The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a survey of nearly 2000 undergraduate students on 13 varied college campuses:
In the survey, released on Tuesday by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization, seven in 10 college students said they had not purchased a textbook at least once because they had found the price too high. Many more respondents said they had purchased a book whose price was driven up by common textbook-publishing practices, such as frequent new editions or bundling with other products.
I find that the textbook is consistently the source of the most complaints from students on end-of-semester evaluations. I'm committing to no longer use textbooks that cost more than $10. I will use open access when possible.
Think that's impossible? I don't.
UPDATE (2011-08-25): See also my mailbag entry from Todd Chavez.
