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IU's etextbook program: effort at reducing costs, improving learning

On IU's etextbook deal w/ 5 publishers

"Several universities have recently tried a new model for delivering textbooks in hopes of saving students money: requiring purchase of e-textbooks and charging students a materials fee to cover the costs. A recent report on some of those pilot projects, however, shows that many students find the e-textbooks "clumsy" and prefer print."

" Unfortunately, in the case of Mike Tracy, a highly-regarded animator who'd been teaching at the Art Institute of California-Orange County for the past 11 years, refusing to make students buy an e-book they don't need may have cost him his job."

I wonder where this occurs beyond the for-profit space.

". CSU has announced a three-year deal with Nature Publishing Group for low-cost, interactive, web-based textbooks with access options for disabled students. "

"A typical college student spends up to $1,000 per year on textbooks, and many students don't buy textbooks at all because they're too expensive. E-textbooks can cost up to 50 percent less than standard textbooks while providing the foundation for integration of multiple learning resources into a single delivery system. E-textbooks and their enhanced interactive learning resources also have the potential to accelerate student learning."

"Apple's next big idea of digital textbooks in classrooms equipped with iPads has run into a snag: cost."

Yes indeed. Some of us pointed this out a while back (harrumph). Gotta love that Apple spokesperson's response.

Joseph Esposito looks at different textbook reform strategies, including cutting costs via "industrial engineering" (FlatWorld), crowdsourcing, multimedia, gaming, platform, and social network. Suggests that innovation will occur at community colleges and for-profits, where faculty has less power in choosing textbook.

"Logically, e-textbooks should be much cheaper than the print options available to students--but they're not. CT looks at the rationale behind their pricing, and the market factors at play."

"Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks-20 percent of tuition at an average university and half of tuition at a community college. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994 and continue to rise."

"Stanford's CodeX, also known as the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and MediaX have been working on a "Print on Demand" system - a new way to lower prices for course materials."

For the 2010 academic year, 50,000 of Ohio's 70,000 Introductory Psychology students have had a low-cost digital option available for the textbook of their instructor's choice. Developed within a University System of Ohio Project framework in collaboration with five leading publishers of psychology textbooks, the Ohio Digital Bookshelf Project emerged from three years of research and within a social network established among faculty, librarians, technologists, and the accessibility community.