PanOpen

PanOpen publishes both a MacroEconomics and MicroEconomics text based on the OpenStax Principles of Microeconomics and Principles of Macroeconomics texts.

URL:  https://www.panopen.com/ Links to an external site.

1.  At the beginning of each chapter there is a chapter outline that gives a student the key topics that will be covered …  essential questions that a student ought to be able to answer after reading that chapter … and chapter learning objectives that show key themes that a student ought to be able to write a short essay about. ….   At the beginning of each section within a chapter there will be section learning objectives and at various places there will be short quizzes and tests that are called  Check Your Understanding. …  At the end of each chapter there is a set of flash cards … a multiple-choice quiz … a fill in the blank quiz … and a Powerpoint show dealing with key images and notes from the chapter.

2.  There are also tools that allow you to see how much time students have spent reading the digital text as well as a calendar of due dates and grades that can be integrated with Canvas.  I have not used any of these as I find that Canvas works just fine.

3.  Faculty Support

There is a chat room with timely support, panOpen representatives are available to assist inserted documents and ensuring ADA compliance.

4.  Annotated Notations

Faculty have the ability to type notes at the side of the text in a chapter that can only be seen by them or, by students, if the faculty prefer.  In the former case, faculty might want to change something about what the authors have written or use it in one of the discussion forums without the students' knowledge the notes are marked as private.  However, notes can also be made public so that faculty can provide a different perspective on what the authors have written or I might want to alert them to a video that PBS has broadcast on the subject.

5. Insertion of documents & slide shows

Faculty may assign secondary documents and insert these docs and slide shows directly into the text so that students can do all the assigned readings without leaving the text.  PanOpen makes these docs look like they were part of the original text.