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Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

bbc.co.uk

21–30 of 64 posts

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#21

I think making textbooks more accessible to students will be a huge positive movement for education, especially in countries such as the states where education is already a multi billion dollar industry.

At least for me, I find that textbooks are more accessible when they are textbooks, instead of heavily-DRMed software hidden behind a subscription paywall and wholesale information rape.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#22

I think making textbooks more accessible to students will be a huge positive movement for education, especially in countries such as the states where education is already a multi billion dollar industry.

Wiping out the secondary market where students can sell on their textbooks at the end of their courses to those just starting. I can see why such an unregulated market is a threat to their business model - increasing their control of the market won't bring prices down at all.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#23

Just saying, I didn’t use a single textbook throughout my entire CS degree here. All of the course materials were available freely on our Moodle instance or through our library. Most of the course materials were produced by the lecturers, and where they had written a proper textbook, they just sent us the PDFs.

No idea why this is downvoted, same thing here.

Ripping off students through overpriced mandatory textbooks is not a worldwide phenomena. Through CS Bachelor and Master I too have never had to buy a coursebook. The few books that were needed for extremely standardized courses like math 1-3 were available in sufficient numbers in the library.

It takes two to force students to spend so much on books, a publisher can price their books anyway they like if there isnt a university forcing their students to use them. That for profit universities dont have a problem with that is not surprising.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#24
post #13

Many textbook publishers, including Pearson, have already begun strongly encouraging professors to use additional online components from the publisher for things like homework assignments. Even if you buy the textbook used, you still have to purchase an online access code from the publisher (often for $100+ for the semester). The textbook publishers have been working on crushing the textbook resale market for years,…

Also new editions every 2-3 years that do nothing but shuffle the exercises around and change a few numbers here and there so that teachers either have to assign exercises separately for each edition or make everyone to get the latest edition. Such a scam.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#25
post #2

This is evil on so many levels - no ownership - you only rent!

It will be interesting to see where this goes. After undergrad and grad school, the amount of times I’ve gone back to hardcopy books or course notes is so tiny that It didn’t justify lugging them around over many moves. (And I love books - prefer bookcases to wallpaper!) The current model of forcing student to re-buy books that are only marginally updated on an annual basis is wasteful. The real question is will tota…

Ah, but that's the trick of the modern price: It does not ever go down. This isn't grandpa's hardware store. These are scientists working to extract as much money as possible from their "customers" in an industry which already enjoys regulatory capture and oligopoly. It may seem as though the price has gone down, in much the same way that grocery stores claimed prices would go down with their club cards, only to have the prices actually go up across the board -- as well as introducing an invasive data-collection system -- and merely appearing to have gone down when compared to the price without a card. There is no such thing as "money on the table", just big ass companies taking more and more and more because people have no choice. Rent-seeking behavior seems par for the course in today's business world. "Fair price" is an illusion.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#26

This means in two decades we won't have any record of what was in these textbooks, right? :/

I've got a set of kids encyclopedias from the 1950s, the stuff in there is considered college/university level now. Calculus, algebra, all kinds of mechanical engineering stuff etc

But with no physical textbooks no-one will know when stuff is removed or changed. This could be a wonderful move, but human nature says it'll be the opposite.

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#27
post #13

Many textbook publishers, including Pearson, have already begun strongly encouraging professors to use additional online components from the publisher for things like homework assignments. Even if you buy the textbook used, you still have to purchase an online access code from the publisher (often for $100+ for the semester). The textbook publishers have been working on crushing the textbook resale market for years,…

Instructor resources have always been distributed separately afaik. If you're a student you can access free digital content from their website[1].

Am I missing something?

[1] https://media.pearsoncmg.com/bc/abp/engineering-resources

Re: Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks

#28
post #27
post #13

Many textbook publishers, including Pearson, have already begun strongly encouraging professors to use additional online components from the publisher for things like homework assignments. Even if you buy the textbook used, you still have to purchase an online access code from the publisher (often for $100+ for the semester). The textbook publishers have been working on crushing the textbook resale market for years,…

Instructor resources have always been distributed separately afaik. If you're a student you can access free digital content from their website[1]. Am I missing something? [1] https://media.pearsoncmg.com/bc/abp/engineering-resources

I think he means the "supplemental material" CDs that many textbooks come with these days, which are just a fancy way of forcing the user to use the website, which of course requires a subscription fee and the surrender of personal information in order to use, and whose use is required by the class and therefore by the university.
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