So, I put together part of my online textbook (finally). Let me give a little history and insight into this 'textbook'. Ok - I blog, I am sure you got that part already. When I write a post, I like it to start from the basic ideas so that anyone could find it and get what I am saying about some physics thing. Well, I started to realize that there were some things that I kept repeating (like how to add vectors). Instead of re-writing this every time a post had vectors, I made a post Basics: Vectors and Vector Addition. Then, I realized that I could keep doing this and slowly build up a textbook. That is what I did.
What I have so far is not complete. It is only material that would be considered the first semester of an introductory algebra-based course. But it is a start. Also, there are no homework problems so it is sort of short.
Another thing about textbooks. Where are publishers going with textbooks? It seems they are not quite sure. Online stuff is getting more popular. Perhaps publishers would like to sort of "rent" an online service for the books. Maybe this would work. However, the big problem is that they are trying to figure out how to make a business model work. For me, I don't care about that so much. That is why I put the book out there - essentially for free (except for the sidebar ads).
I am not sure about the future of published books, but for me:
- Add more content. I think there are some holes in my "first half". Also, I need to work on the second half.
- Add examples. This is an easy change, but it takes some time. I need to match up my blog posts with topics in the text. For instance, my post about Iron Man is a great example of work-energy.
- Make a downloadable version of this. Pdf seems like a good format, but also one of these ebook formats (if it isn't too difficult).
I am still perplexed about textbooks. Here are the problems I see textbook publishers having:
- Textbooks are too expensive
- Many students don't even use the textbook, or just use them to look up something like a formula
- Textbooks are essentially in the same format that they have been in for a long long long time
So what do you think about textbooks and the future of textbooks?
