Page 30 - Flathead Beacon // 3.26.14

30 | MARCH 26, 2014 BUSINESS MONTHLY FLATHEADBEACON.COM

As Textbook Prices Rise, FVCC Seeks An Applicable Solution

Students and staf team up to

create open source textbooks,

apps to lower education costs

By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon

Flathead Valley Community College web tech-
nology student Tyler Rasmussen, 21, is like any other Writing
academic his age: He’s tired of paying for overpriced
textbooks. The average student at a four-year public for
Success
university spends $1,200 annually on textbooks, ac-
cording to the College Board Advocacy and Policy Cen-
ter, and the price tag can be even higher for students at By Scott McClean Adapted by FVCC
two-year schools. In some instances, textbook prices
have increased faster than tuition costs.
But the cost of textbooks in at least one FVCC
course, English 101, is decreasing thanks to an ef-
fort being spearheaded by English instructor Conrad

Rauscher to use open source texts and develop a web
app that will ofer the book for free, making it more ac-
cessible and saving students thousands of dollars.
“I think there is a fair amount of textbook price
gouging for students because they are a captive audi-
ence,” Rauscher said. “I was a inancially struggling
student for years and I got frustrated with paying what

I considered an unfair price when the content of the
book hadn’t even changed.”
Rauscher has been at FVCC for nearly a decade
and when he was hired on full-time he wanted to ad-
dress the high price of textbooks. His idea to bring open
source textbooks to FVCC is rooted in a trip he took
two years ago to a national conference where he irst
learned about the concept. An open source textbook

is one that can be used freely by students, teachers
and the public. Alterations can also be made to a text
and then redistributed so long as it’s not sold for proit.
Open copyright textbooks on a variety of subjects are
widely available online.
“It’s a way to reduce costs, especially for students,”
Rauscher said.
For more than a year, Rauscher and his colleagues

have been compiling a basic English composition book
for FVCC using an open-source text book. With the
book as a base, FVCC’s teachers have created a 600- is being funded by grants from the FVCC Foundation. annually.
page English book that its their students’ needs and “I feel like this app could go far and really be ex- Another advantage to developing the textbook in-
even includes local student essays as examples. This panded in the future,” Rasmussen said. “It’s almost of- house is that the faculty will be able to update it. There
year a PDF version of the book has been used, but fensive how much publishers charge for textbooks so are no immediate plans to expand the textbook app pro-
Rauscher hopes it will be available as an app for the it’s great to see a local efort trying to get a good text-
gram beyond the English 101 class, but FVCC spokes-

iPhone, iPad and Android devices later this year.
book out there for free.”
person Katie White said that could change in the future.
Rasmussen, the web technology student, will be While the app will be free, if a student wants a hard-
“This gives us a good opportunity to see if it works,
heading up the development of the app. He said once copy of the textbook, they will still be able to buy one at and if it works well then I’m sure we’d expand on the
the app is completed it could be used to distribute other the bookstore. Rauscher said the new open source text- program,” she said.
textbooks as well. The textbook and app development
book could save FVCC students an estimated $48,000
[email protected]

H
MADNESS IN MARC

1000’S OF ITEMS UP TO 75% OFF

EVERYTHING ELSE

Sale Ends

Historic Downtown • Kalispell, Montana Monday
756-5818 • Mon-Sat 9am-6pm
April 7th
Sun 10:30am-4:30pm