I have long predicted the demise of conventional textbooks, but they are hanging on. For now, the textbook is king.
Faculty like textbooks because they save them time. There are only a few candidate books to choose among for a course, they come with teaching material like PowerPoint slides, review questions and test banks, the publisher maintains a Web site for the book, and the table of contents determines the course syllabus.
As teaching loads increase, faculty are driven to rely more heavily on textbook publishers. (I stopped using textbooks years ago, saving my students a lot of money, but costing me a lot of time).
I still think textbooks will fade away, but while you wait for the demise of the $100 textbook, you can use Amazon's beta-test textbook buyback service to ease the pain. A student with books in good condition can ship them for free to Amazon, and receive Amazon gift card credit as payment. That credit can be used to purchase new or used textbooks for other classes or anything else. Textbook ordering is also simple -- enter the ISBN numbers of the textbooks you need, and a one-click search returns links to all of them.
Amazon also offers many textbooks in electronic form for distribution on their Kindle e-book reader. The current Kindle has significant limitations as a textbook reader, but it also has some advantages, and many companies are working on other devices. (Maybe textbooks will be a killer application for the much rumored Apple tablet or whatever Hewlett Packard is cooking up).
The average US student spends $702 annualy on required course materials, and, as shown below, about 23% of that goes to the bookstore and distribution. Amazon hopes to get a piece of that.
(Click on the picture to enlarge it).
Let us know if you have been buying or selling textbooks online or using an e-book reader like the Kindle.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Should you be buying and selling textbooks at Amazon?
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Larry,
ReplyDeleteI just got back to academic-side blogging and caught up with this post. Great and timely topic! My students are struggling with the "textbook problem" as I type this (2nd week of classes for us). There is a lot of informal buy/sell going on via our internal campus blog tool, which may cut into both campus bookstore sales and potential Amazon sales. The Amazon model shows promise, as it looks easy and does not seem to require credit cards, which can be a barrier online.
Textbooks may or may not fade altogether, but the old model seems to be broken, broken, broken-- especially with books that demand updating, like tech books. My publisher is coming out with a new edition and I may stop answering my phone between now and next fall! If we switch it's at least $100 per student vs. $50 or less for the previous edition. Our campus prez has sent two reminders to faculty to try and ease up on textbook costs.
BTW you have correctly noted it takes more course-prep time NOT to use a textbook. Any ideas for us poor lecturers? If I put in any more time I'll be at minimum wage!
--George S. from CSUMB
George,
ReplyDelete> BTW you have correctly noted it takes more course-prep time NOT to use a textbook. Any ideas for us poor lecturers?
I wish I had an answer -- I spend a ton of time on new material every term and the only "pay" is the satisfaction I get from doing it. Better publishing tools might help, but regardless, it will take a lot of time.
You have hit a key point -- the textbook publishers are selling to the faculty, not the students, and most faculty will go for a package that cuts their preparation time.
Larry
ps -- the article I linked to at the start of the post was written during the CSUMB planning process, before it became a CSU campus.
Thanks for the additional info. This semester I've also found a great e-text in our library's subscription database (paid for with our tax $ already!) so students won't be pressured to buy it AND our primary text.
ReplyDeleteFYI, I'm pointing my students to this post and to your 1994 article. This semester I'm blogging here and encouraging my students to get comfortable in this medium. Blogging seems to be new to many.
I believe that is true that text books are going to fade way pretty soon. Because most students prefer to buy e-text books because it’s easily accessible and they do not need to carry it around with them all day. according to the blog " should you be buying and selling textbooks at Amazon" talks about that the average US student spends $702 annually on required course materials, and, as shown below, about 23% of that goes to the bookstore and distribution. Amazon hopes to get a piece of that.
ReplyDeleteI believe that is true that text books are going to fade way pretty soon. Because most students prefer to buy e-text books because it’s easily accessible and they do not need to carry it around with them all day. according to the blog " should you be buying and selling textbooks at Amazon" talks about that the average US student spends $702 annually on required course materials, and, as shown below, about 23% of that goes to the bookstore and distribution. Amazon hopes to get a piece of that.
ReplyDelete