xhxuciedu/ibl-abstractalgebra

IBL course materials for an undergraduate first-semester abstract algebra course that emphasizes visualization.

An Inquiry-Based Approach to Abstract Algebra

Warning

During semesters that I am teaching from the notes, I often make changes to the version of the notes in the ConstructionZone directory. Versions in the other directories are battled-tested and good to go.

Overview

This free and open-source textbook was written by me (Dana C. Ernst) and is designed to used with an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach to a first-semester undergraduate abstract algebra course. The textbook starts with groups (up to the First Isomorphism Theorem) and finishes with an introduction to rings (up to quotients by maximal and prime ideals). While the textbook covers many of the standard topics, the focus is on building intuition and emphasizes visualization.

License Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. You are free to:

• Share: copy, distribute, and transmit the work,
• Remix: adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
• Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Contributing

I would love to see people contributing to this project. If you make any modifications, you can either make a pull request on GitHub or submit the improvements to me via email. Check out the issues for ways to contribute.