Earlier today Macmillan announced DynamicBooks, their newest push into online publishing. As usual there’s a ton of PR surrounding the announcement, but there are two things that stand out for me:
Prices for textbooks will drop to around $50 in an effort to stem the drop in profits caused by used textbook stores and online piracy. This move is long overdue, in my opinion. While it’s true that academic textbooks have a far lower market then mass-market paperbacks, the incentives for buying have all but dried up. Since the beginning, students have found it hard to drop $150 on a textbook, but now it’s no longer a necessity in order to pass a course. This could also eventually help digital libraries subscriptions like Safari gain traction.
Macmillan is promoting the fact that professors will now be able to tailor digital textbooks to suit their needs, editing and removing passages without any kind of review process. I’m anxious to see if anyone actually uses this in their lessons. It’s a smart idea: most already pick a textbook to be the backbone of their course, tailoring bits and pieces to suit their teaching styles.
I’m a little skeptical, though. Most professors I’ve interacted with made it pretty clear that they’re not around to teach, and that it’s just a necessary evil on the path to obtaining research grants. That’s why I feel technology has failed to really pick up in the academic sector - most professors just can’t be bothered.
I’m excited to see how this does. I hope my judgement is wrong on this one.
