Students being forced to buy online textbooks to do homework | Hacker News Reader

Students being forced to buy online textbooks to do homework

2 pointsbjd23852 comments

I was forced to buy an online textbook for my CS course this past semester to do homework. Now I've been notified that my `subscription' to this information is ending at the start of January (specifically by ZyBooks).

I really liked working on the projects and reading through the descriptions, I thought it was worth the $70 or so that I paid for it. However, it was hardly ``fresh,'' I could look up the same information by Googling or surfing SO.

I've been forced to buy these now extinct access codes to websites that have ``online textbooks'' before for courses (I still have the $60-100 cards, about 4 or 5 of them now). I honestly don't feel they're worth, most of the time, what I've paid for them. And at the end of the day, I end up empty handed, robbed of that information (unlike an actual textbook, albeit still way overpriced, but at least it's _mine_ and no one can take it away from me).

Has anyone else gone through the same thing? Thoughts? Opinions?

College textbooks have been a way to extract money from students for many years. In the old days of physical books, the new copy would be as ridiculously priced as they are today (in constant dollars). The used copies would be beat up and about 80% of the ridiculous price. At the end of the term, the buyback would be for 10 to 20% of the original price at best. Sometimes it would be a couple of dollars because a new edition had come out.

One of the current trends is toward open source textbooks under permissive licenses. It will happen slowly as older faculty are replaced by younger, so it probably won't be done by the time you finish your degree.

Anyway, given the cost of higher education this might not be the place to worry about maximizing return on investment.

1. You need to talk to the department heads at your university and let them know. Schedule a meeting, and when you bring up your (very valid) points, point to the rows of books on their shelf, and show them your now-extinct cards. It will be effective.

2. Give them the benefit of the doubt. They were probably trying to save you money. Others in your class probably preferred this lower-cost approach.

3. Don't just complain here about it. Your University department will never know that there is a problem unless you communicate with them about this. As long as you do it in the right way, they will appreciate the feedback.

Good luck!

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