TAA Council President Paul Krieger has been busy transforming his popular Visual Analogy Guide book series from print into digital and interactive books with Top Hat. His anatomy & physiology book, A Visual Analogy Guide to Human Anatomy & Physiology, went live on the platform at the end of January and his anatomy book and physiology books, A Visual Analogy Guide to Human Anatomy, and A Visual Analogy Guide to Human Physiology, will go live at the end of February. Congratulations Paul!
Macmillan Learning’s Susan Winslow to Give Inaugural Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook and Academic Authoring
Susan Winslow, from Macmillan Learning, has been selected to give the inaugural Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring as Opening Keynote at the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring in Nashville, TN June 21-22. Her presentation, “The Very Human Experience of Learning,” will dig deep into the moments that make learning special: the emotions, the bonds we form, the aha! moments, and those big motivations that stick with us for life.
As AI becomes a bigger part of education, we can’t forget that at its core, learning is a human thing. It’s all about finding the right mix of tech and touch. The session will help us to understand the different ways to blend modern tech with the timeless human side of learning to help engage and inspire students.
TAA Announces Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring
The Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring honors the life and work of mathematics textbook author Michael Sullivan, a long-time TAA member who has authored or co-authored more than 120 mathematics textbooks, many of which have been published in multiple editions.
The Lecture series provides a forum for textbook and academic authors to learn from veteran textbook and academic authors and other academic and textbook authoring and publishing experts. It will feature an invited lecturer whose textbook or academic authoring accomplishments are prolific, award-winning, and highly engaging and inspiring, or whose experience in the textbook or academic authoring or publishing industry qualifies them as an expert. The lectureship was established in 2023 by a generous gift from Michael Sullivan.
From the Archives: Articles on ‘Recognition and Rewards’ From TAA Report, Compiled by TAA Member Phil Wankat
The seventh installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues of the TAA Report (now The Academic Author), Recognition and Rewards, is now available. Articles include “Frustrations of a University Book Author,” “The New Paradox of the College Textbook,” and “What Effect is Using a Text You Authored Likely to Have on How Students View You?”.
2/21 TAA Webinar on Navigating Your Writing Process
Do you ever find yourself writing in circles, struggling with decision fatigue or a lack of purpose in your scholarly writing? Do you wish you had a structure for your writing process that felt expansive and flexible enough to account for the complexities of scholarship creation?
Join us Wednesday, February 21 from 1-2 p.m. ET for a one-hour webinar, Navigating Your Writing Process as a Purposeful QuEST. Margy Thomas, PhD, of ScholarShape will walk you through the simple yet powerful QuEST framework as a way of structuring your writing projects in any genre.
How ChatGPT Improved Textbook Author’s Amazon Book Description
Dr. Margaret Reece, author of Physiology: Custom-Designed Chemistry, recently used AI tool ChatGPT to revise her book’s description on Amazon. The following illustrates how the process worked, including a before and after description and the prompt she used. “I did some minor editing of the AI response, but I think it is much better than the original,” she said.