It’s no secret that students spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks every semester. But it seems the federal government might step in.

On March 12, Rep. Bill Foster, 14th Congressional District of Illinois, introduced legislation that would require federal agencies that spend more than $10 million every fiscal year on scientific education to devote two percent of these budgets to develop open-source materials and post them on a Web site that would be free for students. It would be updated every year and continually maintained.

The Web site, however, will only cater to math, chemistry and physics.

Shannon O’Brien, communications director for Foster’s office, said those subjects were chosen as a starting point.

“We thought it was a good starting point. The information in those subjects is universally accepted,” O’Brien said.

Physics department chair Suzanne Willis said this Web site would benefit students if the effort reached realization.

“If you could download a textbook for free, it would be better than paying $100 for it,” Willis said.
Willis could not say for sure if NIU faculty would use the Web site, stating it would depend on the quality of the material posted and the individual faculty’s preferences. Willis did say, however, that faculty are aware of how expensive college textbooks can be for students, and that they’d be willing to use the posted material if it were of good quality.

Mathematics department chair William Blair also said the Web site could be very beneficial to students. He also said that this Web site will not benefit today’s students.

“What we’re talking about is something that will benefit students eight to ten years from now,” Blair said, stating that it would take time for this to become effective.

One concern Blair had was the difficulty of the material posted. He said that the calculus book used at MIT may not be appropriate for students at NIU. O’Brien said that the Web site is meant to be open-ended, in that material ranging from the basics to expert levels will be posted.

“From this material, professors can pick and choose what they’d like to use, depending on the needs of their course and students,” O’Brien said. “For example, a professor could choose to stick to more straightforward concepts, or decide to delve into more complex concepts.”

Sophomore biology major Alex Bean said he could see how using an open-source Web site would be useful and save money for students. But he also noted that it is easier to follow the professor along with a textbook.

“It’s a lot easier to highlight something than write down everything on the board,” Bean said.

According to the bill’s text, the Web site will be under the joint guidance of the Secretary of Energy and the director of the National Science Foundation.
The bill number is H.R. 1464.

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