Open-source, Downloadable Textbooks Could Relieve Price Strain

Textbook prices are part of the spiraling costs of higher education. Prices have risen to unbelievable figures for some books—in the 100’s of dollars—at rates far outstripping the rest of the publishing trade. The Consumer Price Index shows that college textbooks increased in price 88% between January 2006 and July 2016. Prices continue to escalate.

An increasing number of students and their advocates are looking for alternatives. One of the most promising ways to reduce student costs wasn’t available in the 1970’s when this price escalation began. The idea, open source ebooks, comes from the intersection of technology and the latest developments in intellectual property law.

Downloadable ebooks licensed for digital distribution have the potential to revolutionize the way students access the books they need. The concept is gaining popularity and acceptance, and is already reducing costs for some students.

Examining the Price Increases

Critics might dismiss this pricing anomaly as the obvious result of an unregulated market in control of a mandated product, but there are surely other factors. It just isn’t clear what they are.

The rise of prices is often blamed on increased production costs. The fact is that printing costs have actually decreased for trade publishers for recent years. The cost of book production is not actually a factor.

The pricing trend also isn’t caused by fast-changing fields that require heavy research to keep up-to-date: price increases have happened across all subjects. Classical literature doesn’t need a yearly update, but it still happens. Even an unnecessary edition enforces new sales each semester, and destroys the used book competition.

Nor is the problem due to rampant gouging by instructors writing their own books and forcing their students to pay a high price. While this may add to the problem, professors are motivated to write books to better and more easily teach their subject. Royalties are not a large percentage of price, and professors don’t typically set their book prices anyway. Many professors put out a free digital copy for their students if it’s an issue–and if the bookseller’s rules allow it.

Whatever the reason behind the rise, it’s clear that complaints have gone unheard and the trend is not reversing. Many students and educators are looking for alternatives.

Alternative Solutions

Several new or reimagined ideas are being pursued to make school-required books more affordable.

Used Books

This established discount channel can still offer relative bargains, but it isn’t as reliable now. For many years, selling back your school books was the traditional avenue for defraying costs, but used sales have been under attack by the for-profiteers for years. New editions issued each year have disrupted the market.

Institutional Change

Students have become active in seeking change within their schools to help curtail abusive pricing. Legislation has been petitioned for and even written by students and their supporters.

Legal

Legal remedies are also moving forward, such as the recent lawsuit by a used bookseller against South Carolina’s Trident Technical College for violating the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Commercial

Foreign sales have, so far, been effectively stymied through regulatory and legal red tape, but other commercial solutions are being developed. New book rental models are proving popular for helping to lower costs, and they can offer both digital and physical books.

Open Source, Downloadable Textbooks … Will it Work?

One of the most promising solutions involves ebooks which can be downloaded from anywhere. This idea isn’t exactly revolutionary outside of academia, as the means to do this are already well-established and functional. Schools could easily offer e-textbooks independently, and provide professors with the necessary tools to distribute their assignments digitally.

Here are some ways that downloaded open-source textbooks could get the runaway pricing situation under control:

• Reducing production and distribution costs
• Diminishing the role of a publishing middleman through direct sales
• Providing control and security of intellect property associated with an educational institution
• Facilitating the archival of older texts
• Making possible the instant updating of existing editions
• Minimizing legal and administrative costs of compliance with 3rd-party trade restrictions

The Future of Open Source Digital Ebooks

Out-of-control prices for student books are fueling new ways to delivering classroom material to students. The OER approach has a lot of promise and continues to grow.

Of course, affordable doesn’t necessarily mean free. While many online texts are free, charging money for an ebook is a standard practice. The idea is to rationalize pricing, not eliminate sales revenue altogether. There’s a lot of pricing room between a $400 book and a free download.

Already there are new initiatives and businesses working to help students buy textbooks more affordably. Businesses like BooksRun are stepping up to offer innovative rentals. There are already a number of OER repositories, including OpenStax, the Open Textbook Library and the OER Commons.

The future is unpredictable, but digital books and open source licensing are developing into an attractive solution. If you’re looking to buy textbooks today, BooksRun offers an innovative discount model to check out.