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[quote]
But a new type of textbook is threatening to disrupt a $4.5 billion industry that has so far avoided the media upheavals experienced in music, movies and trade publications. Open-source textbooks, free for students to use and for professors to modify, are being developed by more companies and adopted in more classrooms. They may work hand-in-hand with the rise in free online courses to revolutionize the way we viewand pay forhigher education.
<p>No. Textbook prices is an ongoing scam that should shame all of academia. </p>
<p>Too much money is made by publishers, schools and even non-author professors (read: non-direct kick backs), who require a specific “up-to -date” text. The “up-to-date” part is key to the scam. Semi-annual minor changes to the text always make the previous version not acceptable. </p>
<p>And trying to suggest electronic texts will always get you ignored.</p>
<p>Two plus decades ago I happened to be the officemate of the guy who wrote one of my college texts (he was a Computer Science researcher that moonlighted as an adjunct prof and wrote a few texts during lunch hour :)). The book was not all that good, compared to the defacto standards of the time, but what I learned from him defies explanation… It’s basically a great racket that is rigged against the authors as much as it is rigged against the consumers. </p>
<p>But don’t despair. There’s always architecture. DD1’s textbook costs for fall are $14.95 :). (Software is another story, and supplies/materials make even nursing textbooks look like a bargain)</p>
<p>I agree with the insanity of textbook prices and ‘new editions’ that are not an improvement. But I disagree with your conspiracy theory.</p>
<p>I’ve been a prof for 20 years, at different school, centrally involved in my field, and not once heard of any ‘kickbacks’. In fact, your post would be the first I’ve even thought of the idea. Where is your evidence? Some other field? Why on earth wouldn’t it be first in the business school industry (my area)!? </p>
<p>I personally would love to use an old edition, they work just as well for intro courses. But if the publisher stops making it, I can’t order it! Sure I can ask the 200 kids (or could be 1600 since they all need the same book for the same course across sections), to scour for used copies, but they won’t be the same editions and the publisher mixes it up enough to make it a royal pain to ensure everyone is on the same page.</p>
<p>There are free text books for a number of subjects, but they do not seem to have gained much traction (beyond the instructor who wrote the book), except for a certain introductory CS book that seems to be fairly commonly used (although it was not free in its earlier years).</p>
<p>Even if the course does not use the free book, the existence of the free books means that students have an alternate source for an explanation of a topic that may be difficult to understand in the book assigned for the course.</p>
<p>Lucky for me, many of the books I am reading as a graduate student are free. Professors write them up and disseminate them for free online. (Some have even negotiated license agreements with publishers where the book is available in print as well, but can still be posted on the author’s website for free.)</p>
<p>One of my professors uses solely open sources for the text and never requires a textbook. In fact, I rarely have textbooks at all. Generally articles or regular books. Quite wonderful.</p>
<p>I disagree with those that doubt that free textbooks will ever gain enough traction to become the norm. Technology and consumer pressure will force major changes in this industry just as it has in other industries in which the middlemen are sucking up too much profit–publishing, the music industry, many forms of retail. It will take some time yet, but as the internet fuels greater competition in the real services they provide (editing, peer review, marketing) they’ll have to accept major downsizing to survive. And if these services become cheap enough, there will be philanthropists and perhaps players with a stake in the outcome (universities) that may provide funding to offer books for free.</p>
<p>This is somewhat related to the movement toward open-source academic publishing which is gaining significant steam. The article below lays out the arguments on both sides of the debate but there is no question that times-are-a-changing in the academic research world:</p>
<p>Princeton recently adopted a policy to make open-source publishing of research the default for all work coming out of the university. I imagine some other schools will or have already done the same.</p>