Digitial Textbooks

A few weeks back I spoke at a media class here on campus and was shocked when the majority of students said they would rather buy a physical text book for $XXX than a cheaper, e-based one. I think the whole etextbook sounds like a sure thing . . . thankfully I’m not the only one:

Continuing their campaign to draw attention to the cost of textbooks, the Student Public Interest Research Groups celebrated Tuesday what they’re calling a major milestone — reaching 1,000 professors who’ve signed a statement supporting the use of free, online and open source textbooks.

Colleges and individual faculty members continue to experiment with putting course information and material online, and “open textbooks” typically are licensed to allow users to download, share and alter the content as they see fit, so long as their purposes aren’t commercial and they credit the author for the original material. This allows instructors to customize e-textbooks and offer them to students for free online or as low-cost printed versions. (via Inside Higher Ed)