I realize I am a little late on this, but a small company in Minnesota has decided to place ads in college textbooks, which means that instead of paying $500 or $1,000 for a semester’s worth of textbooks, a student might someday pay … $0. (HT: Alon Nir.)
Biology 101, Presented by FedEx
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Couldn’t we be a little more creative & say Biology 101, Presented by Abbot Labs. Or how about Finance 101, brought to you by Chase. Any other good ones?
Couldn’t we be a little more creative & say Biology 101, Presented by Abbot Labs. Or how about Finance 101, brought to you by Chase. Any other good ones?
I’m extremely thankful that for my major, I could just check out most of what I needed from our school or local library.
But this journalist doesn’t seem to have done his homework (pardon the pun).
“But so far, the model hasn’t spread to college textbooks _ partly for fear that faculty would consider ads undignified.”
Undignified, that’s all? What about that advertisers in textbooks could eventually gain enough clout to influence the content? I don’t see Ford or Exxon being too comfortable sponsoring a science book that talks about global warming, for example.
Textbook prices are the least of higher ed’s worries.
And, as with any large and complex problem, it won’t be long now before politicians of all stripes see the mutual benefit in pretending to solve it together.
They’ll manage to get together for five minutes without sniping at each other, pick off the smallest of the problems, and declare the crisis in higher ed to be solved.
I’m extremely thankful that for my major, I could just check out most of what I needed from our school or local library.
But this journalist doesn’t seem to have done his homework (pardon the pun).
“But so far, the model hasn’t spread to college textbooks _ partly for fear that faculty would consider ads undignified.”
Undignified, that’s all? What about that advertisers in textbooks could eventually gain enough clout to influence the content? I don’t see Ford or Exxon being too comfortable sponsoring a science book that talks about global warming, for example.
Textbook prices are the least of higher ed’s worries.
And, as with any large and complex problem, it won’t be long now before politicians of all stripes see the mutual benefit in pretending to solve it together.
They’ll manage to get together for five minutes without sniping at each other, pick off the smallest of the problems, and declare the crisis in higher ed to be solved.
There’s a matter of consent. It can be argued that buying a magazine is an implicit consent to view ads therein. Or strolling along Times Square.
Students can’t CHOOSE which text books to read. Yet their eyeballs are the ones that are monetized.
Want cheaper books? Try coming out w/ less superfluous editions (I recall almost every year a “new” edition came out, containing VERY little new material but effectively killing the used book market for that course’s book the following year).
Book leasing would be an interesting business model to try out, except for the above shennannigans by publishers. The fault isn’t in the stars, dear Brutus, it’s the book publishers.
There’s a matter of consent. It can be argued that buying a magazine is an implicit consent to view ads therein. Or strolling along Times Square.
Students can’t CHOOSE which text books to read. Yet their eyeballs are the ones that are monetized.
Want cheaper books? Try coming out w/ less superfluous editions (I recall almost every year a “new” edition came out, containing VERY little new material but effectively killing the used book market for that course’s book the following year).
Book leasing would be an interesting business model to try out, except for the above shennannigans by publishers. The fault isn’t in the stars, dear Brutus, it’s the book publishers.
Why are textbook prices the least of higher ed’s worries? I mean, if you’re referring to the students, the prices are a joke on some campuses.
Why are textbook prices the least of higher ed’s worries? I mean, if you’re referring to the students, the prices are a joke on some campuses.