Slashdot Mirror


Colleges May Start Forcing Switch To eTextbooks

An anonymous reader writes "Here's the new approach under consideration by college leaders and textbook manufacturers: 'Colleges require students to pay a course-materials fee, which would be used to buy e-books for all of them (whatever text the professor recommends, just as in the old model).' That may be 'the best way to control skyrocketing costs and may actually save the textbook industry from digital piracy,' proponents claim."

8 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Victom of eTextbook by SlayerofGods · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was forced to pick up a e version of my math textbook for 70 bucks, no option but to do so since the book is tied to the eclass that the collage out sourced it's vitual classroom to. What makes it extra special is the profssor lets us take the final in person with open book... but we're not allowed to have any type of computer. So if we want to actually use the book on the final we're force to print the whole damn thing out. Collage is dumb.

    --

    Technology, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
    1. Re:Victom of eTextbook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      collage? profssor? Collage is dumb.

      Anybody who claims to be going to college and can't spell it is a moron.

      That would be you.

    2. Re:Victom of eTextbook by khallow · · Score: 4, Funny

      and can't spell it is a moron

      No, you mean a moran.

  2. Re:Students will complain by LoudMusic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Absolutely serious when I say this, my college Fraternity used pledges to do just that (probably still do).

    All the guys taking a given class would throw in a few bucks for one copy of the text, then as if by magic we would receive an electronic version.

    Terrible copyright infringement, pyramid scheming, slavery, hazing, and all that. But it was so convenient.

    You mean righteous distribution of knowledge?

    --
    No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
  3. Re:Bullshit... by AltairDusk · · Score: 2, Funny

    - If you spill bear on your book you can let it dry out and it will still be readable.

    At that point I'd be more worried about being mauled by the bear!

  4. Re:Students will complain by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Funny

    At my college we'd buy our books for $300 each, and at the end of the semester our professors would bludgeon us into unconsciousness with them! And we were 'appy to 'ave it that way!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  5. Re:Students will complain by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

    it don't get easier than that!

    Will it automatically compile them into a single .pdf file and publish them via torrent?

  6. Re:Bullshit... by Cwix · · Score: 2, Funny

    - If you spill bear on your book you can let it dry out and it will still be readable.

    I think that only happens in taxidermy classes.

    --
    You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.