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questor1
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« on: August 27, 2011, 02:10:07 PM » |
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Act oblivious? Would like your thoughts especially if the following has happened to you or a colleague. Let's say you wrote a successful undergrad textbook with a top name publisher and used it for years (and the book is recent, several editions) in a large basic class. Then, you are re-assigned and no longer teach the course. The adjunct or Assistant Professor who gets the course adopts another book (reasons to be speculated about). Has happened several times in my College. One of the authors quit over this and scheduling issues.
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,288
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2011, 02:14:47 PM » |
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The other instructors do not surrender their academic freedom because you work in the same department. It is none of your business what book they assign. One of the authors quit over this and scheduling issues. Sounds like a prima donna. |
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tuxedo_cat
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« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2011, 02:17:02 PM » |
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Honestly, what's the big deal? In every major survey class instructors usually have at least a few textbook options to choose from and. . . they probably choose the textbook that suits their teaching objectives the best.
Are you seriously unhappy that your department's curriculum isn't still requiring students to buy your book (and perhaps subsidize that nice vacation home in the Outer Banks with the royalties)? Maybe I am really not understanding the situation here.
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The only protection from zombies is a good friend who runs slightly more slowly than you do.
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neutralname
A person without qualities, except for being a
Member-Moderator
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« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2011, 02:18:23 PM » |
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There are lots of good text books out there. To take offense at someone not using yours completely inappropriate.
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"My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music." Vladimir Nabokov
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helpful
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« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2011, 02:32:27 PM » |
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Isn't it a conflict of interest to choose your own textbook as a class text if you are going to receive royalties from those sales to students?
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bcohlan1
limericked his way to being a
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Posts: 1,050
EPIC BEER
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« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2011, 02:33:54 PM » |
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Good for the adjunct/Assistant Professor! I wish I had the gumption to do this with the crappy textbook from which I often teach. (I'm in a similar situation, except I'm a grad student and the textbook author in question could very easily destroy my world right now. Hu probably wouldn't, but I'm not taking any risks.)
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Basically the moral of the story is that bcohlan1 is talking out of his ass again.
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questor1
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« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2011, 02:42:45 PM » |
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This topic struck a nerve. Of course, instructor should pick the best book.
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,288
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2011, 02:49:00 PM » |
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This topic struck a nerve. Of course, instructor should pick the best book.
And the "best book" might vary according to the teaching style of the professor. Sorry if I responded too strongly! A lot of us have at one point or another been required or felt pressured to use what we felt was the wrong book. It leaves a bad taste. |
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samspade
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« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2011, 02:49:41 PM » |
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I am going to echo Larry. What book I pick is mine decision and mine alone.
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theblondeassassin
Rootin' Tootin' Invigilatin'
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« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2011, 02:56:31 PM » |
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Isn't it a conflict of interest to choose your own textbook as a class text if you are going to receive royalties from those sales to students?
Not unless you are choosing it over another book that would be better value for the students. Why would someone write a textbook that was not worth adopting in their own class? |
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My hovercraft is full of eels, so I don't suppose snails in a fish tank is so very strange.
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helpful
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« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2011, 02:58:51 PM » |
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Well, the author should put aside the fact that they will receive benefits from assigning their book when they decide what is the best book. I hope people are able to do that.
(I am speaking as someone who has written books that I could potentially assign for my classes, but would only do so if I was convinced it was the best text for my class).
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mountainguy
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« Reply #11 on: August 27, 2011, 07:14:39 PM » |
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The politics of textbook selection was a major source of conflict in my previous department, and I'm told it's an issue in other departments as well.
Where I am now, the department's attitude is that instructors can choose whatever textbook they want, as long as they're meeting basic learning outcomes. That strike me as being a reasonable solution to ensuring some measure of consistency while still respecting academic freedom. In fact, I've seen some cases with a forced common book in which the selected book was so completely misaligned with course objectives that it actually did harm to students' mastery of the material.
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scienceprof
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« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2011, 06:06:36 AM » |
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Does any author make money from having their own students buy the textbook? All the authors I know get no royalties from copies sold at their own Uni, to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.
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The plural of anecdote is not data
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spork
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« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2011, 07:04:23 AM » |
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The politics of textbook selection was a major source of conflict in my previous department, and I'm told it's an issue in other departments as well.
[. . .]
I don't use textbooks anymore. In my discipline, the vast majority are horribly written and all of them are too expensive. I write my lecture notes out in prose form and put them online for students as pdfs. This has the added benefit of allowing me to partially replace lectures with problem-solving and research exercises in class. |
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a.k.a. gum-chewing monkey in a Tufts University jacket
"Please do not force people who are exhausted to take medication for hallucinations." -- Memo from the Chair, Department of White Privilege Studies, Fiork University
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mountainguy
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« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2011, 08:52:29 AM » |
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Does any author make money from having their own students buy the textbook? All the authors I know get no royalties from copies sold at their own Uni, to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.
Technically, you are correct. I've heard of shadowy ways around this, like, "Hey, colleague at other school! I'll adopt your book if you adopt mine." |
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