When I can't fully understand a concept from class, or need additional resources, I usually never turn to my textbooks for answers, thinking that these authors will give me a long, drawn out explanation that may never fully clarify my confusion.
In fact, in taking Calculus II (Integral Calculus), the website khanacademy.org saved my GPA and allowed me to continue my collegiate career. In some instances, the instructor there taught me much more easily and effectively than my professor during class.
In my opinion, the efficacy of textbooks in a college course seems to be drastically low for the price paid - hundreds or thousands of dollars per semester. Why not pull all of your resources from credible, online sources and remove the costly pasted pages altogether - or, at the very least, provide online sources as an alternative to the traditional approach?
The idea is simple. Work with professors and faculty on college campuses to construct a curriculum and syllabus with textbook cost savings in mind. The structure of classes essentially remains the same, except with required readings and articles pulled from online sources like credible news journals or websites devoted to that particular subject.
Students may search through the approved online content at their disposal, in order to pick and choose the understanding they are lacking. Need some sort of financial information? Head over to Investopedia.com. Looking for another way to learn a specific Calculus lesson? Check out Khanacademy.org.
Not only are there a vast number of online resources for essentially every topic, there are forums available online too. For example, Reddit is a community in which people seek help for a wide array of problems, and most are solved quickly and with easy explanations by people across the world.
In conclusion, the Internet's resources are sorely misused and under-utilized by the current method of teaching at universities, and tapping into these resources could be an extremely cost-effective way to save possibly a couple thousand dollars a year per student.
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CommentSrihari Sridharan
Blake