In an effort to bring down the cost of learning materials, a new project will allow Florida college students to get digital versions of some of their textbooks free of charge, the St. Petersburg Times reported on Thursday.
The undertaking, called Orange Grove Texts Plus, is being spearheaded by the University Press of Florida with support from the state’s digital library database.
The project houses 124 books that students can either read free online, or — if they prefer ink and paper — have printed and bound at a much cheaper price than the original, the Times says.
The article says the average yearly cost of textbooks for Florida students exceeds $1,200 dollars.
While the project aims to decrease this burden for students, Meredith Babb, director of the press, told the Times that she expected some objections from professors who can earn large amounts of money publishing nationally circulated books. “The model has always been to throw a chunk of money at a professor to write a book that can be used nationally,” Ms. Babb told the newspaper. “What we are trying to do is turn the paradigm on its ear and say, ‘It’s not about a professor getting rich. It’s about affordability for students.’”
8 Responses to Florida Lightens the Financial (and Physical) Burden of Textbooks
paievoli - September 25, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Could not agree more. Been saying this for years. Online is the future of information distribution. Free is the new price and textbook companies had better get use to it. I saw it back in 1987 when we produced the first CD-ROM at MH. Please visit my blog and read more.patrickaievoli.wordpress.com
ucc_business - September 26, 2009 at 8:49 am
The high price of textbooks is unfair to our students. In community colleges where most of the students work, sometimes at full time jobs at min wage or only slightly above, the cost is crushing. Henry L. Roediger, III wrote “Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?, ”a though analysis of why back in 2005 (www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=1712).So what can we as professors do to help? Use fewer textbooks. When teaching a concepts course, the important concepts should be “timeless”, not requiring a new edition each year. This will let our students buy used at greatly reduced prices, particularly if they shop online at Amazon or Half.com or better yet use a shopbot like http://www.allbookstores.com or http://www.bigwords.com. But it is when the professor uses the Internet for material that student benefit the most, for oh-so-many reasons, cost possibly being the least important. Given the lead time to publish, the information on the internet is much more current. Students feel much more comfortable on the internet; this is their medium just like books were ours. They believe that what is on the internet is much more relevant to their lives. In addition to textual material, the internet provides podcasts in both auditory and visual modes (see Youtube.com/edu, which only displays videos produced by colleges and universities.) In many cases, students can interact with the material making them much more active learners. Granted it takes a lot more effort on the part of a professor to search, preview and consolidate the internet material, but the benefits in student enthusiasm in the material is worth it.Professor Maureen Greenbaum (greenbaum@ucc.edu) , Union County College NJ
juanserolf - September 26, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Re-look this all! I speak from the standpoint of a pioneer in this stuff from years back and predicted this back in ’94 in one of my articles: Online education is the future digital divide between the working class and the comparatively wealthy elite. Poor and working class will do their education online. Those “who have” will work it in the traditional manner.Juan Flores
frankchi - September 26, 2009 at 4:19 pm
As someone who is trying to trickle this down to the public high schools, I need all of the support I can find even though the academic venues are different. I guess what this will come down to is, who will write books knowing that they’ll be disseminated on line? Where’s the profit motive? As Professor Greenbaum so aptly and concisely writes the cost of text books is crippling. And for those of us responsible for funding public secondary school programs, the burden on our taxpayers is numbing.
11174426 - September 28, 2009 at 9:11 am
Just an added note that in addition to the Internet, your institution’s library may have extensive online content through ebooks, e-references, periodical databases, research databases, streaming media collections, library research guides, etc. etc. – around which a course could be built.
davidso - September 28, 2009 at 1:59 pm
A consideration: Reading speeds and retention rates are lower when reading from a screen instead of paper.
laoshi - September 30, 2009 at 11:48 am
Money and human resources are still needed to develop quality digital curricula. We shouldn’t mind paying something for using electronic materials.I personally like lightening the physical burden of textbooks, since I teach, study, and travel all over the world. Lugging books so I can take online grad level courses is not only a physical pain, but bites into my luggage weight.
laoshi - September 30, 2009 at 11:50 am
@davidso: What research backs your claim that reading speeds and retention rates are lower with digital media?