(Replying to PARENT post)

When I went to UCSD (a long time ago) the standard engineering calculus book was revised every other year, usually changing all the homework problems, destroying the used market for it. It was written by the chair of the department. In that way the professors and the book publishers had an interest in keeping the price of textbooks very high.
๐Ÿ‘คgeorgeecollins๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

We had an economics professor that had a $110 textbook with tear-out homework assignments that needed to be completed in pen.

He said that he did so in order to make sure the publishing company would keep printing them, intentionally and openly ensuring there wouldn't be a used book market. His justification is in the syllabus here https://economics.byu.edu/Documents/Syllabi%20-%20broken/201....

Looking back, and having printed a book, I'm 99% sure that's BS. Or, at best, you could print the book much cheaper yourself.

๐Ÿ‘คaustenallred๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

I had a professor in college that explicitly told us to get an old version of the textbook. It ended up costing ~$8 on Amazon instead of $80 for the newest version.

My physics class on the other hand had a book that was 'customized' for us (chapters were rearranged to prevent resale), and we had to purchase access to webassign.

๐Ÿ‘คxur17๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

Classic. When I was at UCSD (also a long time ago), I had the privilege of taking a course from a professor who used his own $70 textbook, then "taught" by reading it in front of a whiteboard. Undergrad tuition was also going up 20-30% per year at the time, for something that could only charitably be called "education."

There's very little excuse to create new versions of a calculus textbook. My decades-old Thomas still works just fine.

๐Ÿ‘คusername223๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

One problem is that some students cheat. They develop and pass around open-source sets of answers. If the problems don't change, then students don't learn as well.
๐Ÿ‘คgreeneggs๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

When I took econ 101 at the University of Washington there were five professors that each had their own textbook (and maybe a sixth but I never confirmed it).
๐Ÿ‘คchrismealy๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

> keeping the price of textbooks very high

Why don't people just scan or photocopy a textbook, if the price is too high? Do American students give even higher value for their time than the cost of a textbook?

๐Ÿ‘คsampo๐Ÿ•‘8y๐Ÿ”ผ0๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ0