Textbooks have become a problem over the years. The books themselves are better than ever, as they are up to date, in full color, and have lots of ancillary materials. What's not to like? But the downside is that their cost has risen beyond the means of most students. I have seen instances of the book price being higher than the course tuition.
In addition, students hate to read the book. They may scan an assigned chapter but rarely seen to read the whole thing. Most of today's students were brought up on video and the internet so are move visual acclimated and accustomed to reading short messages. A big book is an intimidator.
Some solutions I have seen include students sharing a book, using it in the library, or buying used or older editions online, Yet prices are still high. My recent ETD listserv survey indicated that cost was a major issue. And many are moving away from using textbooks in favor of using instructor-developed materials, online items and other free or low cost stuff. As a textbook author, I have noticed a marked decline in sales over the years. I know publishers are concerned but few have done much to solve the problem.
Ebooks are one solution that students can buy online without the bookstore mark up. Custom books are another possibility where you get to choose what chapters to include. Going to black & white from color is another option.
Another textbook problem is that they often do not cover the topics needed within a course. The books do a good job of covering the fundamentals but typically do not include the latest technologies. I wish the publishers would put out a series of chapter or white paper length modules on the various specialties like audio, video, wireless, solar and wind, automotive, IoT and many others. Make them in color and let students buy directly.
What are your suggestions for solving the textbook problem.
Cheers for now.
Lou
34 comments:
Dear Professor,
You are right that text books are expensive and students are using them less. Today every circuit is so complex that it is studied as a black box, means student don't know internal components they only learn transfer function say device input and output relations. I was teacher in private University for 35 years and taught over 40 subjects in various programs (EET, ECT, BMT...) Initially I was teaching a class of over 120 students in NJ,campus. In Op Amp course we used to spend enough time on each 4 stages analysis doing DC and AC hybrid models. Today I think students don't know internal stages of an Op Amp. I can say that my private University has hired good MBA mangers in last 15 years from non educational businesses fields, these mangers are good with marketing (Non educational products!) as a result class size are very small and retention of student is crucial, also students course evaluation effects teachers yearly evaluation. I don't have to write that poor teacher is forced to adjust course material hardship level to survive. Very Frequent staff number adjustment by home office has reduce moral among teachers. Text book use will drop as home office managers will decide what and how much to teach to students using custom course material to retain student population. Like any business in USA education Business in private sector has to earn more and keep stock prices higher to be called a successful institute. CEO has to be rewarded for reducing cost by letting old teachers leave and new cheaper adjunct teacher teach courses. Thanks God my time is over but I do feel bad for young teachers and students both.
with regards, PMR
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I am using your text in my teaching. You are right that thorough and well written text are an intimidator even though that is what the students really need.
Hard copy texts have become stationary and static entities that become obsolete as soon as they are printed in the 21st century.
Because of the fast changing technologies, I believe the future of the contents of any book will be a buffet-like menu, each dish/chapter is independently created and updated and an eater/student of a course will be served a particular selection of dishes/chapters from the menu.
So how would authors operate? They need to come together as a group, each focusing on a few special chapters. When done/regularly updated, they release them to the buffet menu. A teacher then orders the needed chapters for a course and buys those only. Next term, year, decade, they still want the same chapters, but they are all updated. I leave the problem of ownership, copyrights, authorship, etc, to creative fast changing technological whizzes who can survive financially or even thrive. It's heading this way any how and authors must learn to survive here.
Varying degrees of Black and white, colors, illustrations, are also menu driven. Example chicken menu: plain raw chicken, fried chicken, fried/baked chicken with garlic & onions, curry chicken, 5-spice chicken, whole baked chicken, chicken legs or wings only, etc, etc. For books, black & white (bw) txt and no illustratiobns, bw with minimal illustrations, bw with full illustrations, color with minimal illustrations, color with full illustrations, etc.
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