I think your idea is great, in theory. As has already been pointed out, a lot of work would need to be done to develop an actual comprehensive fair exam. Of course, there are some problems with that (see, oh, every standardized test ever made). But let’s assume these could be overcome. As for your 6-months-later test, well, given what I know of most undergrads (especially pre-meds) they’d just cram all over again 6 months later.

I still think you’d find that the people who attended lecture would outperform those who did not. For students at the extremes, it is probably true that teachers don’t have much influence – the good students will do well anyway, the really bad ones are unsalvageable. But the ones in the middle are sometimes affected. Sometimes the teacher explains things in just the right way that clicks with that particular student. Sometimes the teacher uses a memorable anecdote or technique that allows the student to remember a particular piece of information (which is nearly impossible from a textbook).

It’s just ignoring so much of what’s known about human nature and learning to suggest that learning from a textbook is equivalent to reading a book.

Presumably, a professor’s lecture is based on his or her knowledge and research. If not, I would find that objectionable, too.

I’m curious. How is a textbook inherently more egregious than, say, a professor’s lectures on the same material? Or do you just find the concept of education by learning from any established authority figure inherently egregious?

Seconded. Hey, didn’t know you were a fellow mathematician, comrade!

The same evaluation holds for Munkres, Topology, second edition (the half addressing point-set topology). There are a rare few $110 textbooks that, from a utility-per-page perspective, are underpriced. Come to think of it, I wonder what percentage of them address topics in pure mathematics.

Price-per-page doesn’t quite capture the utility of a textbook. Price per concept elegantly and lucidly explained? Price per exercise that actually helps to solidify and expand your understanding of the material? (It’s the exercises that sets a truly fine textbook apart from a very good handbook, from the very elementary to maddeningly challenging. I like how Munkres includes two exercises that remain open unresolved questions in the field to this day, and doesn’t identify which exercises they are!)

This madness needs to stop. I want some bribe offers!

You might be able to trick Slocum into sharing further details with you about this “contribution” quasi-scam. Or just write “supplementary notes” that are optional but genuinely helpful, especially on your quizzes, and charge students for them! I have a colleague that does this, charging the exact cost of copying, but I imagine you could find a way to sneak some genuine rent-seeking in.

…

One benefit of new editions coming out every couple years: it’s possible to get a fairly new textbook resource for many introductory-level topics dirt cheap. Find out what a tenured professor at the university of your choice used two years ago, contact the professor and find out if the textbook proved satisfactory, and find a copy online for $10~20. This doesn’t help students taking a course, but does help folks who want to (for example) learn the fundamentals and status-quo perspectives from a field of study on their own. Krugman’s international economics book cost me < $15 with shipping.

“We”

My point almost exactly. Anyone can slap it onto the internet and does. You expect the buyers to go and check out 10,000 books to separate the wheat from the chaff? It’s like trying to find the next Booker prize winner by checking out all the fan-fic sites.

Really, when it comes down to it, marketing acts as proof that someone believed this book was valuable enough that they were willing to lay down some serious cash, and that becomes the gatekeeper that allows the buyers not to waste their valuable time.

Now admittedly, there’s always going to be a few who heroically wade into the slush pile of the internet to find the gems that really are there, and a few texts might find fans that are so vehement that they essentially act as a marketing department for free, but both are rare and far between…

“Man, at least in econ and science classes you get 300+ page books for 150 dollars. I was a math major and it always hurt a little more to shell out 140 dollars for a 150 page manual, err, book. Ridiculous.”

I remember way back in the day, complaining about a $40 calc book, and how expensive it was. It was for calc I-III, 12 credit hours total. I never hit that level of $/credit hour again
(heck, for grad school I was rarely under 10x that amount).

As for the cost of the classes is 1000 dollars per class really even cutting it in terms of repaying the bricks and mortar costs of overhead at the university, the cost of the reproduction of the worker (ie the professor’s education and time spent on the course actually teaching?)

I like the idea of “reading for” any field, as they used to “read for the law” but of course people doing that were really apprenticing themselves and also working for their keep while studying with a master. In other fields you are purchasing a credential that enables you to spend money up front to bypass others who spend time actually doing the work but who don’t have money. Its a class signifier, and the more arbitrary the better from the point of view of the lisencing/credentialing institution and the non meritocracy/customer base which likes the certainity of “you pay your money and you get your degree” over the uncertainity and competition of a wide open exam system.

aimai

The bottom line today at non-R1s for large classes is that the publishers are providing on line homework systems. Since there are no markers at non research habituated universities (NRHUs), this is the only way of assigning and marking non trivial amounts of homework (which is vital for science and math classes) in large intro courses (you try marking weekly homeworks for classes of 50 or more)

(Seriously, books are not like music, ebooks are too expensive for the people who want disposable reads, not robust enough (and too expensive to risk) for those who want to read everywhere , are plagued with DRM, and will always have problems with hardware/software versioning and obsolescence that paper books just don’t have. Dedicated readers don’t have the flexibility for graphics that people have talked about above, or the kind of internet support that could make references really work. General purpose devices – netbooks etc – don’t have the display quality to match the printed page. ebooks always have been and always will be five years from really taking off)