I had a great conversation with my guidance counselor today about the use and or importance of text books in online learning. We are at a crossroads in our program right now around the question of whether or not we should be including a paper text book with our courses. There seem to be two very clear sides to this topic and according to our survey results and anecdotal discussions with students and parents, the split is pretty darn close to 50-50.
Some are suggesting that the textbook is an antiquated relic of days gone by. Our courses are developed by highly skilled educators and subject matter experts and include text, video, avatars, web links, etc. (sounds like entertainment education right?) all right there in the course. To incorporate a text book would be sort of like saying that you need to include an abacus with every iPad sold... right? All of the important content for the course is included in the online version of the course. Purchasing and shipping of textbooks either cuts into your profit margin or means students have to pay a lot more for the courses (remember, I work in a private school, so nothing is free).
On the other hand, isn't it important for students to learn how to access information in a non-virtual format? Having that big heavy textbook, the oracle of all knowledge on the subject of Algebra II, gives students another option for acquiring knowledge. Tactile learnings may benefit from flipping through the pages of a text book and even marking up the pages (if we allow that). Visual learners benefit from all of the nice photos and high quality graphics that a textbook provides. And the smell! Who doesn't remember the smell of a brand new text book?
I would be interested to hear your perspective. Are hard bound text books important in elearning?
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