8: Recursion and Recurrence
Relations• Chapter 9: Graph Theory• Chapter 10: Trees
Part 2• Chapter 11: Algebraic Systems• Chapter 12: More Matrix Algebra• Chapter 13: Boolean Algebra• Chapter 14: Monoids and Automata• Chapter 15: Group Theory and
Applications• Chapter 16: An Introduction to Rings
and Fields
Genesis of our current project• Sage Education Day, Cambridge 2009, Rob Beezer and others
talking about open content textbooks.• Al Doerr and I agreed to track down the copyright holder,
Pearson and ask for the rights. They granted it, no questions asked! One condition: Include “Formally published as…” on title page.
• We then decided to solve our students’ $150 textbook problem.
Conversion to Applied Discrete Structures
• Scan pages of 1989 editiono Text: Reasonable accuracyoNotation: Terribleo Figures: Poor
• Import into Mathematica o Lots of editing - some student helpo Replace Pascal and Ada with Mathematica and
Sage.oUpload .nb and .pdf files to wiki.
• Student assistants: first pass, fixing obvious problems
Supplementary Materials
• Original editions: Instructors’ Manual only.• Creative Commons Edition
oWikioVideosoMathematica and Sage Demonstrationso Blog
• Under considerationoWeBWork collection
Getting the word out12 month span – top external sources of hits to our site.• 510 Hits: aimath.org/textbooks/ (American Institute of Mathematics)• 235 Hits: sagemath.org/library-publications.html• 459 Hits: google.com/ (Searchs such as “Applied Discrete Structures”) • 184 Hits: buzzard.ups.edu/courses (Rob Beezer)• 93 Hits: collegeopentextbooks.org• 39 Hits: Merlot.org
Outside Adoptions
Winter/Spring 2014– Grand Valley State University
Fall 2013– Casper College (WY)– UMass Dartmouth– Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania– Wright College (IL) - City Colleges of Chicago– Valencia College (FL)– Whittier College (CA)
Spring 2013– Grinnell College (IA)– Luzurne Community College (PA)– University of the Puget Sound (WA)
Economic Impact: at least $36,500 in 2013
At UMass Lowell
$22,500157 students
Previous Text: $150
Roughly 10% buy the Lulu
version for $30
External Users
$14,000Very conservative estimate based on
partial information from survey on
LimeService.com
Some courses are hidden behind systems like Blackboard
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