Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHuckster
Textbooks are expensive not because they use some diamond-encrusted binding,
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Also because the demand isn't as high actually. Many college students have already been doing ETextbooks already and paying a LOT less than the physical copies were costing them. So there is a savings there. With electronic Textbooks you don't have to guess how many you'll need.
With most books you can publish and then sell directly to booksellers who then can order how many they need based on their own individual sales figures. Textbooks it can vary depending on how many people take the class.
Most kids are actually a lot more careful with other people's things than they are with their own. Sure they still get the normal wear and tear which is why textbooks would fall apart they get old and no matter how well taken care of they're riding in a bag with a bunch of other books.
Going electronic also decreases health concerns to the children no longer having heavy backpacks.
I understand the concerns about eyestrain which actually is another reason this is good. How many adults know how to properly handle eyestrain from staring at computers too long? Not a lot in my experience and yet the majority of our jobs involves looking at screens a lot.
I didn't know how to properly handle it until my eye doctors taught me how. How great then if it was taught in school.
Even if you're paying for new textbooks it's only when there's a new version not when one wears out. For most subjects a textbook can last decades. When I was cleaning a classroom two years ago they were still using the same history book that I used in high school in 98.