HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Free Textbooks Spell Disruption for College Publishers. “Diaz, who still resents how much he’d paid for textbooks in college and graduate school, realized he’d hit on his next business idea. In 2011, he started Boundless Learning, a Boston company that has begun giving away free electronic textbooks covering college subjects like American history, anatomy and physiology, economics, and psychology. . . . On average, college students spend around $1,200 each year on books and supplies. Those costs, which sometimes exceed the tuition at a community college, are prompting a wider rebellion against commercial publishers.”

I use my own materials whenever possible, and am thinking about expanding that to other courses because I’m so appalled at what the texts cost, particularly in light of their often-mediocre quality.