Textbooks are insanely expensive because corporations got involved.
Lecturers should use free or independently published resources to prevent the extortion of student "consumers".
Lecturers should use free or independently published resources to prevent the extortion of student "consumers".
A lot of times the person spent so much time and energy writing their book, this is a major motivator to mandate / force it's usage whenever possible.
One time my art teacher made us buy his book, but it was only $30 and was pretty good actually, and I still have it on my shelf today. However, such cases are the exception.