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My post earlier today on Raygun Reports reminded me of this infographic on textbooks. That service was launched because of the high and increasing cost of textbooks, a problem which is only going to get worse. This iconographic illustrates the scale of the problem.
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More Infographics
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Interesting. I don’t assign a textbook for my Entertainment Law course at the University of Washington, instead giving citations for the cases I’ll discuss in that class (which they can all access for free with a student LexisNexis account or from Google Scholar) as well as distributing my lecture notes for the students. Every year in my teaching evaluations I receive at least one negative comment that the student would have preferred that I assign a textbook. I have never understood why people would want to spend money needlessly.
On the beta side of things most information is available for free download. There are a lot of projects working on free study books. Currently it takes some looking around and gathering before a professor can find the free material he wants to teach.
The published books on the other hand give professors ready made powerpoint presentations videos etc.
Most professors seem to feel that the effort of gathering the materials and making their own powerpoints is worth more than the money the students have to pay for the book.
Usually around a 100 euro a book –> 3 000 to 10 000 euro a class.
I suppose the main problem is that it is not the professors money which is spend.
On a positive note most professors I have experience with are willing to use the free information if I or another student gives them a list where it can be found.
Ofcourse this usually doesn’t benefit the class you are in, since you don’t really know what subjects are going to be discussed when you follow the class.
But it does help the classes after you.