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Summary critique the high cost of college textbooks
Digital vs printed books
Textbook costs essay
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Expensive Textbooks
Textbooks are a must have in every university. On top of tuition, dining, and housing fees, the high cost of textbooks can be a huge burden on students. Often times, students cannot afford to buy books for their classes on time due to the prices of textbooks. According to NBC's review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, textbook prices have risen over three times the rate of inflation from January 1977 to June 2015, a 1,041 percent increase (Popken). I don’t think the money is worth because students are at college to grab knowledge not books.
Research has shown that a student spends around twelve hundred dollars a year on textbooks (Senack 6). Imagine a student you know from your neighborhood, who has a poor financial
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Open source textbooks can be a great solution to decrease the expenses on the textbooks, as all the resources are available on the internet for free. In addition, it can be accessed anywhere at any time, so students shouldn’t carry heavy textbooks with them. Although, some might argue that many students have a habit to study from hard copies of textbooks; they can easily download and print from the open source textbook off the internet which might cost only 20 – 40 dollars to print, compared to hundreds of dollars spent on textbooks. Moreover, it can be easily edited by professors as needed, and students can learn what their professors really want them to focus on. Yet, some might still argue why professors would waste their time editing textbooks when they can easily recommend them to students. Though, they can recommend, the textbooks might always miss something or write more about something which the professor requires or do not require respectively. Also, editing the open source textbook isn’t like writing a whole new textbook, which consumes a lot of time; it’s just adding or removing some necessary or unnecessary information, which can be done easily. Hence, another problem of buying older versions or new versions of books per the teacher’s choice can be easily
This article, “Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?” by Henry Roediger reveals the truth of why textbooks are so pricey. He shows how textbooks prices are costly not because of inflation, corporate textbook companies, and frequent revisions, but because of the sale of used textbooks. The article is elaborating on why used textbooks are the real culprit as well. One main point that is highlighted is that used textbooks are resold for many years. The initial selling of the textbook is the only time the author will make a profit, but the bookstore will make a profit every time they resell a used book. It is essential for the author to raise the price to compensate for the loss of money when dealing with used textbooks.
In a recent study that was conducted the rate of individuals attending college has increased. This increase in students comes at a time when the country has been described as being in a recession. With job losses, companies closing and lack of job availability many people are returning to school. This return to the classroom comes at a cost. The rate of college tuition has risen in the last few years. In my home state of Kentucky, it appears both of the major Universities have asked to raise tuition every other year. When college cost rise so does the tools needed to attend college. One of the most expensive tools is books. Last year I enrolled my son in college when calculating the books for his classes, we soon learned that the cost of his books and the cost of my books were almost on month’s salary. My family soon learned if we were going to be able to not only attend college but have the necessary tools needed, we would have to consider alternatives to buying books. I did some research and soon discovered that technology had again come to the rescue. I found a company called Chegg that is an online book rental company. This company provides students with an alternative to buying books by renting them for a portion of the price. According to their article in CrunchBase named “Chegg edit” the company began at Iowa University in 2005 as a “hyper-local” classified directory. It was not until 2007 that the company introduced their textbook rental service. When looking at the company from an Information Systems standpoint I would say it ranks up there with the creative ideas of the century. You go online type in your order and it is processed within a matter of days. During the next portion of this paper we will loo...
... Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition And Inflation." Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.
...university needs to stop requiring packaged materials and should move away from textbooks that require one-time access codes. Also, they can reuse textbooks for several semesters because the core information remains the same from edition to edition, eliminating the need to constantly replace the stock with every new edition. Students would be held responsible for the condition of their assigned book, and will also be given the option of keeping it at the end of the semester. In either case, the school has options in place to recover the cost of the textbook should a student destroy or decide to keep a specific book. By implementing such a program, students at the University of Delaware will be less inclined to resort to illegal measures to save money, and they will certainly be less likely to incur even more debt as the cost of college tuition continues to rise.
Some students would possibly hold that effortless and their parents help them out with money but others
A college education has become the expectation for most youth in the United States. Children need a college education to succeed in the global economy. Unfortunately for the majority of Americans the price of an education has become the equivalent to a small house. The steep tuition of a college education has made it an intimidating financial hurdle for middle class families. In 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a private university was $20,566 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was $28,500 for an increase of 38.6%. Similarly in public universities there has been an increase in tuition: in the 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a public university was $8,454 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was actually $20,770 for an increase of 145.7%. Most families who are able to save for college try to do so, therefore their children are not left with large amounts of debt due to loans. Nevertheless, families are only able to save on average around $10,000, which is not enough to pay for a full educ...
College isn’t all about bookwork. College is a place to have and experience new things. If a ceiling was set on tuition there would be almost no money to fund extracurricular activities such athletic and cultural facilities and other programs. Also colleges would not be able to pay for extensive libraries and new technology for students without tuition.
In conclusion, America provides many ways to help reduce the cost of college textbooks but society is still not satisfied with the outcome. The Open Textbook, Affordable Textbook Act, and book store rentals are wonderful programs, but has its disadvantages that hopefully would be resolved in the 2016 presidential elections. The statistics show that many students across the nation benefit from learning with quality of teaching, the amount of accessibility it provides without having to worry about paying off student loans. School administrations should consider about transferring to an act that would benefit both the school and the students, but also provide more equality to the publishers and students.
The pros of this agreement is that it would help student acquire the book without struggling with the high price; in addition, it may incentive other students to take the course. Another alternative is to allow the universities bookstore to resell the used book at a lower price, so students can afford it. Using this alternative the company would be minimizing cost by printing less books, and at the same time more books are going to be in the market, the new ones and the used ones, giving students the opportunity to make a choice and improving market efficiency. As an additional alternative, Eastlane could use (technology) product development techniques to create an e-book. This alternative would benefit the publisher by saving money on printing, storage and transportation of books. In the same way, it will allow students to buy the book at a lower price. In the long run, all these alternatives would help the company develop a more efficient market strategy resulting in sales growth and profit increase. Some of the disadvantages of these alternatives in the short run could be a decrease in profit due to universities bookstore selling used books at a lower price, many students would prefer to buy the book used and save some money. Also, by allowing students to access the book through the website the professors created or the e-book, Eastlane poses the risk of people copying and selling the files to other students or possible costumers, so it is important to protects the publisher’s rights by securing the e-book and its files. Overall, these alternatives would force the publisher to lower the book price since it would cost them less to have an online version rather than a hard copy
"As Costs of Textbooks Rise, E-books Emerge as More Affordable Alternative." The Daily Illini. Brittany Gibson, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Open source textbooks can be a great solution to decrease the expenses on the textbooks as all the resources are available on the internet for free. In addition, it can be accessible anywhere at any time so, students shouldn’t carry heavy textbooks all the time. Although, some might argue that many students have habit to study from hard copies or textbooks; they can easily download and print from the open source textbook which might cost only 20 – 40 dollars to print compared to hundreds of dollars on text books. Moreover, it can be easily edited by teachers as per their need, and students can learn what their teachers really want them to focus on. Yet, some might argue that why would professors waste their time editing textbooks when they can easily recommend textbooks to students. Though, they can recommend; the textbooks might always miss something or write more about something which the professor require or don’t respectively. Also, editing the open source textbook is not like writing a textbook which consumes a lot of time, it’s just adding or removing some necessary or unnecessary information. Hence, another problem of buying older versions or new versions books per the teacher’s choice can be easily
Textbooks are reliable, they can be used by anyone, and there are enough textbooks for each student to have their own, and be able to take them home. Also, technology is impacting the way the brain receives information. Reading digital print isn't as productive for readers as printed text, and there is limited access to resources needed for tablets to be effective when used by students. While this is true there are benefits to using tablets and other forms of technology in the classroom. It is easier for teachers to have assignments emailed directly to them, or post assignments on the internet, the use of technology is required in many core classes, and textbooks are easily worn, and expensive.
Getting educated is one of the most important things in life when it comes to getting a good future. By developing good knowledge of schooling, it helps establish and maintain new information as needed throughout the real world. As books are one the essential tools in learning, eBooks are being used in a everyday lifestyle. Traveling to get away places from city life, helps give reading a comforting feel. Students that use print books are eventually going to use ebooks in the future. By educating students with ebooks, it is more efficient than carrying textbooks; ebooks is more convenient and reliable to read, write and store notes. Print books are being replaced by eBooks, it helps on keeping files together and it makes notes
With advances in digital technology, there is increasing popularity of reading electronic books over traditional paper books. For example, ebooks now outsell traditional ones on Amazon. Although paper books still have tremendous values and have own market niche, as evident from the number of books placed on shelves at various retailers, e-books will be the trend of text publishing going forward. There are many glaring advantages that e-books have over traditional paper books, as e-books are more convenient to carry, have greater update capacity, have greater storage capacity, more accessible and environmental friendly. This paper will therefore elaborate on the advantages of e-books and provide a comparative analysis of e-books versus traditional books.
The art of reading doesn’t come with instructions, if it has to be with paper or digital; it is just an art to acquire knowledge. Although, some people say they prefer paper books, because they can smell the scent of every sheet of paper, they consider that it is better to concentrate, their eyes don’t get dry and they do not need to be worried about charging the phone or tablet, since the paper books are never going to die on battery. On the other hand, some others like the electronic book way, and they indicate is easier to carry on, to manipulate, the price is lower than paper books, and the fact that they can have many books in one file. At the end, both are used with the same purpose to learn or entertain, but there is some advantages and disadvantages between them.