Access codes for the online component of the book is a lot more than homework. In my kid’s foreign language classes, it is the way students listen to the spoken language etc. and is a core part of the course. I’m not thrilled about paying more for the new book with the code, but using the online materials is not about faculty “laziness.”
Digital technology has enhanced the way my students learn and made my job easier at the same time. When a student uses a digital platform and gets stuck on a problem, the publishers have created Help Me Solve This features which walk the students through the process step by step and Ask the Instructor features where the students can e-mail me a question and not have to wait until the next class or office hours. Short interactive videos introduce each learning objective and one of my publishers allows me to assign these by requiring student feedback as they watch them. My students are better prepared for lecture and the class time that we spend on homework. The automatic grading is obviously a plus for me, but the immediate feedback is a plus for both the student and myself as it prevents the student from reinforcing something that isn’t correct and then having to relearn it later. Access codes are a must for creating an online class, in my opinion.
I guess it’s easy to pass judgement on “lazy professors” using technology if you aren’t in the trenches, but I teach 6-7 different preps each semester and this technology really helps me do my job better. As well, the use of algorithmic problems cuts down on cheating as each student gets their own version of a problem.
In my cc system, for many of the texts we can select a course fee program through Blackboard (although it has to be done very early in the book selection process) and the students pay something like $68 for their digital access to the publisher software and the e-book. Most of my students want a hard copy of the book and they can get a value edition (3 ring binder type) for about $40 of additional cost. Prior to using this option, students were paying between $250 and $300 for instructional materials. Not all texts are available for the course fee program, but most of mine are.
Where do you buy access codes if you rent a book from Amazon. We have a few books that need the access codes and I don’t see it listed on amazon? Wonder if we just have to stick with the school bookstore or if there is another site you all use? Thanks
It’s generally cheaper to buy the access code directly from the publisher on their sites. MyLabs, Connect, CengageNow, etc. all offer students the chance to buy with a credit or debit card as part of the registration process. If you buy it from the school bookstore, they tack on a small markup. For example, if the access code is $100 from the publisher, the bookstore price is going to be at least $10-$20 higher.
I take it that you are not a professor, much less an adjunct. Let us know how you feel about the issue once you are.
@SeeksKnowledge, I think the publisher? I believe my D got the info for online access from the professor.
@SeeksKnowledge The ISBN for the access code was in my son’s textbook list from the school. I searched for that on Amazon.
OT, but my usual bugaboo has come up again on this thread:
If you advise your kid not to buy the book till after the first day of class, please also advise them not to tell me that’s why they didn’t do the first night’s reading and homework, and expect me to excuse it. The book is required because we are going to use it. I’m not interested in experiences of them not being used. This is a reading and writing course–we are going to be reading.
Tell your kids to buy their first year comp books, please!!!
^Garland, don’t you post the first readings on the CMS for them? I have always posted the first 2 chapters of the text on Blackboard for the students who are awaiting their financial aid or are trying to get used books online. It’s enough to get them through the first 2 weeks or so.
My daughters university says they honor any lower prices we can find - so that is a good thing at least
D’s professors make it clear that multiple copies of all required books are available in the library (usually on hourly loan so anyone can get to it), so if there is a first day reading assignment, that’s how it would be handled.
I surely wouldn’t expect a professor to excuse missing homework or reading.
Well OK I won’t share those multiple instances then 
Alternative is to buy the book ahead of time, but keep it in returnable condition until one is sure that it will be needed.
My daughter needed on-line access for her introductory economics classes (she was an econ major). The on-line text and exercises were very good (and were used). However, the online access expired after a year, so she couldn’t refer back to them when she was in her advanced economics classes. She was glad she had also purchased the physical book so she could use it later on. Online only books were fine for her non-major classes (again they were very useful and contained text, examples, and problem sets).
@toomanyteens I’ll tell you my experience with Barnes & Nobles, my kids college bookstore, matching prices.
We got burned last year because DD ordered her books from the bookstore(early). Picked up books when we arrived at school instead of paying shipping. We printed out what the prices were on amazon at the time the books were ordered from B&N. Took those price sheets to the bookstore, nope wouldn’t work had to pull them up on the phone right at this moment. Oh what do you know the book is backordered on amazon, doesn’t qualify for price match, or the price on amazon has went up now, doesn’t qualify. Or the book is sold out, no price match.
Moral of the story get your books from the cheapest source as early as you can because the closer to school it gets the lower supply gets and the higher the prices go. If you get to school and you don’t need them SEND THEM BACK. That will be the best course of action to save the most amount of money on your books.
Of course this has been our experience with 2 kids in college for the past 4 years, ymmv.
@SeeksKnowledge how annoying!! Her school is a flight away- so it is definitely more challenging to get books from here and there – I will see if we have a similar experience.
Private universities with smaller class size use access codes less because professors can grade by hand and because they have more resources (including possible upper level students who check homework.)
I don’t know what honors colleges are like in that respect.
(In the same way, I’ve found that public universities may charge for printing whereas private ones don’t. I haven’t investigated this in the past 3 years so this may have changed as things move fast.)
Publishers go out of their way not to make costs obvious to professors. The professor has to actually go to the bookstore or check it out online. Again, some do that, but only if they have time and are undergraduate-focused. Research university professors are deincentivized from caring much about students in their large intro classes (they may want to but their hierarchy may well discourage it since grants and tenure come from research.) In most cases though professors don’t have a voice. They use the text chosen by their Head of undergraduate studies .
However if you ask nicely, explaining financial hardship (IE., not that you want to save, but must, or you’ll have to skip lunch for a month), your professor may find an access code somewhere that the publisher sent them to test.
I’ve had one kid at a major public flagship and another at a quintessential LAC. Neither is a STEM kid, and their books for classes have been largely a range of texts, not a single textbook, and the books have been available, used, from various sources. The public university kid had to take multiple science classes to meet breadth requirements, and did not need online access through his book – professors used a university sponsored web site to turn in homework etc., but none of it was “auto” graded. Similarly, kid at LAC has had access codes for foreign language, and those sites include all the listening, speaking and cultural activities, not just a way to do homework.
People might not like the computer-grading systems, but they do have advantages for the student. It is utterly consistent in a way that is difficult for a person or team of graders to be. It provides an immediate score for the assignment. It offers hints if they get the wrong answer and allows them to try again. It can be set to randomize the values of givens in problems, so the student at least has to insert numbers into their calculator rather than just copying a number from the internet.