UW-Oshkosh innovates e-texts

OSHKOSH - Every semester, textbooks do battle with checkbooks.

"It's probably like $500 a semester," said UW-Oshkosh junior James Wiciak. "So that's at least $2,500 so far."

So student body vice-president, Alex Abendschein, decided to do something about it.

"To get this federal grant was a big sigh of relief for us," he said.

Abendschein has been looking at the text book issue for three years and helped get a nearly $300,000 grant to start a new way of creating original, electronic textbooks.

"It really makes it a product of the University," said Abendschein. "That's what we're really excited about."

The program is called Core Concepts. Professors will work together to write the e-text for many mandatory classes.

In the business statistics class the program is looking to begin with, the textbook runs about $150 new. The new electronic text would be around $20.

"Quite frankly, at, or it looks to be below what you could do with a textbook rental program," said UW-Oshkosh chancellor Richard Wells.

UW-Oshkosh business professor, M. Ryan Haley, is the faculty representative on the project and will head up writing the first textbook.

"As opposed to something thought up in a random text book this will be actual questions teachers right here in Oshkosh will be asking them," said Haley. "A group of teachers who are coming across to be part of the solution to this textbook price problem as opposed to often times being perceived as the cause of the textbook problem because we assign the textbooks."

Haley says it will be voluntary for any teachers who want to be involved. Professors would also be paid for their work, with the majority of the grant money and any profits from the program going to them.

While it may not apply to every class, the goal is to spread the e-text across the UW System and then schools nationwide.

The school hopes to have the first e-text ready to go by spring semester.