don't know about Serway in particular, but this is certainly what
publishers are starting to do with Blackboard etc, however I don't
think
that it's quite the benign deal it sounds. (We use Blackboard and
have
sat through the presentations on this development.)
For example, there will be a cost difference for students, and what
it
really is doing is making students pay for the cost of course
materials
which in my opinion universities should be developing and paying for
-
this way, they get online course material 'on the cheap' by charging
the
cost to the publishers.
That's an ethical issue, I guess, but also think about this one - the
schemes as I've heard them described at Blackboard publicity fests
mean
that your students will not have a paper copy of their text (and
while
you can print from browsers in principle, the publishers will make
it
as inconvenient & time consuming as they can for students to print it
off). So poor students who can't afford the access won't have a copy
-
I don't know the system in the US, but here in Australia we are
mandated
to have copies of every text on reserve in the library for equity
reasons. Furthermore, even those who can afford the cost will
completely lose access to the text once their enrolment in your
subject
finishes. So they can't keep the book for future reference or sell
it
second-hand.
Perhaps I'm a luddite when it comes to texts and equity, but this is
not
quite the good deal its made out to be, in my opinion,
Cheers
Margaret
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 22:47:51 -0500
From: Ludwik Kowalski <kowalskiL@MAIL.MONTCLAIR.EDU>
Subject: Teaching over the Internet
According to what I heard today from the local representative
of Thomson publishing company, the Serway's textbooks
(both the algebra and the calculus based versions) will be
available electronically in Spring of 2002. This was sort of
an unofficial information from a salesperson.
Those who teach over the Internet, using either WebCT of
Blackboard, will be able to receive the "ready to go" course
content and modify it, if desired. The cost of all this will be
in the price of the book, not very different from the current
cost. A bank of quiz questions will be available for each
Chapter.
I am sharing what I heard today at an information session
at our university. Materials are developed for those who
practice "distance education" or for those supplement
traditional face-to-face teaching with electronic contents.
Are other popular physics textbooks going to be available
in the same way? Please, share what you know.
Ludwik Kowalski
P.S.
The company website is: