If CK12 chemistry has a bunch of errors, is CK12 bio trustworthy?

[staceyobu]

I've read a lot of good reviews about CK!2 biology. I'm highly considering using it for my own daughter AND for our co-op next year. However, I've read some really bad reviews of CK12 chemistry. Why would biology be so good and chemistry be so bad? Can anyone explain more about how the open source texts work?

[TarynB]

I haven't used either of those courses specifically, but I've researched CK12, and the texts they use are written by a variety of different authors (at the time I last looked, anyway). CK12 as an entity does not write the texts they use. Open source texts are licensed in such a way that allows their use by anyone online, for free. (I believe open source textbook authors are usually compensated for their work through grants and/or indirectly by various entities that use/promote their work.) And with CK12 it's the same as with any other provider - the quality varies widely depending on the individual course. I'd spend some time googling each textbook author's name and their qualifications, as a place to start.

Edited April 2, 2019 by TarynB

[Farrar]

They're just the host, so just because one text is bad doesn't mean another will be, and vice versa. I'd rely on reviews. I agree that the reviews I've seen say that Bio is good and Chem isn't so much. One other aspect of open source texts is that you can alter them. I know that the woman from Guesthollow (and I know she posts here and I can't think of her name) reworked the bio text to make it young earth friendly, which, hey, not my thing, but okay.

[FLDebbie]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

I know that the woman from Guesthollow (and I know she posts here and I can't think of her name) reworked the bio text to make it young earth friendly, which, hey, not my thing, but okay.

Seriously???? I thought CK12 was supposed to be secular. Well, I can cross that off the list of possible Biology resources.

[Farrar]

10 minutes ago, FLDebbie said:

Seriously???? I thought CK12 was supposed to be secular. Well, I can cross that off the list of possible Biology resources.

You’re misunderstanding what I said. I’m saying it’s legal for anyone to take and adapt the text however they like - the OP asked how open source textbooks work and this is one feature for these. The original text IS secular.

[TarynB]

Not all open source texts can be altered. CK12 advertises the ones they use as being "flex-books" that can be customized by their end-users. The flex-book that has been customized by Guesthollow is (or was, at least) available on the Guesthollow website. That is NOT the same thing as the original flex-book available from CK12.

Edited April 3, 2019 by TarynB

[FLDebbie]

12 hours ago, Farrar said:

You’re misunderstanding what I said. I’m saying it’s legal for anyone to take and adapt the text however they like - the OP asked how open source textbooks work and this is one feature for these. The original text IS secular.

Thanks for the clarification. CK12 is one of the resources we were looking into for next year.

[SoCal_Bear]

Well, if it helps at all. I know that the CK12 bio text is the one that has been used by Athena's Advanced Academy for their Bio 101 class for the past several years.