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Summary critique the high cost of college textbooks
Textbooks benefits and negatives
Summary critique the high cost of college textbooks
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Should textbook be free in college education? According to College Board students spend an average of $1200 on textbooks per year (College Board). It is concerning that learning higher education is being undermined by rising costs of textbook. As more and more working adults want to go back to college to develop skills or specialize in the area of their interest in order to improve the quality of life, while there are others like high school students who are planning to start college right after their high school. For many of them their enthusiasm dies down when they find out that the books required for their classes are not only expensive but there are no other alternatives. Since the book companies are commercial entities …show more content…
On the contrary, in the case of traditional textbooks, updated information is made available only when the next edition is published which usually takes two years or more. This is also the time when course instructors recommend the latest editions, as all previous editions are rendered obsolete. This effectively prevents students from acquiring used textbooks for free or discounted prices. This seemingly unintended consequence is a deliberate strategy implemented by textbook companies to advance their interest in generating continuous flow of revenue. The real unintended consequence is the likelihood of students from poor family to drop out. Despite receiving a tution waiver to attend college, some students might find the prices of their textbook to prohibitive to continue attaining the education. Most of the students who fall under this category are the first in the family to ever step their foot in a college. Dropping out because of exorbitant textbooks would almost certainly guarantee that the student to re-enter the vicious cycle of family with no college …show more content…
The qualities of the materials in open textbooks are the same as that of textbooks. These are peer reviewed by leading authors and publishers from premier institutes who are avid supporter of open textbooks. There is a school of thought that believes that traditional textbooks provide better results in students’ academic performance. However, according to a study there was astonishingly no difference in the performances between the students selecting open textbooks and the ones with traditional textbooks (Chulkov). Open textbooks also known as Open educational resources (OER) have huge potential to both reduce costs and improve student success, according to Dr. David Wiley, founder of Lumen Learning and a longtime open education advocate. Furthermore, he quotes a research that show inverse relationship between cost of textbooks and student performance (Lumen). With open textbooks, which is accepted by many higher education institutes a huge hurdle for students can be alleviated by eliminating the cost of textbooks, while simultaneously improving learning experiences and student
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...
As people attend college, fees build up and students loan money and possibly be in debt. Not only that, some may say college isn’t worth it, but it is. Getting a degree pays off at the end, going towards your career path, making twice as much as you would work at a regular job. Students who have received a degree are slowly declining. To make adjustments, college should be free for everyone.
Ask any college student to state one of their largest expenses and it would be safe to bet the response would be “Textbook prices!” The cost of purchasing required materials for courses has reached numbers high enough to cause many students to take out second loans. Information released this year by the American Enterprise Institute shows that “College textbook prices have increased faster than tuition, health care costs and housing prices, all of which have risen faster than inflation” (Kingkade, 2013). This information equates to an 812% increase in the cost of college textbooks over what they were just over thirty years ago (Kingkade, 2013). The figure here shows an unusually large increase that has far outpaced that of average inflation. Combine this information with the equally troubling information released by Bloomberg stating “college tuition and fees have increased 1,120 percent since records began in 1978” and a serious financial problem for students emerges(Huffington Post, 2012). One thing should be clear given these statistics: something must be done to help lessen the financial burden being placed on today’s students. Considering the implications of these two figures, the University of Delaware should attempt to remedy the increasing cost of textbooks as soon as possible before they overwhelm students any more than they already have. In order to help reduce these runaway costs, this institution should pursue a policy similar to those high schools and elementary schools practice, namely a sort of loan program.
"As Costs of Textbooks Rise, E-books Emerge as More Affordable Alternative." The Daily Illini. Brittany Gibson, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
For most young Americans, college has always been preached to them as being a vital part to their success in the adult world; but as they reach this educative rite of passage many find they must take out inflated loans, work part time jobs, or even become dissuaded entirely due to the exorbitant costs of higher education. We must forsake this current antiquated system in favor of government subsidized tuition. Therefore, college education must be free because of its benefit to the economy, creation of equal opportunity, and the resolution of the student loan crisis.
The price of a four year institution has soared over three hundred percent in the past twenty-five years or so. We would have to factor in general inflation numbers in order to figure out the real significance. After that, we see that in those twenty-five years, tuition has risen at a rate of two to four times that of the national inflation. That has not been the case with college, however, as enrollments only continue to go up. Ultimately this means that families are paying for a luxury they can no longer afford with money they don’t have. Families are looking at an expense that is thirty-eight
Congratulations you have made it to your senior year of high school also your final year of high school and you’re ready to go off to college and begin your journey down the path to success. As you are preparing for college you realize how expensive it can really be. You pay for all sorts of things such as paying for tuition, the cost to attend, and paying to live on campus and if you can really afford all of it. Then, you begin to wander and ask yourself. Should college be free?
Income inequality has become a central issue in the United States, and it is sad to think that textbook prices are adding to this gap. The financial aid that is supposed to help poorer families is being used to buy textbooks, which are priced unfairly. There is no way the amount of financial aid given out has kept up with the surge in textbook prices, which means that year after year, students have to use more financial aid to buy books. Essentially, this means that people have less financial aid to use for other expenses of college, such as tuition. I would also theorize that a good portion of the 70% of students who choose to forgo a textbook are also from poor families.
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.
(Debate) They should be free so that everyone has the choice of being able to get the education they want and need. Some people should be able to choose not to go to college, and it should be okay. ("Is Starting College and Not Finishing Really That Bad?," www.thehamiltonproject.org, ) If college were not free,then students would
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.
Books have been the storehouses of information and knowledge since the printing press and it’s worth our time to inform our selves what the future of our learning will be. “Today, roughly 40-50,000 books are published commercially each year in the English language. But the number is rapidly rising, as traditional barriers to entry are fading away.” ("Polemic: how readers will"). Since the development of E-Books in 2011 a massive amount of books have been published on the Internet. Forbes calls the present time evolution of books a “transition period”. Due to the high progression and qu...
Shen, Lynda. “Ebooks are especially suitable for educational purposes. Why is that so?.” ebook88. N.p. n.d. Web. 15 FEB 2012.
Fees and loans are too big of a load for young people to carry. A lot of students drop out do to the pressure of having to worry about all the loans they have to pay back after they are done with college. This should not be an issue to the student. According Iatham Emmmons, “Even worse, a large portion of students never receive funding at all due to the multitude of stipulations that must be adhered to in order to qualify for assistance. A major flaw in the current federal educational assistance programs is that the students’ parents’ income is used to calculate financial need” (Emmons 3). Even citizens who try to get help by applying for funding never end up getting it because they do not meet the needs required for the funding. Education should be p...