Oliver Wong wrote:
> <nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1156497201.037900.187640@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> >> Intro to Statistics course costs vs. open source / creative commons /
> >> remix
> >> education
> >>
> >> ,----[ Quote ]
> >> | Here is the research on open source/free resources for statistics. It
> >> | turns out that all the material and tools we will go over in my Intro
> >> | to Stats course this fall (2006) is available for free, as opposed to
> >> | the apx. $180 for SAS license and new textbook, or even $150 for SAS
> >> | license and used textbook. Even considering that the textbook could be
> >> | sold back for half-price, the cost to a student is still $105.
> >
> > Textbook publishers nowadays do everything in their power to make sure
> > that old textbooks are not usable---bringing out new editions
> > incompatible with old ones and marketing them to faculty. The general
> > techniques should sound familiar---as with Microsoft, drug companies,
> > etc. The truth is that the new textbooks are often inferior to the old
> > ones, especially the classics. In fact, if you compare to the
> > classics, you see that there has been a gradual dumbing down.
>
> Some textbook publishers actually bribe the professors, giving them a
> cut of the sales made, to ensure that the professors establish their lessons
> in such a way as to force the students to always buy the latest version of
> the textbook.
>
> Luckily, when I went to university, almost all the course materials were
> provided in the form of HTML pages of PDF files for free download. This may
> be because of the nature of the program though (Comptuter Science). Every
> time I was forced to buy a textbook, it was for a non Comp-Sci class (E.g. a
> managerial class or an arts class).
>
> - Oliver
If I ever write a textbook, I'm resolved to put it on the web in pdf or
ps or some format for free download.
Actually, the textbook situation in the fields I'm familiar with is
amazingly bad---long established subjects of acknowledged great
importance, with really, really bad textbooks. I know of maybe a
couple exceptions.
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