Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Are Textbooks A Foregone Conclusion?

Image Credit
This week I'd like to challenge us to consider the digital revolution as it relates to a very specific aspect of our courses: textbooks.

Are textbooks absolutely necessary in all cases? Or is there a plethora of free information on the web that allows us to forgo their use in certain cases?

61 professors at Lansing Community College have decided to eliminate textbooks in 27 courses, saving LCC students at total of one million dollars since 2015. Check it out:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/08/15/lansing-community-college-cutting-costly-textbooks/551936001/

I would challenge you to consider that textbooks are not a foregone conclusion in the broader education world, nor are they universally recommended or embraced by all education experts. Most education professionals instead rely on the principles of systematic instructional design to determine the "building blocks" of content. Similarly, don't forget that educational fair use allows you to copy and hand out a chapter of a book or 10%, whichever is smaller.

Try to eliminate a textbook from a course you teach and watch the results. We might save our students a bundle of cash AND enhance student learning by delivering more targeted, specific content that says what we want to communicate more concisely and effectively than assigning an entire book could.

Thanks, feel free to comment below or shoot us all an email.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

2 comments:

  1. WileyAugust 24, 2017 at 8:29 AM

    I'm still a book worm, but I think there are cases where we might benefit from using a resource that has a great chapter on the subject matter we're studying. For example, with Psalms I give the students a PDF of the introduction to Psalms from Bible Knowledge Commentary. Since it is only a few pages, and for educational purposes, it falls under fair usage copyright laws. I would never have students by the BKC just for Psalms, but I don't have to since I can assign that one section for free.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownOctober 3, 2017 at 6:39 AM

      Thanks for the comment. I'm sure we agree that the key here is that the textbook or reading is assigned in order to achieve a measurable learning outcome or goal. That doesn't mean students must read or buy an entire book in all cases. With the plethora of learning resources out there we have no excuse not to at least consider other options including educational fair use, journal articles, YouTube videos, etc.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)