Learn Without Walls

Books

All three textbooks are free, open educational resources. Download, print, share, and adapt them under Creative Commons.

Open Educational Resource CC BY 4.0 284 pages Free Forever

You're Smarter Than You Think

College Algebra for STEM Majors

A complete, neurodivergent-friendly College Algebra textbook — free for every student at Santa Monica College, West Los Angeles College, and anywhere else in the world.

Designed Differently — On Purpose

Traditional algebra textbooks assume you learn by reading definitions and memorizing procedures. This book assumes you're human. Every section starts with a story — a real-life moment that is the math concept, before we ever name it.

Story First

Every section begins with a real-world scenario. Math concepts are introduced through context, not definitions.

Consistent Rhythm

Every section follows the same 6-step structure. Your brain knows what's coming, so it can focus on the math.

Desmos Throughout

Every chapter has interactive Desmos explorations — see the math visually before calculating it.

Check Your Voice

Every section includes a metacognitive moment to notice — and talk back to — that inner critic.

Complete Answer Keys

Every practice problem has a worked solution. No hunting. No guessing.

Neurodivergent-Friendly

Designed for students who think differently — ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, first-generation learners.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Who Are You, Really?

Sets, Relations, and the Language of Math

Chapter 2

Functions — Getting to Know Them

Notation, Arithmetic & Graphs

Chapter 3

Lines, Curves & The Drama of Quadratics

Linear, Absolute Value & Quadratic Functions

Review A

Mastering Chapters 1-3

Integrated practice, answer keys & mastery check

Chapter 4

The Cast Grows — Polynomials

Factoring, zeros, behavior & real-world applications

Chapter 5

The Transformation Artists

Function Composition & Inverse Functions

Chapter 6

The Growth Experts

Exponential & Logarithmic Functions

Review B

Mastering Chapters 4-6

Advanced function toolkit review

Chapter 7

The Team Players

Systems of Equations & Matrices

Chapter 8

The Shape Storytellers

Conic Sections: Circles, Ellipses, Parabolas, Hyperbolas

Chapter 9

The Pattern Masters

Sequences, Series & Mathematical Induction

Review C + Study Guide

Complete Review & Formula Card

All nine chapters · Exam strategies · Tear-out formula card

Open Educational Resource CC BY 4.0 318 pages Free Forever

Statistics in the Eye of a Nurse

A Clinical Approach to Data-Informed Practice

An introductory statistics textbook designed specifically for nursing and health sciences students at Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences. Every example, every dataset, every problem connects statistics to clinical practice.

Why This Book?

Most statistics textbooks use generic examples that feel disconnected from nursing practice. This book bridges that gap — every concept is taught through clinical scenarios that nurses encounter in their daily work.

Clinical Context

Every example uses real-world healthcare data — patient outcomes, medication dosages, vital signs, and clinical trials.

Evidence-Based Practice

Learn to read, interpret, and apply research findings to improve patient care.

Aligned with Sullivan 6e

Designed as a companion to Sullivan's Statistics: Informed Decisions Using Data, 6th Edition.

Complete Coverage

From descriptive statistics to hypothesis testing — everything you need for MAT 300.

Course: MAT 300 · Introduction to Statistics

Institution: Joyce University of Nursing and Health Sciences

Author: Safaa Dabagh

Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 182 pages Free Forever

Applied Statistics Using R

A Rigorous First Course for the Life and Health Sciences

A complete applied-statistics textbook designed for MATH 205 at Loyola Marymount University. Rigorous treatment of statistical reasoning built on biology-primary examples, with integrated R workflows using the tidyverse throughout.

Why This Book?

Introductory statistics textbooks usually fall into one of two camps: brief enough for a semester but too shallow to build real intuition, or mathematically careful but disconnected from the biological questions students actually want to answer. This book is the third option — deep, rigorous prose that builds intuition before formalism, anchored in the clinical and life-sciences contexts where the methods get used.

Biology First

Every worked example comes from ecology, physiology, genetics, or public health. Numbers tell stories.

R + tidyverse Throughout

Every procedure is demonstrated in modern R. Students leave fluent in the idioms working scientists use.

Six Pedagogy Boxes

Definition, Result, Example, R Section, Watch Out, and Exercise boxes — colour-coded and consistent across every chapter.

Effect Size Everywhere

Cohen's d, eta-squared, and R-squared reported alongside every p-value. Significance is not importance.

Decision Guides

Every chapter ends with a step-by-step decision guide for choosing the right procedure on a new dataset.

Complete Reference

Four appendices: R function reference, formula sheet, statistical tables (Z, t, chi-squared, F), and dataset catalog.

Table of Contents

Part I · Foundations

Chapters 1–6

Data, displaying, describing, estimating with uncertainty, probability, and the hypothesis-testing framework.

Part II · Categorical Data

Chapters 7–10

Proportions, chi-squared goodness-of-fit, contingency analysis, and the normal distribution.

Part III · Inference for Means

Chapters 11–13

One-sample and two-sample t-tests, confidence intervals, effect size, and non-parametric alternatives.

Part IV · Multiple Groups

Chapter 15

One-way ANOVA, Tukey's HSD post-hoc comparisons, and the variance-partition intuition behind F.

Part V · Relationships

Chapters 16–17

Pearson/Spearman/Kendall correlation and simple linear regression with full inference on the slope.

Appendices A–D

Reference Material

R function guide, formula sheet, statistical tables, and dataset catalog — designed to be flipped to during work.

Course: MATH 205 · Applied Statistics

Institution: Loyola Marymount University

Author: Safaa Dabagh

Edition: Spring 2026 · First edition

License & Usage

All three textbooks are free — and they stay free. The College Algebra and Statistics (Nursing) books are licensed under CC BY 4.0; the Applied Statistics Using R textbook is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. You can download, print, share with your students, and adapt for your course — just credit the original author.

Download & Print

Print as many copies as you need for your students. No fees, no restrictions.

Share Freely

Post the PDF link, email it to colleagues, share it with other departments.

Adapt for Your Course

Remix sections, add your own examples, translate it — with attribution.

For Instructors

Interested in adopting any of these textbooks?

If you're teaching College Algebra, Introductory Statistics, or Applied Statistics with R, I'd love to connect. I'm open to developing Canvas or Brightspace course shells, homework sets, and sample exams, and the MATH 205 book comes with a complete instructor package (lectures, answer keys, homework, and Brightspace QTI quiz banks).

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