Posted on 08/23/2010 9:01:57 AM PDT by SandRat
College is back in session, and students have a bigger voice than ever on the topic of costly textbooks.
University of Arizona students start classes today. Pima Community College students will go back to class on Wednesday.
Here are three new trends that students will see in the changing world of college textbooks.
1. Book prices are listed in class schedules - by law
Federal law now requires publishers to disclose textbook prices to professors and requires them to sell compact discs and other extras separately instead of as a bundle.
It also requires colleges to list the prices of required books on the schedules students use to choose classes. Students will notice these prices on the UA and PCC class-schedule websites for the first time this semester.
The government got involved with textbooks because it invests billions in federal student-loan programs, said Sen. Richard Durbin D-Ill., a textbook-affordability advocate. Those loans help students pay for books in addition to tuition and fees.
A more economical approach to textbooks means less cost to taxpayers and less student debt, Durbin said during a news conference this summer about the textbook provisions taking effect in this school year.
2. Students are campaigning for textbook cost awareness
Some members of the Arizona Students' Association asked their teachers to acknowledge that textbooks are a big expense for students and to pledge to use the same book for several years, making it more likely that the title will be available used or for rent.
Eduardo Atjian, a senior public-administration student and former student senator, said he got involved in the campaign because he was upset by the "misuse" of textbooks, such as requiring an entire book when only one chapter was used in class. Atjian estimates he spends $300 per semester on textbooks.
The faculty members whom Atjian talked to had mixed reactions, he said. Some were supportive; others said they didn't have time for this.
The students collected about 40 pledges from UA faculty members. The UA Faculty Senate also endorsed the pledge last fall.
3. Professors are beginning to try online textbooks or no textbooks at all
PCC chemistry professor David Katz has assigned the same edition of a textbook for several years in one of his classes, so all of his students are buying used books, which are less expensive.
He'll stick with it as long as enough used books are in stock, because new editions of that textbook have been issued with mostly cosmetic changes, he said during an interview in May.
Katz keeps a website for his classes at chymist.com It's loaded with tutorials, slides from lectures, reading assignments, lab experiments, links and extra information that's free to his students and anyone else who is interested.
He also teaches two courses without a textbook. Instead, he sends students to websites, does a lot of hands-on activities in class and asks students to print out some lab worksheets.
"I decided to teach without a textbook because I believe in hands-on learning. I'm just not equipped - yet - to teach the regular chemistry course without a textbook," Katz said. "I'm getting to the point where I'm approaching a textbook online.
"I'm not trying to put any publishers out of business," he said. "I'm just trying to supply information to my students inexpensively. I think it's cool.
"We're all trying to keep prices down for the students," Katz added. "It's kind of scary when the textbooks, especially here at the community college, cost you more than the course you're taking."
Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@azstarnet.com or 807-8012.
I can’t wait for kindles to wipe out the college text book market. It is a total scam.
My daughter goes to a school that rents their textbooks. It’s a real money saver.
I was thinking the same thing. It would have been easier on the wallet (and the back for that matter) if kindle books were available when I was in college.
The crooks in academia have already figured out a way to stop that. Kindles aren’t designed for the handicapped.
We write our own chemistry lab books and sell them for $10 or offer them to students online for free.
Textbooks are big business for colleges, and for the professors individually ... nothing will change.
Requiring certain books to be purchased is often the only way a professor makes any royalties off of his writing ... and they release a “new edition” every year or two to torpedo the used book market. Why would they let students get away with used books, cheaper books, etc., when it cuts into their bottom line?
They’ve got a monopoly, and a captive market. No need to change anything.
SnakeDoc
College textbooks have been a scam for so long that they were a scam when I went to college.
College professors often help author the required textbooks and make money on them.
Publishers frequently change minor parts of a textbook in order to make the used textbooks obsolete.
Not only will the Internet make college textbooks obsolete, it will make most brick-and-mortar college classrooms obsolete.
The days of college-as-a-scam-to-employ-professors are numbered.
I spent over $500 on textbooks one semester when I was at UW-Madison...
Now, I still spend over $300/semester for graduate textbooks...
My daughter rents hers from chegg.com.
She has saved hundreds of dollars if not thousands
“I can’t wait for kindles to wipe out the college text book market. It is a total scam.”
####
The textbook con game, while indeed an in-you-face fraud, is but a drop in the bucket.
The entire construct of academia is a scam today. The length of education alone that these students are put through, is utterly ridiculous.
Regarding eReaders, what is to stop them from charging fees for downloading the CURRENT text?
I have written my own notes and post them on the course site for free.
Yet some students demand a textbook. Go figure!
I have written my own notes and post them on the course site for free.
Yet some students demand a textbook. Go figure!
Moonman’s right, NeilGus...they’ve already claimed the Kindle’s a no-go because it violates ADA.
Crooks, every single one of them.
Regards,
Textbooks are stupid. Use your campus’s E-Reserve system and databases like Ebscohost and Jstor to supplement, and programs like D2l.
I saw a new Intermediate Accounting text at the SMU bookstore and I swear it was about $215.
Plus tax.
In 2009, several Universities tried out an Amazon-subsidized program using Kindles. All participants were, almost immediately, put "Under Investigation" by the Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division because this program was presumed to be in violation of the A.D.A. (Americans With Disabilities Act). Public pressure from the National Federation for the Blind was also brought forth because the Kindle could not be independently operated by a blind person.
The key point made in this referenced article was that the DoJ would prefer to deny this use of new technology to all rather than have a minority disadvantaged. FYI: The newest generation of Kindle handles most of this operational impediment for use by the blind but the DoJ has already sent messages to all concerned, reminding them of the requirement(s) to use technology "in a manner that is permissible under federal law."
Personally, I translate this as; We won't approve it unless or until you make it usable by the least intelligent clerk we can find in the DoJ - in other words, NEVER!
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