And Possible Solutions With
Professor R.W, Dr. H.R, Professor N.H, and Professor D. A
Section 1: An Introduction, Ice Cream, And The Impact of Socialization
“Stapling the term text to book is like like saying you are buying a cake for a wedding instead of a party,” I said, to which Professor W agreed as I walked out of the office that he and Dr. R shared. I have noticed countless times that textbooks that are about the same size or smaller than a novel are often a lot more expensive. Not to mention novels can often be found in libraries, whereas I have never found textbooks in local libraries. Textbooks are clearly overpriced. They are overpriced because textbook companies know that students have to buy them. When a new edition of a textbook is released, it becomes more evident just how swindled students were. As all of a sudden, the cost of the old edition decreases dramatically.
It is absurd that the cost has gotten so overwhelming that some students buy a loose leaf copy that scatters all over the floor when they open it, because the publisher does not even bother to invest in a cheap piece of string or something to bind it. So what is causing college professors to buy into the overpriced the textbook industry? Time and time again I would ask myself that question. In my college classes we discussed rising college costs, and part of that includes textbooks. Given the exploitative and inflated price of textbooks why would a professor choose to make students incur such costs? After interviewing the professors I gained a new perspective and understand that implementing the use of no cost textbooks is harder than it seems.
I decided to step outside my comfort zone and interview four college professors on the topic. Basically, I conducted my own qualitative research if you will. Two professors that I interviewed were from the Sociology department. They were Professor R. W and Dr. H. R. The two other professors I interviewed were from the Political Science department. They were Professor N. H and Professor D. A (the head of the Political Science department). It seemed like a good combination. The Sociology department is known for its efforts in moving toward no cost textbooks (Professors W, R, and A all mentioned this). The department has even been given awards for using Open Educational Resources. The Political Science department is more hesitant about moving in such a direction. I was not aware of the heavy marketing strategies of textbook companies or why professors felt the need to push students every year to buy the books. Interviewing the professors also made me aware of many valid concerns I had not initially thought about. In addition, to interviewing the four professors I also attended an Academic Senate meeting.
Professors get the book for free
So lets say I walk into Costco and there is an ice cream sample. I pick it up and eat it. The ice cream is incredibly creamy. The flavors fill my mouth. There is a chocolate swirl that is just right. It is better than Haagen- Dazs. I decide this is really great ice cream! I just need to make this ice cream a part of my life. I walk down the freezer section to purchase a box of this fabulous ice cream. This ice cream is all natural, local and made with some ‘higher’ quality and extra fancy ingredients. So I expect it is going to be more expensive than a lower quality brand. I go to the freezer section and I find something that shocks me. One gallon of this ice cream is 100 dollars! When I see how expensive the ice cream is, I decide that it is too expensive and I walk away, settling for something cheaper that is still pretty good.
I do not think many professors realize (or would be willing to admit) the impact that not having to personally buy a textbook has on them. Companies do not give professors the text for free for no reason. It is a clever sales move. There is a motive in offering free books just like there is a motive in giving people free samples at Costco. Professors W and R mentioned to me that sometimes books are given to them for review. This makes the book more tailored to what the professor wants, while also making a professor aware that the book exists. All of the professors I interviewed mentioned that they get a copy of their textbooks for free. Sometimes they request a free copy and sometimes a company will just give them free copies (Professor H even pointed to his book shelf, revealing several copies of the book We the People). The reason the books are given for ‘free’ to professors is to boost sales. Professors H, R and W said professors are often also asked questions like: How many students are in the class that the book will be used in? Another question that stood out to me was: Who is mandating the use of the book? Is it just one professor? Is it an entire department? When I heard the questions I was shocked. Textbook companies are trying to figure out just how many captive customers they will get. Professor W even said that the people who asked the questions were ‘sales reps’.
When I go to Costco to buy ice cream I am choosing to purchase it for myself. I am not getting something for free and then requiring many other people buy it semi-annually. I am the potential ice cream customer. So, Costco gives me the sample hoping that I will want to buy their product. Costco does not give me all the ice cream that I need for free. Just a little. Professors do not just get a sample of a text for free and then need to purchase the rest. They get the whole book free of charge. Textbook companies are unique in that they actually do not need to cater towards their customers at all (this is a huge advantage for them). Their main customer base is students. Textbook companies instead direct their marketing efforts towards non-paying teachers who are instigating the use of the books. Textbook companies know that the students who are paying for the book really do not matter. Why? Because the students are not the ones deciding on what textbook they would like. The school or the professor gets to make that choice. In my ice cream example, I looked at several things when it came to my ice cream. I looked at price and quality. From there I decided if I wanted to make a purchase. Had price not been a barrier, I would have gone for the fancy local ice cream. If the ice cream was free for me I would have taken it. Professors are making the same choice. However, unlike me with the ice cream, when one professor decides to adopt a textbook (that they got for free), hundreds of students need to buy it. Through giving a professor one free book, many sales will be made at inflated prices. Where is the motive to make books affordable? The only motive would be from professors refusing a book because again why do students matter for sales.
When I talked to Professor A, he told me a story that shows some of the power professors can have over the price of books. At one point, Professor A told a textbook company that the price of the book was too high. If they did not make it cheaper, he was going to look elsewhere for a different text. The company negotiated with him. They said they would reduce the price which was originally one- hundred forty dollars. I was shocked that he managed to reduce the cost. When he saw my surprise he said that of course the company had to reduce the cost. If he decided to no longer use the book, they would lose a lot of sales. However, in order to lower the price some changes had to be made to the book. These included a custom cover being made and one chapter of choice being omitted. Professor A is not sure exactly how much the custom book was. He sent me an email stating, “I think the book is actually either $98.50 or $99.50. I would have to check with the book store. Or you can”. Professor A also mentioned that he told the company he wanted a a portion of the money made from sales to go towards a political science scholarship. Professor H had mentioned to me that a percentage of book sales for the new edition of a text at the book store went to the political science scholarship fund. Both Dr. R and Professor W seemed surprised that something like that had happened. Professor H had no clue exactly how much money was given to the political science scholarship fund. Professor A gave me the exact number. It was a dollar fifty cents. Dr. R said he has never had such an interaction with a book company. According to Professor W it is possible that the publishers cared more because the text was a department-wide used book.
The entire negotiation between Professor A and the textbook company shows how such businesses can turn even a price reduction of a book to their advantage. It also shows that maybe sometimes professors do have a little more power than they think over the cost of textbooks. By providing hardly any money to the department for a scholarship, the textbook company ensured that there would be a motive for professors to encourage the sale of the new edition. Also, by modifying the book the company probably made the textbooks harder to resell if someone tried to sell it to a student who doesn’t go to the same school. Most people at other schools probably do not feel comfortable buying a book with a missing chapter and a cover that does not look like what they expect. A much better scholarship would be to provide textbooks at a reasonable price for all students. Also, while it is helpful to reduce the cost of a book wherever you can, reducing the cost does not make it reasonably priced. Ninety-eight or ninety nine dollars and fifty cents is still a lot of money.
Professors are socialized into using textbooks
One of the things I asked professors was why they really needed a textbook. Why can’t all course material come from a lecture in class? When I was speaking with Professor R. W , he mentioned to me that, in a way, professors are socialized to use textbooks. I could not have said it better myself. I think using a symbolic interactionist perspective we can understand this further. When we think of a college education several symbols come to mind and textbooks are one of them. Every professor that I spoke to felt a textbook was essential to a class. Some mentioned that they wanted their students to read the book as well as learn material from the lecture. This symbolism tied to the idea of a textbook runs so deep it can even over-ride the priority of helping students learn.
When I mentioned the possibility of using free online textbooks to Professor A, he voiced several of his concerns to me. He told me that he was not sure if students would read the book if it was a free online book. He said it was something he was trying to figure out. This made me recall a survey that Professor H had asked students to complete. One of the questions he asked in it was if we read the department- wide used text We the People. When Professor A brought this up I was puzzled. Why did it matter if the students read or did not read the book? Why was this something the department seemed so interested in figuring out? I was under the impression that student learning outcome was what really mattered. If students are still learning the material(well enough for professors to be unsure of if they did or did not read the text) for the exam, who cares how much of the book they read? Professor W said he felt when students did not read the book they were hurting themselves in that they did not gain the deepest understanding of content. Professor W also added that he did not understand why OER had to be put up to a higher standard. Some students also do not read conventional textbooks either.
Professor A said he felt that students needed to use both the book and his lectures. Dr. R also emphasizes reading the book for his classes as well. Professor A mentioned something very interesting to me. He said that one topic that gives students a lot of trouble was the one on federalism. He mentioned that if he covered it with the same depth as the book he would be doing his students a disservice because it would be too hard to understand. However, his more simplified explanation along with the books explanation was supposed to be more manageable. His statement showed the downside to textbooks…that they can be hard to comprehend at times.
For me a professors explanation is often much better than that of the book. It also helps me condense information and understand it. I loved how Professor H would break down text information to make it easy to comprehend…much less abstruse and overwhelming in my opinion than the book often times. It also really helped me focus on the main points that mattered to him as a professor. At the end of the day an exam is being given to me by a professor and like any other human, a professor is going to have certain points that matter more to her/him than others. In any of my classes I benefit greatly from the simplified explanations professors provided. Professors can have more of an ability to teach content than they realize. They are experts in their fields passing down knowledge in ways that are more comprehendible. Often my class success relied more heavily on the professors teaching, notes, PowerPoints etc. than on the book which I often struggle to retain information from. I think hearing information out loud and getting a chance in class to ask questions about it and apply it with examples, helps me remember things better. While I do utilize textbooks, I generally benefit more from in class learning.
There was this one day when I was sitting in the college library and I looked next to me at a shelf of books. I realized that there was a collection of books containing the works of Karl Marx. In sociology classes we discuss many of the ideas of Karl Marx. One of his most notable ones is Conflict theory. I was amazed that he had so much writing. What I realized was despite the fact that we learned so much about his work, I had never sat down and opened a book that contained only his writing. Everything I learned about Marx was from my teachers explaining his work. I was never asked to read any of his texts in it’s entirety. Instead, my professors taught me the main ideas that sociologists focus on without us needing to read all of Marx’s work. Professor W informed me I probably will not have to read any full texts by Marx until upper division or graduate school.
Professor W admitted to me that when he started teaching classes he did have a heavy reliance on the textbook. However, over time he realized he needed it less. Professors also told me how sometimes professors get started teaching classes for the first time on short notice. They need something to refer to, to start teaching a class. In those cases having a text helps them get started. Dr. R mentioned that if you are asked to teach a class you never have before you are not going to refuse the offer. Particularly, if you are an adjunct professor. Professor H mentioned a lot of the faculty are adjunct. In the class that I took with Dr. R that required an eighty dollar textbook there were no PowerPoint lessons and few notes. The book was the main source of information.
I even saw the impact of socialization when Dr. R was talking about how he choose a book. He said for undergrad students he felt the readability of a book was important. He mentioned for Grad students there was a lot of reading and that is just how it is. Grad school is a lot of reading. What his statement showed me was the extent of how the way we learned, impacts how we teach. What we view as essential material is also impacted by our socialization.Section Two: Reasons Professors Give For Not Choosing Low Cost Books And Some Commentary On Those Reasons
Cost isn’t that big of an issue anymore. Students can rent a book.
I heard about how some professors do not think that the cost of textbooks is a concern because students can rent. I heard this not once but twice. Professor A mentioned that one professor said that, and when I went to an Academic Senate meeting someone asked me what my response to such a statement would be. My response to this statement is that first off just because I can rent a book does not mean that I get to rent it cheap. When I told everyone at the Academic Senate meeting that I had to pay eighty dollars to rent an electronic sociology textbook I saw some very shocked faces in the room. It was as though professors were not aware just how costly some books were.
Students spend a lot of money on technology/ Starbucks why should I try and save the money?
There are a few flaws I see in making the argument that ‘Students spend a lot of money on technology and things why should I try and save the money?’ First off, I personally like to save money on anything I buy. I generally do not spend a lot of money on my technology or other belongings. Anything that does cost a bit more money I use for as long as I possibly can and have because it is high quality and will hopefully serve me well for a long time. So, I just do not relate to the argument much. Secondarily, if I did decide I wanted to buy something super expensive just because I like it at the very least I plan to keep and use that item for more than sixteen weeks. I have never in my life opened up a textbook I purchased after finishing a class. When it came to rented books (like the eighty dollar one) I lost access to the book. Basically, I had to pay eighty dollars for something I no longer have and that did not cost the company money on ink or paper. Also, just think about how many Starbucks drinks I could have enjoyed with that money(not that I even drink Starbucks).
The third problem in making such a statement is the way switching to cheaper books is framed. Switching to no cost books is not just about ‘saving students money’ it is about turning away from an unethical industry. It simply is not ethical to overcharge anyone for anything. However, it is not surprising that such an argument would be made. When I was taking a class with Professor H I remember him emphasizing on the first day that we needed to buy the textbook. He said he did have some copies he could loan out, but only if you couldn’t afford it not if ‘you just don’t want to buy it’. His statement sounded almost shaming. It was like if you do not want to buy the book you are just being cheap and frugal and that is a bad thing. Yet, isn’t it reasonable to dislike that you are getting overcharged for something you only need for a semester? Also, if he has extra free copies of the book lying around why not let students use them instead of leaving them on the shelf?
I do not want to compromise quality to lower cost.
Professors do care about the quality of the book they are using. This is a very valid point. Professor A mentioned that not all books were equal. Dr. R mentioned that there was no free textbook even available for the class I took with him that I had to pay eighty dollars to rent the book for. Since the class was relatively new there was not much time to develop materials for the class without the text. I would encourage professors to be open to other texts that are more affordable. Even Professor A pointed out he did switch to a cheaper textbook in one of his classes. When I opened up the free text 21st Century American
Government and Politics v.1.0 by David L. Paletz, Diana Owen, and Timothy E. Cook I found a lot of content that I learned in a Political Science class inside it. I looked up a few random terms like political efficacy (which I found on page 250) and echo chambers (which I found on pages 308-309). It appeared that the book shared some similarities with what was learned in class. So, in terms of quality I would encourage professors to maybe take a look around at what is out there. The possibilities might be less limited than you think. With the internet it is easier to find more materials than it may have been in the past. Trust me if the price of Haagen- Dazs went up or I went to a country where imported products are more expensive, I would look for alternative ice cream brands. Also, professors can also utilize canvas shelf to help them find materials for their classes. Canvas shelf is discussed later in section three of this paper. You do not always have to sacrifice quality for cost.
Buy the book, it’s an investment in your future.
Professor R brought this comment up during my third interview with him. When I do have to buy a book I think the same thing. If I have to buy it, I have to because getting my degree matters. However, that does not justify the high cost. We could use that statement in anything that has to do with education…it does not make it ok. College debt and tuition is on the rise and with that kind of logic it can go up as high as it wants. Professor R said that he sold back his science textbooks. He said he only got a little money for them, but he knew he would not use them again. On the other hand he kept his sociology books because he knew he wanted to build up his library. He still currently has and uses his old sociology books. He then asked me if I kept my books. I told him that the books I had bought I kept. However, they are of no use to me. I tried to sell them back but one of them was no longer used by the professor and the others the store would not buy because they said they could already got them pretty cheap anyhow. They did not even tell me how much they would pay for them because they did not want them. For me sometimes I will save some of my class notes. However, my library is mostly what I take from the class, the knowledge that I now have and the experiences I gained. In essence, what I learned and what stuck in my mind is what I tend to keep with me. Publishers also provide new editions of books which can sometimes make the old ones worthless. Also, the books I bought were only a few dollars more than renting. With other texts the difference between a rental and a bought copy can be extremely large. So, often even if I wanted to I could not build my library with super pricey texts. However, as mentioned before I do not use the books anyways once the semester ends.
Section Three: Possible Solutions and Small Things Professors Can Do
Solutions and small things professors can do.
One thing I was actually pleased to see was that many professors were aware that new editions of textbooks were really not that different. Professors seemed lenient when it came to students using a different textbook version or edition of a book. Dr. R told me what he realized when he compared different editions of a textbook, “It got to the point where I realized I am like you know sometimes it doesn’t justify me saying hey you have to use the new one because there aren’t that many substantive differences between the editions”. Professor W then added that eighty five to ninety percent of the textbook was the same. Dr. R listed a few things that get changed between editions like updated statistics or a new chapter. He even mentioned the reason behind it, “ Just to kinda justify… because its business. Publishing is big business and so to say hey we wanna sell lots of copies of this new book that’s what we’re gonna do”. Professor A also mentioned to me that he is fine with students buying the non-custom version of We the People if they find it at a lower price.
Placing books on reserve at the library is another fantastic way professors can help reduce student costs. Professor H even mentioned that at some schools it is mandatory that at least one copy of the text be on reserve in the library. Sometimes it takes a while for a book to be processed to be put on reserve, so it definitely would be beneficial to have it on the shelf before the semester begins. Also, being sure that the textbook company will provide a second copy to be put on reserve is important to know before implementing the use of a book. Dr. R mentioned that one time he requested a second copy of a book to put in the library and the publisher told him he would have to buy it.
I think it is easy to overlook the fact that many things have changed and can be helpful in education. During my interviews with Professor W and Dr. R they got very excited discussing Open Educational Resources and the canvas shelf. What they loved about OER was the ability to adjust the text. They could update statistics. They also could make changes like adding in examples in the text that were more local. For instance, they could explain concepts using things in the local area. Professor A mentioned that he did not have the time to adjust things like statistics in a book which is why he would still prefer to use a traditional textbook. In any case OER provides a new and more collaborative and exciting experience for both professors and students. Professor W said he loves having students provide their feedback of things to add or adjust in the text. Back before the internet was big, something like OER was not as fathomable. Professor H showed me a booklet that he said was like OER. It is amazing that now we can have a no cost book because we can post something on the internet. A book no longer has to be printed with ink and paper which would cost money production-wise.
Hearing Professor W and Dr. R discuss the canvas shelf was eyeopening to me. They told me how professors can post course materials that they used for their classes. This is very helpful for professors who are newer to teaching certain classes. It can also be helpful in that different professors can borrow ideas from their colleagues. Canvas shelf also makes teaching a more collaborative and hands on activity. Years ago it would not have been that easy for professors to have a place to share their course materials with each other. I think that canvas shelf can help minimize the need for a textbook as professors can have access to information to share with their students. Also, it can provide them with assessment materials so they do not have to feel as dependent on a publisher. Dr. A mentioned he wanted the additional resources(some were free, some costed money) that a textbook company could provide him and the students. He even mentioned something that would really concern him would be losing the publisher. When I mentioned that professors could use canvas shelf in the few minutes I was able to speak at the Academic Senate meeting the girl sitting next to me whispered “Old people don’t like canvas”. The varying levels of comfort regarding the use of canvas is something that requires further sociological inquiry.
A big danger in charging money for textbooks is that it leads to people and companies finding other things to charge students for. Some textbook companies charge students for programs that provide homework. In essence, sometimes students must pay for their homework individually. This heightens profits because instead of homework materials being provided at one time for one cost (or no cost if teachers create their own homework), every semester every student must pay for their homework. For teachers the online homework provides materials that are automatically graded (even though canvas provides this service too). It can be more convenient for them. I had to pay one hundred three dollars and ninety-five cents for an access code to my math homework. There was an option to purchase just the access code and one to purchase both the access code and the book.
One of my friends told me how her professor practically made students pay to access canvas resources. The professor told the students that for his class they had to rent a textbook that his friend had written. There were no print editions of the book. Students could only rent an electronic version. The only source to buy the book from was the campus bookstore. He told the students they had a certain timeframe to buy the book. The bookstore would give him the information on who rented the book (you could only rent, not buy). Students who did not rent the book were locked out of study guides on canvas. When I mentioned this to Professor H, he said it was super unethical. A big danger in making textbooks such a profitable industry is that with the help of technology students can be told to pay for things other than the writing in a book. Basically, my friends professor was charging her to use materials for his class. That is something that should not happen.The above examples really make a person think. Where should the line be drawn as to what the students need to pay for other than tuition? Professor W mentioned that things like wifi are given to students as part of their tuition so why is it that we ‘forward the cost’ of textbooks on to students? He also mentioned that the cost of things like wifi have gone down, while textbook costs have risen.
Overall, all the professors seemed at least open to moving on to utilizing free books or lower cost books. None of them seemed to be able to imagine a world where they did not have students use a textbook of some sort. Professor W said his Criminology class is the only one where he had not switched to free books. However, he put them on reserve at the library for students to use. Dr. R uses no cost books in some classes. Professor H appears to be contemplating switching to a no cost book. Him and Professor W are friends. When I went to interview Professor H he even mentioned he was thinking about giving Professor W what was left of his box of trail mix. When I mentioned it to Professor W he immediately pulled out his phone and typed ‘Where is my trail mix?’ and sent the message to Professor H. Professor A says he is not ready to switch to a no cost book, but as mentioned before he did switch one of his books out for a cheaper alternative. It is really wonderful to see professors keeping their students in mind. Professor W helped me realize that switching books is no easy process. It is an effort because a professor has to change a lot of things when they switch books.
Textbooks are viewed as an essential part of college learning. There are many reasons professors choose to use expensive texts. The purpose of this paper is not to shame any professor, but to open up a discussion(which prompts more critical thinking regarding textbooks and education) about textbooks and ways to reduce textbook cost. Professors can choose to do small things to help lower student costs(many of which do not involve completely getting rid of a text) when it comes to textbooks. It is important to be open to new ways of learning and to question and analyze teaching methods. At the same time it is up to the professor to decide what the wisest course of action would be for their individual classes. Education has changed overtime. Dr. R said you need to have a willingness to change otherwise you stagnate. Professor W mentioned that when he was in college you sat in a lecture and “anything the professor said was gold”. Now both Dr. R and Professor W agree that education has more student involvement. Recognizing that there are sometimes more beneficial ways to learn and teach is vital. Also, realizing we do not have to be dependent on certain things is important. I have been privileged enough to have had some classes where I did not need to purchase an expensive book. They were not just sociology classes either. I had an Anthropology class that used a free book. It is important to lower dependence on anything that is made to be too expensive. As of now OER is free, however if it were to get expensive somehow it would be vital that professors be able to adjust to a new alternative. I hope that this paper benefits someone. There is so much more I could say on this dense subject, but that would make this paper the length of a novel.
Works cited
Interviews with professors and students
Life experiences
Paletz, David L, et al. “21st Century American Government and Politics V.1.0.” OER Commons, 29 Dec. 2012, https://www.oercommons.org/courses/21st-century-american-government-and-politics-v-1-0/view
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