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Inclusive Teaching

Textbooks - Intro

Textbooks and the materials that often accompany them play a key role in the rising cost of a college education. Often, students who can't afford textbooks struggle with hard choices, from risking a bad grade to dropping courses - or school - altogether.  In the last decade or so, multiple free alternatives to traditionally-published textbooks have emerged. Nowadays, there is little if any difference in quality between commercial textbooks and these free, open-access alternatives. One of the articles featured on this page even argues that open-access textbooks surpass traditional ones from an educational standpoint by highlighting the fact that knowledge is a social resource that is constructed by all and should be accessible to all.

Issue: The Increasing Cost of College Tuition & Textbooks

Issue: The Impact of Rising Textbook Costs on Students' Learning

Free Textbook Resources

It's More Than Just the Textbooks...

Link to "A New Cost at College: Digital Access Codes" - New York Times (news article)

Link to "An Open Perspective on Interactive Textbooks" - EDUCAUSE (Web article)

Link to "Exploring Students' E-Textbook Practices in Higher Education" - EDUCAUSE (Web article)

Link to "Instructor Engagement with E-Texts" - EDUCAUSE (Web article)

Link to "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" - KQED MindShift (Blog article)

Link to "Open Access, A View from Cultural Anthropology" - Digital Humanities Now (Web article)