These textbook publishing companies just keep getting worse. I thought textbook prices were outrageous in the 1990s when I was an undergrad. Now that I am a faculty member at a university, I made it a point to change the courses I teach to use open-access textbooks for all of them. Students are grateful when you tell them you saved them the cost of the previous textbook, which was anywhere from $60 to $220 each.
The resale market doesn't last very long for hard print books, either. These publishing companies will reorder chapters and make minimal cosmetic changes and call it a new edition to get full-price again. Most required undergraduate courses, such as math, ancient history, English, etc... have not changed too much over the past few decades to warrant new editions of textbooks every couple of years.
My only available provider Armstrong Cable really stacked the deck against their consumers to prevent Cox's current situation. (I posted this on another site originally.)
No opt-out. Arbitration must be done in Pittsburgh (about a 4 1/2 hour drive for me, one-way) or another place of Armstrong's choosing. You must split the cost of the arbitrator with Armstrong (you may get your half back if you win). No pre-discovery of documents or depositions. You can't recover attorney fees, even if you are successful. No punitive damages. No consolidated or class action arbitration either.
https://armstrongonewire.com/Content/Documents/master-terms.pdf
ISPs: "Let's give 'em unlimited data for a few months so they'll use more data than ever while stuck at home Then, just when they get comfortable using more and more data, we'll slap the data caps back on 'em. Most of our captive customers won't be able to use less data than what they were used to using the past few months. Since we don't need data caps anyways, we'll take the short term loss on overage fees and make even more millions in the long run. We'll need another warehouse to hold all the money we'll make from COVID-19. MWAH HA HA."
I would imagine that's how the thinking went at most ISPs when the pandemic began.
When I started in higher education as a graduate faculty member, I was shocked and angered to see the book required in one course I was assigned to teach was $200. While the author was respected in the field of ed psych, and the book was very good as far as textbooks go, I couldn't justify having students spend that much learning educational theories, in addition to tuition and fees. Luckily, I found a Creative Commons textbook that covered the same material. I've used that Creative Commons ebook for the last four years, as there's not a lot of change in educational theories since most of the big names have passed on. I supplement the ebook with library articles (covered with tuition).
I teach three courses a semester, and the textbook is either a Creative Commons book, or no textbook is required.
One of the worst parts of the textbook scheme is the publishers offer these add-ons that are nonrefundable, and seem to be rarely used by professors. The add-ons are pushed pretty hard by the publishers.
When I was a student, I learned pretty quickly that in most lower-level lecture courses, you didn't need the book if you came to the lectures and took good notes.
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These textbook publishing companies just keep getting worse. I thought textbook prices were outrageous in the 1990s when I was an undergrad. Now that I am a faculty member at a university, I made it a point to change the courses I teach to use open-access textbooks for all of them. Students are grateful when you tell them you saved them the cost of the previous textbook, which was anywhere from $60 to $220 each. The resale market doesn't last very long for hard print books, either. These publishing companies will reorder chapters and make minimal cosmetic changes and call it a new edition to get full-price again. Most required undergraduate courses, such as math, ancient history, English, etc... have not changed too much over the past few decades to warrant new editions of textbooks every couple of years.
My only available provider Armstrong Cable really stacked the deck against their consumers to prevent Cox's current situation. (I posted this on another site originally.) No opt-out. Arbitration must be done in Pittsburgh (about a 4 1/2 hour drive for me, one-way) or another place of Armstrong's choosing. You must split the cost of the arbitrator with Armstrong (you may get your half back if you win). No pre-discovery of documents or depositions. You can't recover attorney fees, even if you are successful. No punitive damages. No consolidated or class action arbitration either. https://armstrongonewire.com/Content/Documents/master-terms.pdf
ISPs: "Let's give 'em unlimited data for a few months so they'll use more data than ever while stuck at home Then, just when they get comfortable using more and more data, we'll slap the data caps back on 'em. Most of our captive customers won't be able to use less data than what they were used to using the past few months. Since we don't need data caps anyways, we'll take the short term loss on overage fees and make even more millions in the long run. We'll need another warehouse to hold all the money we'll make from COVID-19. MWAH HA HA."
I would imagine that's how the thinking went at most ISPs when the pandemic began.
Creative Commons
When I started in higher education as a graduate faculty member, I was shocked and angered to see the book required in one course I was assigned to teach was $200. While the author was respected in the field of ed psych, and the book was very good as far as textbooks go, I couldn't justify having students spend that much learning educational theories, in addition to tuition and fees. Luckily, I found a Creative Commons textbook that covered the same material. I've used that Creative Commons ebook for the last four years, as there's not a lot of change in educational theories since most of the big names have passed on. I supplement the ebook with library articles (covered with tuition).
I teach three courses a semester, and the textbook is either a Creative Commons book, or no textbook is required.
One of the worst parts of the textbook scheme is the publishers offer these add-ons that are nonrefundable, and seem to be rarely used by professors. The add-ons are pushed pretty hard by the publishers.
When I was a student, I learned pretty quickly that in most lower-level lecture courses, you didn't need the book if you came to the lectures and took good notes.