The Kept-Up Academic Librarian recently pointed to an article in the Daily Herald about a Utah Valley State College professor who abandoned the use of a textbook
Hammond was teaching a race relations class last year and had assigned a textbook that cost about $80. Unfortunately for the students, the publishing company released a new edition and none of the students could sell the book back.
“All these students had to eat that book,” Hammond said.
That caused Hammond to re-think textbooks. Now, instead of assigning his students textbooks, Hammond assigns them reading material from journal articles and original research available on the Internet or in the library.
The good news is that many academic libraries and their parent institutions have ample resources to assist faculty in developing and delivering course readings to students. Traditional library reserves, electronic reserves, e-book collections, direct linking to articles within journal databases, and course management systems are all tools that can be found in most academic libraries.
The bad news is that a typical faculty member might not feel comfortable enough with many of the above to pursue a path away from a textbook. And that’s the easy part. How many faculty members have the time and commitment to do this:
Since then, Hammond has gotten rid of all the books textbook companies had given him. He re-did all of his courses, basing his tests and quizzes on the new material, writing his own questions because he no longer has access to banks of questions that come with the book.
It took him all last year to re-write the material for his classes. [emphasis mine]
