https://openstaxcollege.org/ Anyone heard of this? Can't imagine those profiting from textbooks are gonna go down without a fight. @red55 , or any of you others who work at universities, what do you think the chances of this making inroads at LSU would be? The cost of textbooks is absolutely out of control.
I took some courses where the textbook was written by the professor. How do they feel about missing out on the royalties?
Had that very thing happen in a program I was in here in Oklahoma, the Professor wrote a text book, then required it for his class and they fired him for it.
I don't think it is or was against the rules at LSU. T. Harry Williams was the world's leading authority on the Civil War and the textbook for his class was written by him. There used to be a required class called Books and Libraries. Was supposed to teach you how to use the library. The book was written by the teacher and you had to do your work in the pages of the book and tear them out to turn in. So there were no used books and everybody had to buy one.
My first psyc class back in 79, the teacher wrote the book. I think his name was Dr. Hoppen, not sure though.
My youngest is taking a bunch of BS medical admin courses at local community college. $600+ for the books for four courses. That includes two books from Amazon at 50% less than the bookstore. Two books indicated they were part of a package so she did not get on Amazon. About the only package was the flimsy plastic wrapping. I also have been down the by the prof's book road several times. Bullshit!
Some enterprising techie should set up a textbook file sharing service. Charge a small fee to be a member and then everybody can upload and download e-books to their Kindles
Back when I was taking classes there was an online sight where you could rent an online copy of the book. I loved it because 1. It was about 30% or so, maybe 40% of the actual price of the book so you saved a ton on money. 2. You didn't have to lug around a bunch of big ass books, only a laptop or tablet. 3. You could digitally highlight, set bookmarks and you had a digital index that would get you to the page you needed with a click. Let me see if I can find the sight, no way I can remember it.
