Moises Fuertes/Staff Writer
At the start of every semester, the first thing I look at is the syllabus for every class. I scan these documents as if I were a hawk, looking for all the overpriced books that I will have to purchase or rent. Suffice to say, textbooks are an overpriced necessity.
According to USA today, textbooks costs have soared 82 percent since 2002.
In an ideal world, other means of production would have created some type of competition in the textbook printing industry. The digital age holds with it many promises, but when it comes to online version of textbooks, otherwise known as e-books, it has not exactly provided competitive pricing.
On one side, we have single textbooks that cost upwards of $200. On the other side, we have courses that require multiple books. In between these, we have overpriced e-books. The similarity here is that so far, regardless of the amount of books a student may need, all mediums used to acquire the main material for all classes remain overpriced.
Unfortunately, the digital age has not been as kind as I imagined it to be in this area. One of the reasons textbook prices are high is due to all the third parties involved in bringing them to a student. This is one part that e-books take care of by virtue of the medium, but they are not very economical either. By default, e-books normally end up being single semester rentals that cost almost as much as purchasing the physical counterpart.
I think the book industry is not using digital to its full potential by making e-books unnecessarily expensive.
Digital data is easily copied and distributed, there is little cost involved in this process. E-book costs are therefore not justified at the moment, no matter how interactive they are.
As technology prices go down and book prices continue to soar, it would be ideal for the book industry to start offering most of the content on tablets. Lynn University, for example, has provided iPads to their entering freshmen class and eliminated the need for them to purchase textbooks, which will save these students thousands of dollars.
But while Lynn University is indeed pushing boundaries, as long as e-books remain as expensive as they currently are, nothing will change.
I believe there will come a time when e-books will be the norm. When that happens, students will have access to books that are both interactive and economical. How long that will take is anyone’s guess.
moises.fuertes@fiusm.com
Sources:
1. “College students say no to costly textbooks,” via USA Today
2. “Lynn University adds iPads, eliminates freshmen textbooks,” via Sun Sentinel
__Critical thinking Digital Media Students will question the validity of missing comparisons such as “overpriced” & “unnecessarily expensive” or that “Digital data is easily copied and distributed, there is little cost involved in this process. E-book costs are therefore not justified at the moment, no matter how interactive they are.” – more insight about Textbooks is available in this 2013 Government Accountability Office Report – GAO-13-368, College Textbooks: Students Have Greater Access to Textbook Information _ http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/655066.pdf