textbooks

This is a good idea, but publishers might not agree— ours changes the edition every couple of years, sometimes so that the assignments will differ by a page or two throughout the book and workbook. We’ve been using the same book for 20+ years, but are on the eighth edition; in recent years the rapidity of new editions has greatly increased, with the seventh lasting exactly two years (4 semesters). We theorize it is because of the used-book phenomenon. At least in some areas of study, this idea will be impractical because of publishers refusing to keep an edition in print.

LM, at 7:00 am EDT on August 14, 2006

Pedagogical Concerns

As a parent of one child just finished college and another about to start, I understand the desire—need—to save money. Still, renting and reselling books and providing e-book options present significant pedagogical problems—not just ideological and economic concerns but PEDAGOGICAL problems.

When students rent or plan to resell their textbooks or use readings provided online, they frequently don’t use them in the most educationally beneficial ways. They don’t want to mark up their books, because that can bring down their resale value or void their rent contract. And they don’t want to print the chapters or readings from the online text sources, because that costs them and the message being sent by the e-book option is that it won’t cost them; thus, they don’t bring their assigned readings to class. E-book systems may work fine at institutions with computer terminals in every classroom. And they may be “fine” for classes where the professor merely lectures at students, not asking students to use the readings for the class. But for those professors who want students to really engage—intellectually, emotionally, even physically—with the texts they are reading and teach in less technologially advanced environments, hard copy that the student feels no pressure not to mark up is crucial.

Jerry Nelms, Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, at 9:25 am EDT on August 14, 2006

During a quick search on amazon.com I could not find a general chemistry text for more than $161. Used for 2 semsters, that is $80 per semester, or $5.34 per week, where a semester is 15 weeks long. For around $1 per day a future doctor can use the book at her leisure. It seems like a good investment to me.

EF, at 9:50 am EDT on August 14, 2006

I have mixed feelings regarding E-books. On the one hand, they do save students money. On the other hand, reading a text online is more cumbersome than reading a printed version. Furthermore, some companies like SafariX only allow access to course texts for a limited time. Printing out the entire book isn’t a great option either since either the student or the college is going to be responsible for the cost of the printed pages.

Considering that many publishers update their texts every two years, there’s no way the same book can be used for six years. I teach in the computer science department and the differences between editions is typically so minute, it doesn’t matter which one I bring to class. However, once an edition goes out of print, there’s no way for the bookstore to order it from the publisher.

Regarding the comment that students should be encouraged to keep texts, I have to say that all the encouragement in the world won’t make an ounce of difference if the student wants to earn a few dollars by unloading their course texts. Even if bookstores weren’t encouraging students to sell back their texts, students can still sell the books on their own using 1/2.com or Amazon.

Steve S., Assistant Professor, at 11:35 am EDT on August 14, 2006

Yeah it’s all well and good, but honestly, how many undergrads actually USE their textbooks?

AC, at 9:40 am EDT on August 15, 2006

Textbook prices and usage

I am a professor of chemistry and think that first of all the student at Camden was being taken if s/he paid $270 for one book. Secondly, the 6-semester/book plan is no big deal — at least in introductory chemistry courses.

The text I will be using can be found online for $135 and the lab manual for $75. So the total cost is $210 for a full one year cost. $105 for a course/semester is not outrageous, although it could be less and I would prefer it to be so. I will comment on this later.

Yes, I order some materials to be bundled with the text since I think they are useful for the students and the bundle is cheaper than buying the items individually. I do not have students buy everything which is available but have all free items bundled and also those items which I think will help students in their studies.

In introductory chemistry the publishing cycle is 3 years — which means a new edition comes out every six semesters or so. We typically use a book for the length of its publishing run. The cycle used to be longer but now because of resales by students publishers must recover their costs in 2-3 years at most.

Personally I would prefer that students kept (or burned their books) rather than resell them. If this were the case then the publishing cycle could be extended. Assume that publishers had 4-5 years to recover costs. Then the price of texts could drop significantly and everyone, including students would be better off.

There is a special problem with lab manuals, which are often tear out books. These should not be sold back and bookstores should not buy them back unless they are guaranteed to be TOTALLY unused (student bought the wrong book). I have frequently had students buy a lab manual online only to discover that the experiments they will be using it for are missing!

One other comment. My remarks do not apply to monographs or other specialized texts needed for specialized or advanced courses. Often material in these types of books changes very rapidly and the publishing cycle must therefore be short. Also press runs are much smaller but costs are not similarly reduced so these materials do tend to be expensive. However, purchasers of these materials almost invariably keep them.

Finally, I have all the texts I used as a college student. They were carefully chosen by caring faculty. I still sometimes use them as references since because I studied them so carefully I know what is there and can find information quickly.

Stephen Goldberg, Professor of Chemistry, at 12:25 pm EDT on August 17, 2006