Choosing Textbooks
Well, I'm sure this post belongs at my other blog, but since I get more readership here, I will ask here first.
I'm teaching a new course this winter (not new to the department, but new to me) - a 200-level mass media course. When asked which textbook I wanted, I just said, "Oh, I'll take the standard text." I don't usually care - I just like to be consistent.
Well, I found out that there is no standard text for the course. Different instructors use different texts. I asked which text was most popular, and the secretaries couldn't answer - everyone truly uses something different.
So I asked seven different professors at both the University of Hartford and Manchester Community College, where I've taught before. I got five different suggestions for books. And with every suggestion I received, I got the same two comments: either "It's definitely the best one out there," or "They're all pretty much the same."
They're all pretty much the same, cost-wise, too: about $90-$95 new, $60-$70 used. While all of the suggestions looked good, I eliminated one on the basis of the fact that the newest edition just came out, and I didn't want my students to be unable to purchase used editions if they wanted it. Sometimes some of my students take winter classes for financial reasons - they work full time, and it's the only time they can fit the course into their schedule without sacrificing working hours.
I ended up ordering desk copies of two of the books, which I chose because the professors who used them before had a long history of teaching the course, so I was going on their success rate. I may or may not order others, I don't know.
What I want to ask is this: assuming cost is not an issue, what factors do you take into consideration when choosing a textbook for a course? I want to come up with some standard criteria, other than just, "I don't know, I just *like* this one better."
Faculty folk, I'd like to know what you think.
technorati tag: teaching-carnival
1 comment:
no idea how the bitching staff at nvcc choose their textbooks. i can ask them, though.
ryc: i have the same limitation as you in the uk. i can work no more than 20 hours per week. but i can only work on campus. no off-campus jobs. can you work anywhere in the uk? or just on campus?
the problem is that the on-campus jobs at nvcc pay crap ($6 per hour), plus i study full-time (have to, to keep my visa) and it takes me forever to get to school by bus, so i couldn't work more than 10 hours per week. now, $60 a week don't make a huge difference in my budget, that's why i have never worked on campus so far. the lab monitor job pays better ($11 per hour) but they want someone who stays there until 9 pm, and saturday mornings too -- my bus schedule sucks big time on saturdays and if i got out of there at 9 pm on weekdays, there wouldn't be any bus until 10 pm. no way i'm walking around so late at night. too bad! i really wanted that job to buy a canon d20 without using my credit card...
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