Looking for Textbooks

[BasquetteCase]

I teach a "Computer Literacy" course at a university. This is meant to be a beginning, freshman-level course, but, due to the use of MS Office, it has become very complicated and much dreaded. I have been using OpenOffice.org's suite for years and am trying to find a way to teach with it, while fulfilling the university's core competency requirements. I always introduce it to my students and encourage them to download and use it themselves but, at this time, our textbooks are always titled, "Microsoft Office 20[xx]".

I am very interested in Gabriel Gurley's materials and will be downloading and examining those. I am wondering if there are additional, organized books and materials out there. Anything that we use must include Base, which can be difficult to find included in books with the Writer, Calc and Impress.

We have become overwhelmed with teaching the minutiae of Office because textbook publishers insist upon packing in every bell and whistle that Microsoft develops. The students are no longer learning the concepts of the most common productivity apps that they will find in college and the workplace; instead they are struggling to accomplish "tutorials' that have them pointing and clicking their ways through flashy features. Meanwhile, there is no longer time to teach other required concepts such as computer security, file structures, backups, browser use, etc.

Any help will be deeply appreciated.

[TheGurkha]

Anything of use here: OpenOffice.org 3 User Guides?

[BasquetteCase]

I had been poking around the edges of the Getting Started With OpenOffice.org3. I think that I will order a copy. It does seem to have possibilities. The greatest obstacle to its acceptance is going to be the lack of exercises and projects. I am happy to design my own, but many instructors rely on the teaching tools provided by textbook publishers.

I've decided that if I can't sway the rest of the CS department, I'm going rogue and doing this on my own.

Thank you for the suggestion. I believe that it's a great place to start and may be the entire solution.

[kabing]

You might also take a look at the materials available at getopenoffice.org. I've given you the link to the page on workbooks. I've not used the workbooks, but I've often consulted Solveig's bloc, and find her instructions very helpful.

kabing