Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID: GEOG 318 
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This set of curated texts is being utilized in a geography course for undergraduate or graduate students by Dmitrii Sidorov at California State University Long Beach. This curated collection of book chapters and journal articles provided is related to the physical settings, urban patterns, geopolitical challenges and cultural dimensions of the region. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to facilitate equity and improve learning outcomes. Students get access to the texts via Canvas-protected distribution of pdf files.

Geog318 Russia and Its Neighbors
Brief Description of course highlights:  Systematic and regional study of the physical, economic and cultural geography of the countries of the former Soviet Union. http://catalog.csulb.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=6&coid=56236

Student population: Students of all majors, programs, and colleges take the course, geographers, are typically less numerous than history-majors (10% each).  

Course Prerequisites: Completion of at least 60 units, completion of the entire GE Foundation, and completion of at least one GE Course from the Explorations stage

Learning or student outcomes: 
-- Understand and explain the nexus of physical-geographic setting (e.g., topographic variations, hydrographic regimes, climatic patterns, biogeographic areals, environmental modifications, effects of the global warming) and human spatial structures (e.g., principal social, political and economic institutions) in the context of their evolutionary interaction in history and current complexity through critical examination of processes and data sources in assigned readings, exercises, and projects.
-- Understand and apply basic social theories, geopolitical concepts, and cultural geographic methodologies for scholarly interpretation of such foundational civilizational characters of the region as linguistic families, religious domains, and ethnic diversity in their spatial manifestations.
-- Regional, civilizational, and landscape analysis approaches in geographical inquiry and research for interpretation of the spatial-cultural organization of environment and societies in and across the territories that comprise the realm and at different geographic scales.
-- Analyze the political, economic, and socio-cultural organization of the realm at different scales: the global, the sub-regional, the local, and the individual scales, especially in the context of the interactions and continuities between scales of analysis for investigation of the historical, contemporary and geopolitical factors that have impacted the complex character of the realm.
-- Evaluate the cultural and ecological diversity and complexity present in the realm, and their connection to existing and emergent political boundaries, cultural barriers, interpersonal norms, and emblematic landscapes in the context of social construction of such categories as ethnicity, gender, and class.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Multiple publications, primarily book chapters

Brief Description:  Attempt is to provide current and classical, readable yet insightful, and visually rich publications that avoid excessive jargon. Book chapters seem to be best in this regard. Preference is given to glocalized [meaning here, local examples of globally significant issues] cases allowing conversion to virtual fieldtrip to exemplify larger concepts. Diversity of perspectives is a plus.

Please provide a link to the resource  Many sources on geopolitics and international relations are from a great European collection of open-source books https://library.oapen.org/ For urban cases, a useful source is a series “City Profile” of Cities journal: many articles are open-source, the rest are available via university website.

Authors: multiplicity of diverse voices

Student access:  Students access the materials through links to a carefully curated set of book chapters and articles on the Canvas website.

Supplemental resources: In addition to readings, all modules include video lectures with virtual fieldtrips and film-based assignments. 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook. $78.00

License: Most of sources from https://library.oapen.org/ are openly licensed 

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. In addition to the goal of saving students’ money, improving the learning materials, and customizing materials for special needs, this conversion is motivated by [1] to incorporate more of my own or colleagues’ publications; [2] independence from commercial textbooks’ updates; [3] promote diversity of perspectives; [4] keep alive classical sources representative of different regions and epochs.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? All sources were checked, e.g., consulted librarians, colleagues, browsed OER sites, read peer reviews, evaluated resources. Most relevant seems to be search via scholar.google.com as well as via https://library.oapen.org/

Sharing Best Practices: Talk to librarians and check scholar.google.com

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. OER/Low Cost materials seem to be catering to introductory general education courses, Merlot provides only four sources for “Russia geography”.  For intermediate regional courses, the best is to build your own curated collection even if it takes some time. 

Instructor Name Dmitrii Sidorov
Please provide your title and your institution. I am a Geography Associate Professor at California State University Long Beach.

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://cla.csulb.edu/departments/geography/faculty/ 

Please describe the courses you teach 

   Geog100 World Regional Geography – an introductory survey of world regions

   Geog301 The Urban Scene – an intermediate-level course on interdisciplinary perspectives on cities

   Geog318 Russia and Its Neighbors -- an intermediate/advanced-level course that reviews Northern Eurasia regionally and systematically

   Geog468 World Cities/Cities of the World – an intermediate/advanced-level course that in the form of glocalized field trips introduces students to the key urban trend as exemplified by global cities (e.g., from London, Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin to Astana, Seoul, Jakarta, and Doha)

   Geog666 Seminar in Urban Geography — topics such as urban utopias and ideal cities

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching. 
Most currently taught courses are in the asynchronous online format. Typically, they are visually rich, video- and film-based, in the form of virtual fieldtrips to localized cases of global significance that were personally visited by me or guest lecturers such as authors of the readings for students. My research interests are directly related to the courses I teach (Russia, Europe, cities, geopolitics).