Quote:
Originally Posted by N0NJY
Thus my point.
One college will control the content in it's own way perhaps differently than another university. In which case some universities will "become more equal than others" in content, context and in information.
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Right now, some universities have better educational resources than others--more skilled and knowledgeable teachers, better lab resources, better library, more counseling/guidance options, more payment options & scholarships, better selection of coursebooks.
Since all universities don't use the same books to teach now, I can't see how this is going to make anything worse. Yes, some colleges will wind up with state-of-the-industry coursebooks, edited by a dozen of the top practitioners in their fields, and others will wind up with something that's a bit better than a Wikipedia listing with reference material attached.
And right now? Some colleges have libraries with tens of thousands of books, and computer search systems to sort them, and a staff of dozens to help students find what they need for their classes, and other colleges have a few thousand books, a physical card catalog, and a single librarian with a couple of shelf-stocking assistants.
Some teachers are talented, and keep students motivated and interested so they learn avidly; other teacher drone through lesson plans they prepared 20 years ago, and students take notes that let them pass the tests but don't remember anything of the class when the next semester rolls around.
I don't expect open-source textbooks to *lower* the standards of education anywhere. Of course, highly technical schools will be best-placed to take advantage of them. But they will give low-income schools a chance to have better working materials than they could afford to pay for alone.