And Apple is about to announce an even easier way to make custom e-texbooks:
This.
We have lots of online classes that use only eBooks.
Let’s say the hard copy book costs $200 for the full 20 chapters.
Our classes are shorter and we only cover 10 of the chapters, but not in order - for instance Chapter 2 first week, Chapter 5 second week, etc.
By “editing” the book, the student gets exactly 10 chapters, all ten chapters are used, in order, for the entire term.
The student pays about $50 to “use” the book for just the term (and then access disappears), or can elect to buy the book to download for eternity (to keep it) for $100.
So, if a student thinks they will never use the book again, they only pay a small percentage (probably what they would lose as an used book sale anyway) or they can pay about 50% for the entire book that they actually covered in class.
We do allow a student to buy the entire book hard cover, if they wish.
The other advantage of custom/eBooks is that publishers can update them faster. This is especially important with some books - for example, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator comes out with new versions on a regular basis. It used to be a pain in the ass to just barely get the new CS3 textbook in, only to have CS4 software on sale two weeks later. Now they can make the minor changes to cover updates and you have a new textbook that covers all the updates in a mater of weeks instead of months.
Yes, school books are expensive, but at least students are now getting content they use in class, updated to the newest standpoint and have the option to “rent” during the class or pay extra and buy to keep. BTW, these new books are in a pdf format that allows them to be read to you - great news for the visually impaired and those to lazy to actually read and want to have the books read to them! Granted, the voice sounds like Darth Vader on Valium but still - having your textbook read to you is not a horrible option to have as an “extra”.
And lastly, you can also highlight, make notes, or click to external links using these books on any computer/laptop/notepad.
See, this is something I don’t get. When I was in University, I was in a math honours program. While I almost always had to buy (beg, borrow or steal) a textbook for my non-math courses every required math class except three (and I took thirty) had course notes instead of a textbook. Course notes were an agreed upon set of content for the given course (agreed by the instructors who were teaching the course) that was editted every semester.
So, every part of the course notes was used in the class. And it was nearly exactly how your prof would be teaching it and how it would be on the exam.
The best part was that they were only 10-20 dollars each. Printed by the kinkos beside the school.
The strange thing is that by the time I graduated, all the first and second year students had been moved to textbooks. They used to beg to borrow our course notes from years past since that’s how they were still teaching the courses. Guess they were getting too lazy to edit them? Maybe kickbacks from the publishing companies?
We are actually required to publish the ISBN numbers on our college’s website, specifically so students can shop around to find the best deal.
Sometimes faculty try their best and make honest mistakes. I used to order the softcover version of a book assuming it was cheaper. I didn’t see the invoices that the bookstore received. The bookstore manager gave me the head’s up that the hardcover was cheaper! So we switched the order in time for the semester.
One problem is that many of us would like to make books “not required” or offer a variety of books for a class. However Federal financial aid won’t pay for a text that is not required, so it puts us in a tough spot.
I don’t understand this. I went through college getting federal financial aid and never heard of book prices having any effect on it. Each school figures a “cost of attendance” which includes books, yes, but that’s for the whole school, not individual students. Financial aid never had a clue what books I bought or needed.
The idea that most, or even many, professors make money from textbooks is one of the most hilarious things i’ve read in a while.
While there are some textbook authors out there who make quite a decent living from their books, the vast majority of professors don’t write textbooks at all. About 99.9% percent of the professors who assign any given book to their class are NOT the author of that book, so they have no personal financial incentive to require it in their classes. To claim that professors assign their books out of pecuniary interest is completely stupid in almost all cases.
At least in my experience, when I submit my book orders I indicate if a book is required or optional, so the students know. I might have a text as required and a problem workbook as optional. Certain fnancial aid (Pell gants, maybe) deposits X amount for textbooks with our bookstore. That money can only be used for required, not optional, texts.
Student loans and other types of benefits most likely work differently.
I got Pell grants, and I got refunds of the excess amount. It sounds like the school where you teach just deposits grant money for required texts at the bookstore, but that it wouldn’t affect the total amount of financial aid given, because the student would just get any extra in the form of a refund. I don’t think you have to worry about making books optional.
I do wonder why the school would do it that way, since so many students don’t want to waste money by buying their books at the bookstore (well, I understand WHY, obviously they’re encouraging them to buy them there, but I don’t think it’s right).
It’s a state school, part of a large state system, so there maybe state issues that are involved. I do know that in my college, currently, there are issues with some financial aid and textbooks. However, the point remains that other factors can influence textbook choices. That was my only point.
Just as an example, here is a policy from another state, but is similar to ours:
“understand that you were awarded financial aid to cover the costs of your attendance at Virginia Western Community College. As a result, you may only charge to your account, those books and supplies that are required for classes in which you are enrolled. You further understand that you may not charge to financial aid multiple copies of the same textbook during the enrollment term.”
This is most likely a case of state to state variation or changes over time.
But you are always entitled to a refund of any excess Pell grant amount. I know some financial aid things vary by state, but I don’t see how that possibly could. (Also I just graduated 2 years ago, so my experience is recent.)
Oh, you know what I bet it is? I bet it’s that you can charge required books to your account before you’re able to get the refund, since there can be a waiting period for that. So I guess it’s true that it could affect a student to a point, depending how long the waiting period is (IME it’s usually just a few days after the term starts, but there can be exceptions), but at least it won’t affect their total amount of financial aid. They can still buy optional books with their refund when they get it.
But I understand your point about there being other factors.