March 24, 2010, 11:47 pm
No sooner do I make a post about open textbooks and the impact it could have on community colleges, then there’s a news item in the local Lansing State Journal about a retired Michigan State Univ prof that’s written an open textbook about organic chemistry that’s being used in our own backyard, as well as around the world:
Ex-MSU prof writes free online textbook | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal.
March 21, 2010, 2:14 am
I had a discussion the other day with a couple colleagues where the issue of textbook costs arose. I am a huge advocate of open educational resources and open textbooks (see
If You Believe in “Intellectual Property”, How Do You Teach Others? – Answer: you can’t). I also know from my consulting work in the 1990′s that there’s no real reason why textbooks should be as expensive as they are today. Print-on-demand can bring the costs down dramatically.
So I thought I would add a few links to the blog for those interested in getting started investigating the idea:
Finally, I have new post at my economics blog about the Economic Alchemy: How to Raise Tuition but Lower Student Costs. Also, I advise that people not confuse “online books” with “low-cost” or “open”. Yes, “open textbooks” and newer low-cost books can be put online. But the “online books” being promoted by the major oligopoly publishers are NOT low-cost solutions. In practice, they major publisher solutions like CourseSmart actually end up raising student costs. For more about that, see my post on Online Books.
