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OER & ZTC: Open Educational Resources & Zero-Textbook Cost Classes

A guide for faculty about OER & ZTC at El Camino College.

Textbooks

 A Foundation Course in Reading German by Alan Ng (2017): University of Wisconsin - Madison.

This textbook guides a learner who has no previous German experience to gain the ability to accurately understand formal written German prose, aided only by a comprehensive dictionary. Students are assumed to have no previous German experience, but thorough competence in English grammar and syntax. Students will also need access to a comprehensive, full-sized German-English dictionary to succeed with this material. Students in University of Wisconsin German 391 typically need a dictionary equivalent to the Oxford-Duden German Dictionary.


 Deutsch im Blick by Zsuzsanna Abrams (2017): University of Texas

This textbook includes all 10 chapters of Deutsch im Blick. It accompanies http://coerll.utexas.edu/dib/, the web-based first-year German program developed and in use at the University of Texas since 2008, and its companion site, Grimm Grammar. Deutsch im Blick is an open access site with free and open multimedia resources, which requires neither password nor fees.

Deutsch im Blick has been funded and created by Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services at the University of Texas, and is currently supported by COERLL, the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning UT-Austin, and the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE Grant P116B070251 & P116Y090057) as an example of the open access initiative.

Courses

German I (MIT OpenCourseWare)

This course gives an introduction to German language and culture. The focus is on acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. Audio, video, and printed materials provide direct exposure to authentic German language and culture. A self-paced language lab program is fully coordinated with the textbook/workbook. The first semester covers the development of effective basic communication skills.

German II (MIT OpenCourseWare)

In this course students are exposed to history and culture of German-speaking countries through audio, video, and Web materials. It focuses on the expansion of basic communication skills and further development of linguistic competency, and includes the review and completion of basic grammar, building of vocabulary, and practice in writing short essays. Students will also read short literary texts.

Additional Resources

German: Foreign Languages & the Literary in the Everyday (FLLITE.org)

Free German Courses (OpenLearn)

G-FOL German Frame-semantic Online Lexicon (University of Texas)

German Materials (COERLL)

Grimm Grammar (University of Texas)

Introducing German (University of Texas)