<story><title>States are moving to cut college costs by introducing open-source textbooks</title><url>https://qz.com/962487/states-are-moving-to-cut-college-costs-by-introducing-open-source-textbooks/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>georgeecollins</author><text>When I went to UCSD (a long time ago) the standard engineering calculus book was revised every other year, usually changing all the homework problems, destroying the used market for it.  It was written by the chair of the department.  In that way the professors and the book publishers had an interest in keeping the price of textbooks very high.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>austenallred</author><text>We had an economics professor that had a $110 textbook with tear-out homework assignments that needed to be completed in pen.&lt;p&gt;He said that he did so in order to make sure the publishing company would keep printing them, intentionally and openly ensuring there wouldn&amp;#x27;t be a used book market. His justification is in the syllabus here &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;economics.byu.edu&amp;#x2F;Documents&amp;#x2F;Syllabi%20-%20broken&amp;#x2F;20135%20Kearl%20110-1.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;economics.byu.edu&amp;#x2F;Documents&amp;#x2F;Syllabi%20-%20broken&amp;#x2F;201...&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Looking back, and having printed a book, I&amp;#x27;m 99% sure that&amp;#x27;s BS. Or, at best, you could print the book much cheaper yourself.</text></comment>
<story><title>States are moving to cut college costs by introducing open-source textbooks</title><url>https://qz.com/962487/states-are-moving-to-cut-college-costs-by-introducing-open-source-textbooks/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>georgeecollins</author><text>When I went to UCSD (a long time ago) the standard engineering calculus book was revised every other year, usually changing all the homework problems, destroying the used market for it.  It was written by the chair of the department.  In that way the professors and the book publishers had an interest in keeping the price of textbooks very high.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>username223</author><text>Classic.  When I was at UCSD (also a long time ago), I had the privilege of taking a course from a professor who used his own $70 textbook, then &amp;quot;taught&amp;quot; by reading it in front of a whiteboard.  Undergrad tuition was also going up 20-30% per year at the time, for something that could only charitably be called &amp;quot;education.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s very little excuse to create new versions of a calculus textbook.  My decades-old Thomas still works just fine.</text></comment>