On this episode of the New Books Network,
Lee Pierce (she/they)--Asst. Prof. of Rhetoric at SUNY Geneseo--interviews
Dave Dillon of Grossmont College--on a valuable work for higher education:
Blueprint for Success in College and Career, available under a Creative Commons License (
open access) from the Rebus Community Press (2018). Although NBN does not typically review textbooks, this is a unique opportunity to share a cutting-edge resource for educators, students, and a general audience that is not only completely free but also a recipient of the 2019 Textbook Excellence Award from the
Textbook and Academic Authors Association. In this interview, Lee and Dave discuss how the project came into being, the urgent need to teach “doing college” for the next generation of learners, and how publishing with a University Press compares and contrasts with OER publishing.
Blueprint for Success is a student guide for classroom and career success, focusing on subjects ranging from study skills, time management, and career exploration to health and financial literacy. As one of the reviewers for
Blueprint for Success puts it, the book is valuable for “making succeeding in college possible for a wide audience. It is a straightforward, useful, and accessible textbook that makes it easier to navigate college and develop skills for succeeding beyond the classroom."