Current textbook prices, availability, profitability and production limitations have allowed the college educational print industry to stagnate. It’s imperative to innovate as the student population is moving into more of a mobile informational lifestyle. In 2008, 18,632,000+ people attended higher education in the United States (according to the US Census Bureau). These students come from a variety of backgrounds and have varying degrees of comfort with computing and/or mobile devices. It is safe to say that the demographics of the student population is increasing, both in number and mobile dependence.
The current climate with e-Textbooks is not conducive or favorable with helping to push students and teachers to the next level in education. Many teachers assign texts to bolster their in-class lectures and presentations. Others, primarily the authors of the texts, use the textbook as outlined in the class. While I cannot fix the fundamental problems inherent in the higher education forums concerning student’s study habits or classroom interactions, one thing is clear: the current COST of textbooks is robbing students of the VALUE that is provided therein. Thus, most students resent having to purchase a text, and more so the paltry cash returns they get at the end of the semester in a vain effort to justify the initial cost. In order to provide more value to the student it is necessary to have relevant and competent information to enhance coursework, as well as options that allow for greater discussion and focus on course content. Several solutions will be proposed later.
The current climate with e-Textbooks is not conducive or favorable with helping to push students and teachers to the next level in education. Many teachers assign texts to bolster their in-class lectures and presentations. Others, primarily the authors of the texts, use the textbook as outlined in the class. While I cannot fix the fundamental problems inherent in the higher education forums concerning student’s study habits or classroom interactions, one thing is clear: the current COST of textbooks is robbing students of the VALUE that is provided therein. Thus, most students resent having to purchase a text, and more so the paltry cash returns they get at the end of the semester in a vain effort to justify the initial cost. In order to provide more value to the student it is necessary to have relevant and competent information to enhance coursework, as well as options that allow for greater discussion and focus on course content. Several solutions will be proposed later.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI found the problem with the address. You had sent me . . . blogger.com and the site is findable with blogspot.com instead.
So, the stacked books make for an attractive and thematically-related page. Nice work.
Your topic is potentially very interesting.
Your first paragraph and much of the second paragraph are full of unsubstantiated assumptions, assumption that would require a lot of work to work out. But when you get to the statement that textbooks are very very expensive you're onto something easily demonstrated.
As you go forward, you'll need to winnow out words like "paltry cash returns" and "vain effort" (they don't really add anything but emotion to the discussion, which is important and shouldn't be sidetracked. Additionally, you'll want to keep your focus tight -- perhaps on costs and ways to cut costs -- rather than writing about the whole system of education, pedagogy, learning, and so on -- all things your two paragraphs take up.
Kevin,
ReplyDeletewhat are some examples of information industries that appear to be headed in the right direction to cure the textbook problem for students? Cloud computing? What about the use of texts for online instruction? What's the latest in that area? The whole publishing world is going through a revolution, textbooks will be a tiny aspect of the bigger issues being fought out over things like online libraries & access, e-readers, smartphones, tablets, and so forth. How do you see the textbook industry's future in all this?
I have definitely felt this pinch in my life. I think it could stand some problematizing. Mark pointed out that all print is in a transition stage. Is this what is raising the book prices? Are they raising? How much have they raised in recent years?
ReplyDeleteMost importantly, I'd like some of the solutions to be workable.
I think this is a great topic that many students can relate to! It looks good/sounds good as a thesis, it seems like asking about who the text books are "REALLY" marketed to is a good question (ie professors or students). Also finding stats on how much companies, that provide text books, made last year. Also I would personally be interested in some cost analysis between how much it is to produce a text book vs an online/e-copy. Good luck, great topic!
ReplyDeleteWe are in the digital world, I like what Mark said about "How do you see the textbook industry's future in all this?" Maybe some hypotheses to show what you think will happen to everything.
ReplyDeleteI have had a few professors that have only required one or two books which were fairly reasonably priced.However, they also expected students to do their own research on the various subject matters. While yet other professors have not required a book at all and made use of blackboard and short selective readings provided therein. This seems to help further learning because they did not want students to break the bank and acknowledged that if students were really interested they would do additional research outside of the academic world
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact these days more students are moving towards mobile information. However, I also think that it would depend on how accessible this electronic material is to the person. It would be interesting to make a quick and small search on this connection: mobile info-accessibility to it, and also its statistical use for the last three years or so.
ReplyDelete