As an international student, I am deeply connected with the reading about open pedagogy and textbook. We pay a lot more tuition than local students and we still found textbooks way too expensive, it is not hard to realize how the price of textbooks affect local students. Although the price of a textbook contains a lot of costs other than papers. it is still a very hard decision to buy a textbook or not. In my experience, most of the courses do not use all the contents in a textbook. In addition, the frequent change of professors and course materials sink the price of second-hand textbooks. In my first year, I brought a math textbook which cost me around 400 CAD. After I used it for two semesters, the book required for the math courses I took changed, and the book is still in my house somewhere. On the other hand, most of the courses I take nowadays do not require textbooks. A lot of instructors and professors start to use materials that can be accessed online, some of them are free. Although some of the materials like assignments or practice tools still need to be purchased, they are much cheaper than a textbook. For students like me, open pedagogy can really benefit us a lot. Not only because of the price, but the degree of freedom comes with it. Students have different learning and studying habits, and open pedagogy allows students to study the way they want rather than following paths on a textbook. Just like Jesse Stommel said in the article, open pedagogy is not only about how to teach, it is about how student learn. The high price of textbooks is really hurting students, and open pedagogy might be the solution.
From a student’s perspective, I enjoy my time when I am taking online courses because I get to choose the study plan and study time on my own, and the same thing can be said about open pedagogy. Society has changed a lot and maybe it is time for some changes in education and textbook business as well.
References:
Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/UG3INgQeZPw
TEXTBOOKS, OER, AND THE NEED FOR OPEN PEDAGOGY by Jesse Stommel on AN URGENCY OF TEACHERS retrieved from https://criticaldigitalpedagogy.pressbooks.com/chapter/textbooks-oer-and-the-need-for-open-pedagogy/