Print publishing is dead, and partly the reason for the justification of the exorbitant prices. Before online access, publishers ran small low volume print runs to get the updated text books out year after year. The smaller the run, the more the actual price per book. Some books probably cost $40 per unit if the runs are small enough.
Now, I see no reason the content should not be included with the course in electronic format. There really isnt any new content to publish for most subjects. Just updates as new material is found, say in physics, and medicine.
Its a scam, they know it, and the whole education content creation industry needs to change.
RE: Print publishing is dead, and partly the reason for the justification of the exorbitant prices.
The only problem is -— these same publishers ALSO control the digital publications as well.
Aced the course.
It's a total scam.
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).
All my books cost well over $40 each back in the 1980s.