Open@VT

Resources for Formal and Non-Formal Middle School Educators

The  Virginia Tech Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture (CAIA)  is pleased to announce the release of The Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection intended for middle-school level educators in formal and non-formal educational settings. 

Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging field that focuses on creating security measures for digital aspects of our food and agriculture systems, creating a structure and opportunity for a safe food system that can meet the large needs of a growing population and world. 

This collection of 30 documents includes customizable resources designed for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth.  Three types of materials are included in the collection: 

• – Reference materials for facilitators to introduce key concepts
• – Youth-facing fact sheets present these concepts at a 6th grade level 
• – Hands-on activities integrate agriculture and cyberbiosecurity concepts Continue reading

The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of a new open textbook,  Epidemiology.

Epidemiology is a 156-page openly-licensed text by Charlotte Baker DrPH, MPH, CPH designed for medical degree–seeking clinical students without a prior background in public health. Using sports medicine and injury prevention examples and applications, it aims to provide students with the basics of epidemiology terms and concepts and is intended to guide medical school students as they prepare for the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination) Step 1 Exam and to transition from student to clinician. 

• – It includes an introduction to general concepts and terminology of epidemiology, study designs and their relationship to clinical questions, and the use of epidemiology in clinical diagnosis and screening of disease. 
• – Concluding sections of the book present sources of errors in epidemiologic studies, including bias, confounding, and effect modification. 
• – The book is notable for its use of accessible, inclusive figures and examples, and end-of-chapter study guides that summarize the chapter visually.  Continue reading

The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of an openly-licensed, revised first edition of Radio Systems Engineering by Steven W. Ellingson.

Radio Systems Engineering, Revised First Edition https://doi.org/10.21061/radiosystemsengineering-revised1st is lightly updated from the version published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press (ISBN 9781107068285). While Cambridge retains rights to continue to sell and license their print and electronic versions, Cambridge has granted the author enough rights to update and release the book freely under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial International License (CC BY NC 4.0). 

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The Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech is pleased to announce the release of a new open textbook, The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning.

The Art and Science of Teaching Agriculture: Four Keys to Dynamic Learning is a 240-page methods-of-teaching book. Specifically, it is a collection of thoughts, best practices, strategies, and techniques for planning, delivering, and assessing teaching and learning. This resource is assembled from among the best teaching professors in agricultural communication, education, and leadership in America. The authors offer the opportunity to build confidence in planning, delivering, and assessing the depths of the variables inherent in learning for secondary and postsecondary educators in both formal and nonformal educational environments.

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As Open Access Week approaches, it’s time to check in on the percentage of open access scholarship at Virginia Tech, and compare it to last year’s data. Our OA percentage improved from about 50% to 55%, and although our peers are improving too, the increase was enough to move up slightly in comparison to our SCHEV peers as well as Virginia universities. However, in the global rankings, Virginia Tech fell further behind.

The four data sources used for OA percentage are CWTS Leiden Ranking, COKI (both openly available), SciVal/Scopus, and Dimensions (both proprietary).  All cover the years 2018-2021, except for COKI, which is 2021 only.  Virginia Tech’s percentage of open access articles was highest in COKI (59%) and lowest in SciVal (50%).  Results from the four data sources were entered into a spreadsheet to show how Virginia Tech compares to its 25 SCHEV peers, as well as to other Virginia universities.

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