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At first glance it would seem only logical that the use of these textbooks be made mandatory. On the whole I agree, that this first step is necessary but insuff
by VSerge 14y ago
At first glance it would seem only logical that the use of these textbooks be made mandatory. On the whole I agree, that this first step is necessary but insufficient, an that without teeth its effect will be much weaker.
However, imposing at the state level one particular textbook per subject matter would be foolish - imagine just 10% of the textbooks are badly done and you have 5 classes out of 50 that would be required to be taught with poor textbooks, which doesn't make much sense.
That doesn't mean that nothing can be done. These textbooks are open and allow other textbooks to be made from them, so what could be done is telling colleges today that they will be mandated to use cc textbooks in classes 2 years after these textbooks are first published. This creates an incentive for variations on the textbooks to be made, gives teachers time to test out the materials and modify it if need be, and ensures that when the mandate comes into force:
a) teachers can choose from different options of cc textbooks for each class
b) no class is taught with a badly written though mandated textbook
- nathan_long 14y agoI'd suggest a series of deadlines for rising use: 10% of textbooks should be open by date X, 20% by date Y, etc. This would give time for early-adopting professors to try things out, for the textbook creators to iterate, and those who don't like the books to create their own if they prefer.
- VSerge 14y agoThat seems like a very sensible approach too. I think we agree that the main idea for implementation is a kind of progressive approach, and I'm sure there's plenty of experimentation on the topic to draw from and come up with a smart and efficient plan.
- noahl 14y agoThe distinction you make between "professors" and "textbook creators" seems strange to me here. At least two of the best textbooks I've seen were written by a professor who was teaching the class and wanted something different than the other books. I think this is the ideal way for them to be written. The idea of having separate "textbook companies" seems more like what happens in high school, and it produces pretty bad textbooks.
- nathan_long 14y agoI agree. I was actually imagining that, say, the history department at some school would team up to write a textbook and publish it. What better way to build your department's reputation?
- noahl 14y agoYou're right; departments might do it for the prestige. And of course it might make their teaching easier to have a textbook customized to exactly how they teach the course (after the initial work of writing it).