Read It and Weep: The College Textbook Shakedown

Reader Jenica Rhee noted by Rewriting the Textbook Market? Smashing! post over on my Architects of Tomorrow blog, which is devoted to my tech leader interview books. She offered me the following infographic (permalink here), and I found it too fascinating to resist. If you've ever wondered why college textbooks are so insanely priced and why change is so slow to come to this market, read on...


Via: OnlineEducation.net

E-reading Rising Among Students

According to a new report from the National Association of College Stores, ebook sales are up 6% among a base of 655 college students compared to last October. Other noteworthy factoids:

• 15% fewer students now use laptops or netbooks to read texts.
• 39% of students now use a dedicated e-reader.
• Of those who owned an e-reader, the models owned were Amazon's Kindle (52%), Barnes & Noble's Nook (21%), Apple's iPhone (17%), and Apple's iPad (10%).

I find it most interesting, though, that 75% of respondents noted that, if given an equal choice, they would still pick paper. I wonder what would happen to this percentage if students were offered ebook versions of the same text for 30% of the paper version's price.