Textbooks

[HigherEd7]

I was doing a search looking for a textbook and seeing what other people are doing in their courses, and some are not even using regular textbooks in their courses they are using articles, and other books. From my experience a lot of the textbooks we use have to much overlap, and it becomes very confusing for the students. What are your thoughts?

[Parasaurolophus]

For most courses in my field, I think the pre-packaged textbooks suck, and are way too expensive. The few that don't suck are just edited collections anyway. So I prefer to just assign articles, which I make available on the LMS. That way it's free, and I have total control over content. That also allows me to make sure my readings are more representative of the profession's demographics (e.g. most of the textbooks have about 8% of their chapters by women).

For my one formal methods class, I assign an open-source textbook, and supplement it with the occasional article. There are so many more open-source textbooks for this subject, and they're almost all better than the for-profit ones, which feature too few problem sets and just try to sell you on low-quality software for those inadequate problem sets.

[Ruralguy]

I was going to write a textbook in my field and then I decided that I didn't want to contribute to the insanity of "Big Book."  On my little list of things I despise, textbook companies come in just after Pay Day Loan companies.

[HigherEd7]

Thanks for the response and advice! Makes sense

[traductio]

I was going to write a textbook in my field and then I decided that I didn't want to contribute to the insanity of "Big Book."  On my little list of things I despise, textbook companies come in just after Pay Day Loan companies.

I'm publishing a textbook in the spring, but I chose the publisher (a small but well regarded university press) precisely because it publishes in open-access immediately (along with paperback, but no hardback, which I'm fine with).

[HigherEd7]

Is there a link to be able to find open access textbooks? To be honest  this is the first time I have heard about this. Thanks

[ciao_yall]

Is there a link to be able to find open access textbooks? To be honest  this is the first time I have heard about this. Thanks

Just be careful. Ask yourself whose agenda is behind paying to develop a "free" textbook.

https://www.theroot.com/millions-of-students-are-quietly-being-taught-the-koch-1823742091

https://www.christianpost.com/news/wheaton-scholars-pen-first-origins-college-textbook-bridging-the-bible-to-mainline-science.html

This is a bit extreme, but apparently Coca Cola really did publish and distribute, for free, a World History textbook that was used in high schools.

https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/teacher-toolkit/social-studies-world-history-high-school/

Here is the link to the whole curriculum they offer across several subjects. I really like the "Green Guide."

https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/groups/teacher-toolkit/

[traductio]

Is there a link to be able to find open access textbooks? To be honest  this is the first time I have heard about this. Thanks

Just be careful. Ask yourself whose agenda is behind paying to develop a "free" textbook.

https://www.theroot.com/millions-of-students-are-quietly-being-taught-the-koch-1823742091

https://www.christianpost.com/news/wheaton-scholars-pen-first-origins-college-textbook-bridging-the-bible-to-mainline-science.html

This is a bit extreme, but apparently Coca Cola really did publish and distribute, for free, a World History textbook that was used in high schools.

https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/teacher-toolkit/social-studies-world-history-high-school/

Here is the link to the whole curriculum they offer across several subjects. I really like the "Green Guide."

https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/groups/teacher-toolkit/

My goodness. I hadn't thought of that dimension -- thanks for the links.

[downer]

I don't have any problem with getting students to pay for a textbook when it a good one. It's nice when there is useful free material available too, and I will use it when it makes sense. I understand why people are annoyed with the big textbook companies with their endless new editions and high prices, but some publishers are better than others.

[Caracal]

I'm in History and I don't use them at all. For intro classes, I basically provide the larger structure with my lectures, so I don't see the need for a book that does that. I use mostly primary sources for readings with a few articles. In upper level courses we just read books. In some classes I use big synthetic books to provide a larger narrative and structure, but those tend to be a lot more interesting and nuanced than textbooks.

[Parasaurolophus]

Is there a link to be able to find open access textbooks? To be honest  this is the first time I have heard about this. Thanks

Not really. You just have to know the field, and use Google. If you were teaching logic, for example, googling 'open access logic textbook' would generate plenty of good results. You just have to take the time to peruse the textbooks for yourself, to make sure you're getting what you want, and that the quality is OK. It helps if you recognize the authors.

[mythbuster]

For intro textbooks in the sciences and econ, try openstax.org. A non profit started at Rice University.

[Aster]

Yes, textbooks are expensive. But they represent a tiny aggregate of the overall cost of a college degree.

Print books overall cost more. I pay about double for a standard paperback book than I did 20 years ago.

I view the "textbook crisis" mainly as a cheap political misdirect to distract the general public away from the real cost burdens of Higher Education. Professors are easy meat for blame-shifting.

All that said, textbooks are steadily declining in importance as the primary source of academic content for college courses. Within the next 30 years I expect they will be superseded by some sort of interactive A.I. interface pulling content from a future version of wikipedia. We won't be bothering with open source, publishing companies, or our old yellowed notes. By that time people will have large foldable or holographic or eye-piece screens that are actually usable for work instead of the tiny playtoy screens on smartphones. Everything will be e-book/stylus enabled.

Or we will end up like in Idiocracy.

[mamselle]

I don't know about all the other above assertions, but second-hand textbook sales are not a new thing.

I remember back in the day, going to the bookstore and buying mostly used texts just to stay under budget.

I was the difference between having to whumpf one saber-toothed tiger on the head, or two, and then skinning it and bartering the meat and skin for books....

Tough system, but we made it work...

M.

[dr_codex]

I don't know about all the other above assertions, but second-hand textbook sales are not a new thing.

I remember back in the day, going to the bookstore and buying mostly used texts just to stay under budget.

I was the difference between having to whumpf one saber-toothed tiger on the head, or two, and then skinning it and bartering the meat and skin for books....

Tough system, but we made it work...

M.

No, but if the "textbook" includes a lot of online material that is only available using a product code, for a limited time, then there is no second-hand market. Same thing for digital editions (kindle, etc.), unless they are file-shared.

I ordered a textbook that had a vast amount of complementary material in the digital version, then realized that distributing those materials to students who didn't order a new copy was going to be a full-time job. I'm rethinking.

In an ideal world, such textbook side-kicks can be really valuable. High-quality, full color reproductions are really expensive to print, and often tiny, which drives up the price of humanities survey texts to an unreasonable degree; digital reproduction is a reasonable alternative, since we're reproducing anyway. But they have value only if students can access them.

I'm mulling.