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You don't understand. What happens is that once the teachers/professors (this happens more often in universities) realize that they can force the students to u
by aheilbut 15y ago
You don't understand. What happens is that once the teachers/professors (this happens more often in universities) realize that they can force the students to use their textbook, they do a deal with a publishing company and sell the book to the students for $120 a pop.
- _delirium 15y agoYeah, this is unfortunately common, but it's also fairly common for professors to give their students a free book, or one that costs whatever the university bookstore charges for printing a spiral-bound softcover book. That usually happens with professors whose class notes grew over the years to the point where they basically formed a textbook, but for various reasons (disinterest, saturated market, etc.) they didn't take the final step of actually publishing a textbook.
- jules 15y agoThe €5 textbooks I buy from my professors have consistently been the best textbooks, much better than the €120 textbooks in other courses.
- technomancy 15y agoThis is why the licensing of the text is absolutely crucial. Unfortunately the article didn't mention it at all.
- artursapek 15y agoInstead of mass-produced textbooks, the more than 3,100 sophomores in the state's largest district are learning from an online curriculum [...] distributed over the web. I thought the whole point of the article is that the alternative taken up was a digital one. The scenario you describe seems unlikely, and very cynical.
- sliverstorm 15y agoMaybe unlikely in this particular case, but plenty of college professors write their own books and then make them required reading for their students.