FREE ON-LINE VIGNETTES SUPPLEMENT NEW GEOMORPHOLOGY TEXTBOOK AND ALLOW COURSE CUSTOMIZATION

Vignettes are a new way to customize modern textbooks by adding on-line regional and topical case studies to a traditional printed text. A community of international geomorphologists has contributed Vignettes to a free on-line repository (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/geomorph/vignettes.html or http://serc.carleton.edu/vignettes) for use with the new Key Concepts in Geomorphology textbook—a shortened text focusing on “core concepts.” Vignettes provide detailed examples, case studies, quantitative derivations, and regional context otherwise not included in a shorter text of core, key concepts.

Professors may customize their courses by assigning specific Vignettes to accompany textbook readings or course curricula. Students may find a wealth of geomorphic examples on-line in a free, searchable repository. Although the Vignettes are being created for use with Key Concepts in Geomorphology, the collection stands alone and may be freely used as an open-source educational resource. Vignettes are peer-reviewed by academic geomorphologists at scientific meetings worldwide (EGU, GSA, AGU, special Australia session). The Vignettes collection is a growing resource with 49 submissions as of July 2009.

In general, the creation of Vignettes is part of a new model of textbook creation (http://www.uvm.edu/~geomorph/textbook/), funded in part by the National Science Foundation. The new model includes writing a condensed “key-concept” textbook (outlined from large community input), creating a stand-alone, free, on-line Vignettes collection of supplemental textbook material, creating a free geomorphology image gallery (http://www.uvm.edu/~geomorph/gallery), and using a “concept sketch” approach to textbook figure creation (Reusser et al., this meeting).