Yes I think textbook costs for psychology are ridiculous. I suppose the publishers are cashing in on the popularity of psychology It must be all those chapter technologies for enhanced learning. Only for visual learners though :-)
It might be helpful if people posted specifically which textbooks cost so much (name and publisher) and perhaps some cheaper alternatives they have found. Perhaps a longer term solution of changing this would be to have textbooks (including an electronic version) produced by faculty themselves and produced for as near peanuts as possible (and faculty would still make some money even)...paperback, cheap paper, etc. And instead of all the chapter technologies, just have wide margins for students to take their own notes. Imagine what would have happened to Harry Potter had Snape not had enough room to write his notes in his potions book! Another option might be for faculty to produce very comprehensive power point files for sharing free of any cost (or a minimal fee while keeping all the copyright notices to a minimum: preferably one at the end in small print) to replace a text book. These could have a lot of notes on them for students to read (and print if desired). The end-using professor could cut and paste the presentations at will to customize them and it saves the prof from making them from scratch. Of course, they would cover a typical chapter in a book. Both of the above alternatives would be distributed to any prof that wants them and of course the instructor using them can enhance their coverage with a few journal articles if desired...although that costs money for subscriptions etc. So, better yet would be for faculty to write summaries of articles in student friendly language and make these available (essentially "the text book" above). If these alternatives were co-ordinated across multiple university faculties then the burden on any one faculty member wouldn't be too bad. Professor Emeriti could leave that legacy of a lifetime of teaching, writing, and collecting :-) Sorry for the length of that...must be because it's Sunday morning! --Mike --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4346 or send a blank email to leave-4346-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
