Congress, Tech Have Their Eyes on Rethinking the Textbook — And Educators Should Too

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As commencement ceremonies conclude at colleges and universities, many thousands of recent graduates are entering or re-entering the workforce and finding a competitive and still-recovering market for most professions. One thing I thought about as I watched students graduate this year is the stress on students to find gainful employment with their rising debt load — now averaging more than $26,000 per student. As they walk across that stage, they certainly do not think about this debt — but as educators we do, and apparently, Congress does as well.

Total student-loan debt in this country now exceeds $1 trillion — fully 6 percent of the total national debt — and the impact extends far beyond the reaches of academia and into the broader economy. In fact, some have predicted an impending student-loan financial disaster on par with the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that kick-started the Great Recession. Whether these predictions materialize remains to be seen, but there is no question that the skyrocketing cost of obtaining a higher education is one of the defining issues for today’s educators and our students alike. The end of a school year allows us, as educators, time to reflect on this phenomena.

Bringing down college costs without compromising the quality of education is a daunting task requiring a complex array of potential solutions from government, industry, and education. While expenses like tuition and housing vary widely by institution, the exorbitant price of textbooks is of particular concern because it has a disproportionate impact on students of lesser financial means. The average cost of textbooks and supplies has risen to about $1,200 per student per year, according to College Board. The only silver lining is the rising cost of textbooks has finally spurred new policy proposals and technological innovations to attack the issue.

Before I delve into the ways in which the public and private sectors are intervening, I think it’s important to express my personal feelings about this issue. As an educator, I have always felt uneasy — even embarrassed — about requiring my students to purchase a textbook that costs $150 or more to take my class. While I understand the practical realities of financing our educational system, the excesses of a bloated publishing industry have pushed the costs of textbooks into ridiculous territory. My opinion on this matter is also shaped by my work in authoring textbooks, first through a major publisher and currently with a Washington, D.C.-based startup called Flat World Knowledge, which publishes affordable digital texts.

Thanks to their monopoly position, the big publishers bundle products with textbooks similar to the cable companies, creating ancillary items of questionable value on instructors and students — thereby driving up the costs. Furthermore it is my perception some of these publishers equip their sales teams like pharmaceutical representatives, complete with company cars and lavish entertainment budgets, and these expenses are passed on to students. I believe it is time we, as educators, hold our academic partners accountable for the rising costs of textbook prices — and the student debt that comes with these prices with little direct benefit to the student.

It is important to consider the positive value some ancillary materials can bring to student’s education, and I understand the development of such products come at a cost. But should the large publishers accept this cost as a simple cost of doing business, or continue passing these costs to our students, resulting in exorbitant textbook costs?

As textbook costs continue to rise, students may find they must make a choice between eating, and purchasing the book for a class. Many will choose the former, resulting in less preparation when attending class. While this may seem common, and perhaps, even acceptable, as a rite of passage (“I ate noodles my entire four years at college”), students do not get the type of education they are paying for without the resources required — eBooks, hardcopy books, or otherwise. As colleges and universities attempt to close the gap between operational budgets and lacking state funds, students are expected to make up the difference through tuition increases. Add to this the rising costs of textbooks and choosing between eating and textbooks is no longer a rite of passage — instead, it is a travesty. As educators, do we find this acceptable?

Congress, apparently, does not. Recently, we’ve seen both legislative chambers get into the business of textbook reform with two pieces of legislation – the Learning Opportunities With Creation of Open Source Textbooks (LOW COST) Act in the House of Representatives and the Affordable College Textbook Act in the Senate. While both bills take aim at the cost of textbooks, the LOW COST Act goes a step further by recognizing the viability of technology in this issue and supporting the creation and distribution of open-source educational content. The notion of open-source academic content presents important questions regarding quality and access, but the effort to leverage cloud-based technology is a step in the right direction. While I don’t support adoption of technology for technology’s sake, it can make a tremendous impact when thoughtfully integrated into the academic experience.

Beyond the policy realm, the technological evolution has already changed the face of higher education, with online learning taking center stage in recent years. Today, our students take notes in the cloud and do research on their smartphones. In spite of technological adoption in many parts of academia, textbooks remain the sacred turf of the publishing giants — untouchable and seemingly unwilling to change. This dynamic is the result of entrenchment and is in direct opposition to the convenience, flexibility and potential cost reductions offered by digital alternatives to the printed text.

Having previously authored conventional textbooks, I believe that this model is similar to the “bundling” practices of cable companies. Students and instructors are force-fed ancillary materials that add cost but very little academic value, in some cases. Besides, shouldn’t the advent of digital textbooks make them less expensive, not more expensive? Beyond removing the hard costs of printing, warehousing and shipping, digital resources enable a more a la carte shopping experience for educators and students alike and fits more naturally into the flow of life that now finds students studying on mobile devices in a myriad of contexts.

Congress is involved, many new, innovative digital publishing companies are getting involved — shouldn’t we, as educators, get involved, too? We can get involved by taking the time to choose digital, costing students less, while providing the same value.

The movement to reduce textbook costs is at a tipping point, which could be the critical first step in mitigating the student-loan crisis. With the federal government and technology communities converging on the textbook market, it’s just a matter of time until a new digital infrastructure supplants the old guard of textbook publishing.

Dr. Laura Portolese Dias is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Technology and Administrative Management (ITAM) at Central Washington University.