Christian Gebhard 📊
Jeff GreenePeople choose to adopt or read a textbook because (a) it's on a topic of interest and (b) they trust the author(s) to have curated and synthesized info into a single representation (the textbook). Now, imagine this: subscribing to a curated, synthesized, online source where the author is actively, frequently updating their curation and synthesis based on new evidence. Would you pay for that? Would you adopt it (perhaps a cheaper, time-limited version) for a course?
grabe@jeffgreene @psychology @edutooters This was my proposal to Cengage 10 or so years ago. A Primer plus online content. I had a 5 edition book at the time, but I could not get them to pay me a stipend to write for the website continuously rather than every three years.
Thanks for the info. What a bummer!
Daniel Lakens@jeffgreene I feel many online textbooks are already doing this (or I should say, I am doing this in mine). I update every month, add new references or sources, and improve where I learn more. My textbook is free - am I doing something wrong? ;)
Philip N Cohen@lakens @jeffgreene I update a major textbook every three years. I would like to have this model as well, Jeff (and teach from it). You're not doing it wrong, Daniel, but I need a way to pay myself and the staff who works on the book.
You are, clearly, doing something very right and generous! :)
@lakens
@lakens
ZingerLearns@jeffgreene @edutooters @psychology
I can imagine some textbook companies moving to this subscription type model, where books are regularly updated. I can see some advantages. I would miss the history and evolution that it will likely erase.
I can imagine some textbook companies moving to this subscription type model, where books are regularly updated. I can see some advantages. I would miss the history and evolution that it will likely erase.
That's a good point. Perhaps a change log?
@jeffgreene @edutooters @psychology
I like that idea a lot, and even a different color for the edits from 1 version to the next so you get a sense of what changed.
I like that idea a lot, and even a different color for the edits from 1 version to the next so you get a sense of what changed.
Raymond Johnson@jeffgreene @edutooters @psychology I've imagined a somewhat similar model to replace handbooks like AERA's Handbook of Research on Teaching. Instead of finding authors to write chapters and putting out a new edition every 5-8 years, it could be a wiki in which those same people are assigned as editors over a set of pages that they curate and grow over time as new findings come in.