I graduated from the University of Toronto around the time Top Hat's products started to come into use in some first year engineering courses. The end result as

I graduated from the University of Toronto around the time Top Hat's products started to come into use in some first year engineering courses. The end result as far as I saw was students already saddled with tuition that increases at 3-4x inflation annually for no apparent reason being forced to shell out additional hundreds of dollars for Top Hat products in order to get their grades. Textbook publishers are vultures, but their products are inherently optional. You can buy used books, borrow, pirate or simply take good notes and not use the text at all. As long as you show up to the calculus exam with a pencil and your wits no one will check that you've bought the book. The insertion of Top Hat into higher ed just feels yet another money grab from Big Education for no pedagogical benefit. They've gotten away with it because it looks like shiny new technology instead of just an unjustified fee increase.