August Splash

August 1st, 2011

This past week we released the brand new First Edition of OpenIntro Statistics (with 8 chapters, also available on Amazon), a completely new website, and free online course management software.

The Preliminary Edition of OpenIntro Statistics was used in three unique courses at two separate universities during the 2010-2011 academic year, and we're on track to reach even more students this year. In support of the project, we've released the First Edition, which weighs in at 370 pages and costs $9.02 on Amazon (39% increase in content). The PDF remains free under a Creative Commons license (see Rights), and we'll be releasing the book's source later this week on the Statistics Downloads page.

OpenIntro Statistics includes new material in each of the seven original chapters, plus a completely new chapter on multiple regression and one-way ANOVA (developed in May and June). The text and exercises continue to grow in quantity and quality. We're excited to offer this textbook as a free download and at a zero-profit price through Amazon. We're very grateful to several people who provided valuable feedback during the final months of development and revision: Andrew Bray, Dalene Stangl, Dave Harrington, Jan de Leeuw, Kevin Rader, Philippe Rigollet, and Rob Gould.

We've timed the development of the new website to coincide with the First Edition of OpenIntro Statistics, and our new web presence represents the professional quality expected of OpenIntro. This 2.0 version of the website was designed by Meenal Patel, our team's graphic designer, and it offers much greater structure for public content. Importantly, we now also offer a new private section that includes online course management software. User accounts are free for teachers, students, and anyone else interested.

Teachers can manage a course and its content through the website using an efficient and powerful interface on their personal homepage. A teacher can create Quizzes, Assignments, Labs*, and Links by filling out a short form, and then distribute those elements to student homepages with just a couple mouse clicks. To create Quizzes and Assignments, teachers select questions from our large and fast-growing Question Bank, or teachers can create and use their own questions from their Private Question Bank.

It has been a fantastic year for OpenIntro development. All online content remains free, and paperback copies of OpenIntro Statistics are incredibly affordable. As we grow, we'll continue to develop open source and free tools that meet the highest standards.

* Lab uploading privileges are currently restricted to verified teachers, but verification is simple and free.