U.S. Congress Renews $5M Open Textbook Pilot for Second Year
I'm glad something is being done. But while the public continues to blame the lightning-rods instead of the actual source of the issue, the problem will continue.What I mean is that book publishers take the blame, and LIKE to take the blame, because that takes heat off the actual bad guys in this story: college professors and their departments.It is they that decide which books are used in what courses, and it is they that are given the public trust to protect student's education. Instead they value the kickbacks (in the form of offloaded workload, free materials, free automated testing, etc) over what's best for their students.It is an inherent moral failing in US academia where the almighty dollar has yet again wrecked havoc.Open textbooks won't succeed for the same reason that cheaper textbooks haven't, the gatekeeps, the ones that create the artificial monopoly for particular textbooks: professors/departments, will continue to act in a self-interested and immoral way, and the public will continue to blame publishers.