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Comment by ncw96 | Hacker News Reader

Many textbook publishers, including Pearson, have already begun strongly encouraging professors to use additional online components from the publisher for things like homework assignments.

Even if you buy the textbook used, you still have to purchase an online access code from the publisher (often for $100+ for the semester).

The textbook publishers have been working on crushing the textbook resale market for years, and this seems to be the final nail in the coffin.

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Also new editions every 2-3 years that do nothing but shuffle the exercises around and change a few numbers here and there so that teachers either have to assign exercises separately for each edition or make everyone to get the latest edition. Such a scam.

Instructor resources have always been distributed separately afaik. If you're a student you can access free digital content from their website[1].

Am I missing something?

[1] https://media.pearsoncmg.com/bc/abp/engineering-resources

I think he means the "supplemental material" CDs that many textbooks come with these days, which are just a fancy way of forcing the user to use the website, which of course requires a subscription fee and the surrender of personal information in order to use, and whose use is required by the class and therefore by the university.

Students are often required to solve self-checking homework problems online, and they can only do that with the access code.

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