An important issue brought to my attention today is the financial stress that is felt by nearly every student at the beginning of each semester. The National Association of College Stores (NACS) says the average college student will spend $655 on textbooks each year.
That is a hefty annual expense for students who are already facing increasing tuition rates. With the emergence of technology and its integration with education, the elimination of required textbooks becomes a serious reality and an opportunity for students to save money. With the emergence of MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses such as iTunesU or Udemy, it is clear that educational institutions such as Stanford are already moving in this direction.
However, there are a few clarifications I would like to make before presenting this concept. One, at this time I can only reasonably apply this concept to business courses and sport management courses because I have firsthand experience and cannot make a strong argument for this type of elimination to other subjects relating to different sciences and histories. However, with the emergence of this open source mantra, one can become a subject matter expert in nearly any subject without even being in college by using the Internet and MOOCs, given the individual puts in enough time and effort.
I can personally attest to the previous statement because I enrolled in an HTML online course on codeacademy.com with no previous HTML experience and in about 10 hours, I learned enough HTML to code my own website for free. I have created a list of reasons why the elimination of new, expensive textbooks makes sense.
1. New editions of textbooks aren’t that “new.” They may present some new chapters or recycled information using modern examples but the root concepts stay the same. Yet new editions cost hundreds of dollars more than old editions. The professor and student can find current examples on their own to support the basic concepts that have existed since the first couple editions.
2. Textbooks are simply too expensive for the average college kid, as explained above.
3. New editions of textbooks are often written on an annual basis when students should be having discussions in class based off of daily news.
4. Textbooks are often boring. Students are usually required to read anywhere from 300-1,000 pages of material written by the same author. Again, discussions and classes based off of fresh news and different viewpoints lead to more creative and interactive classes.
5. No matter what, the concepts presented in a lesson or chapter can be learned somewhere else on the web for free. The concepts may not be presented with the same angle, but the root, unbiased concept can be learned by surfing the web for free.
The list goes on and on but to wrap this up I want to disclose that I was sparked to write this opinion after my first class in which the only required readings were trade publications with total required reading costs staying below $40. Then, the next class I was slapped with a new edition $200 textbook plus a $30 subscription to Connect Online.
I fully believe in discussion based classes which is why I will always tolerate paying for subscriptions to industry journals, because students are getting news that is updated daily, weekly or monthly, not annually like these massive textbooks. And for those who prefer print to online text, I applaud you because I am the same way with novels; however, financial survival has forced me to choose online text over print.
I have written this opinion because I know I speak for a good majority of not only Ohio University students, but students around the country experiencing the same problem of financial stress caused by new editions of books that professors require.
At this point, the question is what happens to the authors and companies that make their living off writing and publishing textbooks. I foresee some sort of subsidy to compensate for their material whether that falls on the institution, state or federal government. However, that is another issue for another article.
My goal is by no means to disparage professors for assigning textbooks but rather present a concept to give some thought to. I encourage professors for one lecture or chapter to try and gather their material from open source materials from the web and teach their concept off that rather than the textbook’s version. Even better, try and teach a lesson straight from memory and use personal experiences as validation. I realize many professors already do this but I just want to reiterate the fact that students are being forced to buy new editions of textbooks when it may not be necessary to complete the goals outlined on the syllabus for the class.
Seth A. Miller is a senior studying Management Information Systems and Sports Administration.
