Required book conundrum

[Hegemony]

The publisher is not giving free access. I am reluctant to name the book because it will make me and the course easily identifiable. I think an early quiz would violate the syllabus as much as giving a penalty not listed on the syllabus. The students will certainly do worse without the book, but I can tell that a number of them are willing to take that risk. I don't want to fail a third of the class; I want them to buy the darn book.

[Wahoo Redux]

I hesitate to suggest this...

(do I remember correctly that you have a legal background, Hegemony?)

...but have you tried a simple Google search with "PDF" after the title?  I was amazed how many complete texts I found on-line...some I was pretty sure are not yet in the public domain.

I never downloaded any of these on my office desktop...still, I slyly let students know if I thought they wouldn't buy the text.  Haven't been raked over any coals yet...

[aside]

I think an early quiz would violate the syllabus as much as giving a penalty not listed on the syllabus.

This is why I always include a sentence on all my syllabi to the effect of "A pop quiz may be given over assigned material on any given day."  I rarely give a pop quiz, but having the option built in can be handy.

[dismalist]

I think an early quiz would violate the syllabus as much as giving a penalty not listed on the syllabus.

This is why I always include a sentence on all my syllabi to the effect of "A pop quiz may be given over assigned material on any given day."  I rarely give a pop quiz, but having the option built in can be handy.

Reminds me of a line from Mad About You as the couple is itself cleaning their flat in expectation of a new cleaning lady coming the next day. They don't want to make a bad impression.  Paul says: We don't need a cleaning person; we need a credible threat of a cleaning person! :-)

[Hegemony]

No PDFs, just PDFs of reviews.

I'm not sure I really believe the student who says he doesn't have the $9. How was he going to buy it when he supposedly went to the bookstore?

[polly_mer]

I'm not sure I really believe the student who says he doesn't have the $9. How was he going to buy it when he supposedly went to the bookstore?

The cost of attending college includes the cost of purchasing all the required materials.  If the bookstore accesses a different source of money (e.g., one can use additional financial aid not yet released to the individual students), then that's another argument for contacting the bookstore to buy the book instead of shopping around.

Decades ago when I was in college, the last stop in registration was the financial aid table in the gym to get the note for the bookstore on how much internal credit they could give the student.  Then, we walked over to the bookstore, picked out our books, and handed the note to the checkout person to pay for the books.

Super Dinky didn't have physical notes any more, but the bookstore could access an electronic entry that worked similarly. I know SD isn't alone because one of the common complaints on the high cost of college includes that the college bookstore is often more expensive than other options, but does have that internal credit option much earlier in the term than the release of funds so students can shop for books elsewhere.

[teach_write_research]

No PDFs, just PDFs of reviews.

I'm not sure I really believe the student who says he doesn't have the $9. How was he going to buy it when he supposedly went to the bookstore?

I'll suggest then that you go with a compassionate solution given the extreme circumstances. Some students have experienced massive disruptions to housing, income, etc.

Either the student figures out a way to read the book and follow the assignments or they do an alternative assignment. I usually approach these kinds of situations with an "invitation" for them to "solve this problem with me".

I might invite them to choose from these possibilities

• If the content of the novella is important, maybe an analysis of the reviews and investigating the author, if such materials are available free online/with library access.
  
  If the style of the novella is important, then something vaguely similar that is available free online/with library access.
  
  Student proposes a solution.
  
  Student does nothing and understands this option results in 0 points.

In all cases I would keep the grading VERY broad - like here's standards for a B-, better than that is B to A grade, major errors/ommissions is lower grade. And I would expect the student to figure out the resources etc. above.

I have a student who missed an exam early in the term with legitimate reasons for a makeup and I'm struggling to pull together some questions so I do hate suggesting to someone else to make an alternative assignment :-/

[Hegemony]

Well, the student is now reporting that he has bought the book. Not sure what changed — very possibly what changed is his idea that he could get by without buying the book. We'll see if the promised proof comes through.

[bacardiandlime]

Well, the student is now reporting that he has bought the book. Not sure what changed

What changed was your refusal to "excuse" the student from actually doing any classwork.