Hi Mike:
At SIUE we use the textbook rental system. The student pays a per semester fee
(undergrads only) which amounts to about the cost of one book. So, the pro is
that it is inexpensive. The cons are these: You must keep the same text for 3
years, every section teaching that course uses the same text, you are usually
limtted in the number of books you can assign -- departmental policies vary of
course -- an English course on literature will have many, but an accounting
course will usually have one. I don't know if this helps...but the system does
work surprisingly well even if I get bored with the book after one semester or
so. George
Quoting "Barnett, Michael" <
mbarnett@coba.usf.edu>:
> -- Fair warning: I'm cross-posting yet again. When will I ever reform?
>
>
> Textbooks are expensive. In Florida public universities, textbook costs
> rival tuition costs. I'm currently chairing a "Textbook Affordability
> Initiative" at the University of South Florida to help resolve this problem
> (and not simply by raising tuition costs to make textbook costs appear
> cheaper by comparison!). We've tried direct negotiation with a major
> publisher to purchase blanket access to their electronic archives (cf.
> library purchase agreements with journal publishers), but the price they've
> quoted makes it infeasible.
>
>
>
> And so now we've turned to exploring open source textbook options and ways to
> use other course materials in lieu of texts. I'd rather not recreate any
> wheels, should they already exist, and so I ask for your advice and
> experiences with open source projects, should you have any. I don't know if
> the quantity and quality of open source texts is adequate. I don't know all
> the challenges of incentivizing authors to release texts and course materials
> for open source. I don't know all the challenges of incentivizing professors
> to adopt open source texts and materials for their courses. And I don't know
> if I should be prepared for serious legal or other challenges from publishers
> who want to maintain the gravy train of privatizing a bit too much of what,
> in my mind at the moment, should largely be public knowledge. And, of
> course, many recipients of this e-mail are also recipients of royalty
> payments, so what are the implications of upending this system for you?
>
>
>
> I have a perhaps overly optimistic idea that I can create a pool of funds on
> the order of, say, $100,000, within my university that could be used to
> provide grants to authors and adopters. Where viable open source materials
> don't already exist, we'd offer new authors, say, $5,000 for releasing a text
> that at least, say, two other professors have agreed to adopt. We'd put the
> text through external review, and to receive the full grant, the authors
> would have to agree to a few revisions to ensure the text is of adequate
> quality. I'm hoping that there are enough out-of-print or unpublished texts
> of relevance out there that this becomes feasible without great effort.
> Professors would be offered grants of, say, $500, for completing a tutorial
> on open source use and then adopting open source materials for a course.
> I'd rely on student pressure to encourage professors to adopt open source as
> well.
>
>
>
> Please let me know of your experiences and your thoughts on this idea. I'm
> glad to summarize for the list, should folks desire. I currently can be
> reached at:
mbarnett@coba.usf.edu.
>
>
>
> ********************
>
> Michael L. Barnett, PhD
> University of South Florida
> College of Business Administration
> Department of Management & Organization
> 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, BSN 3527
> Tampa, FL 33620-5500
> Phone: 813-974-1727
> Fax: 813-974-1734
> Webpage:
http://www.coba.usf.edu/barnett
>
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> <http://ssrn.com/author=414796
> <https://email.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?
URL=http://ssrn.com/author=414796>
> >
>
>
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