Eight TAA Members Awarded TAA Conference Travel Grants

Eight TAA members were awarded travel grants to attend TAA’s Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Nashville June 21-22.

Each grant covers the cost of two nights of hotel and conference registration. The grants were made possible through gifts from several generous donors, including Robert Christopherson, Bruce Edwards, Laura Frost, Thomas Heinzen, Paul Krieger, Kevin Patton, Nilsa Perez-Cabrera, Jamie Pope, Theresa (Terry) A. Thompson, and Ruth Werner, whose gifts were matched 1-1 by Michael Sullivan’s $50,000 matching grant. TAA is grateful for the generosity of these donors in supporting this new program!

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ChatGPT and Me: Adapting to Teaching and Writing in the Age of AI

In my first year as a Department Chair in 1992, I was in a meeting with the other chairs in my school when one of them informed me that he had sent me an email. “Email!” I replied. “What on Earth is an email?” (Those may not have been my exact words, but I did say something to that effect.) I left the meeting thinking I was busy enough and did not need yet another imposition on my time, which something called email seemed like it promised to be. While I was proven right, I think, that email has certainly come to occupy a fair portion of our time (those of a younger generation than mine are wondering, I am sure, what we ever did without it), I was definitely wrong in thinking that I could somehow avoid it and simply refuse to use it (though I know one of my colleagues who took exactly that approach until she sadly passed away a few years ago)

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TAA Featured in New Book on Teaching Research Methods

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association was featured in a new book on research methods published by Edward Elgar Publishing, entitled Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Research Methods.

TAA member and Research Community Manager for SAGE Publications Dr. Janet Salmons co-authored Chapter 23, “Teaching research methods online: informal or semi-formal professional development,” which featured TAA’s webinar program and facilitated writing groups, including the TAA Writing Gym and the Month of Motivation.

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Busy TAA People: Dr. Janet Salmons Authors Chapter in New Book on Research Methods

TAA member Dr. Janet Salmons, Research Community Manager for SAGE Publications, recently published a chapter in a new book, Handbook of Teaching and Learning Social Research Methods (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023). The book “illustrates the wide range of approaches to teaching and learning social research methods in the classroom, online, in the field and in informal contexts.” Salmons co-authored Chapter 23, “Teaching research methods online: informal or semi-formal professional development.”

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Register for 2/8 Sage Research Methods Community Learning Methods Webinar on Learning Resources Available for Researchers

Sage Research Methods Community is offering a free webinar on Thursday, February 8 from 2 to 3 p.m. SAST, entitled, Learning Methods Out of School: Blogs, Webinars, and Courses for Practising Researchers.

Panelists Dr. Janet Salmons, SAGE Publications (US); Dr. Nicola Pallitt, Rhodes University (South Africa); Andy Nobes, INASP (UK); and Tony Carr, e/merge Africa / University of Cape Town (South Africa) will discuss the kinds of opportunities and resources available for new and experienced researchers who want to sharpen skills and develop new ones. This webinar will be valuable to researchers, as well as to those who want to offer information, consultation, or learning opportunities to others. Register

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Do Side Writing Projects Sideline Your Book Project?

By John Bond
Journal articles. Grant proposals. Book chapters. White papers. Blog posts for a friend. Contributions to the university newsletter. Alumni magazine articles.

There are lots of “opportunities” or requests from colleagues and friends to write. As you develop in your career, the number will increase, especially if you can deliver. On time and with the expected results. But there may come a day when you will have a contract for your own textbook or monograph. Then things will all be on your shoulders.

And the other writing request will keep on coming. Is this a good thing? Do they help or hinder the book project? As with most questions, the answer is that it depends.

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