Final year teaching chemistry at a university (42nd year). If you taught organic chemistry from my undergrad textbook from 1969-70 you wouldn’t need to change that much. Much to agree with in many of the posts.
There are some efforts to create free resources. I’m most familiar with Rice University and their. OpenStax open source textbook initiative. Two things that have made me cautious on proceeding:
1. Online homework packages are now available, either packaged with textbook or standalone. Given the limited attention spans and poor study habits of many students, these have value in letting students get rapid feedback at convenient (for them) times.
2. Considerable attention must be paid to ensuring comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act in terms of accessibility. Publishers pay much more attention to these niceties than I ever could (example, posting an online lecture is realtively easy but converting to closed captioning can be a real chore, especially in science where the words are not necessarily standard voice recognition dictionary ready).
When I was in grad school (early ‘80s) I took a course on reliability centered maintenance that was written by a fellow company employee. He was long retired, but one of my colleagues had his phone number. I took a chance and called. Brilliant guy. It ended up being a long and informative conversation.
A few days later a signed copy of his book arrived. I took it to the next class - the university bookstore only sold crappy Xeroxes. The class flipped out. I called him back and asked why he wasn’t selling his. He said he was ready for another print run but the universities blew him off. Guess they were making more money with their Xerox machine.