教科書太貴 商學院助學生省錢

Jochen Wirtz is pleased to describe himself as a best-selling writer. He has co-authored a textbook on services marketing that he not only uses as professor at the National University of Singapore Business School, but which has sold more than 700,000 copies.

約亨•維爾茨(Jochen Wirtz)樂於稱自己爲暢銷書作家。他與人合著了一本服務營銷的教科書，在自己的課上（他是新加坡國立大學商學院(National University of Singapore Business School)教授）使用，不僅如此，這本書已經賣出了逾70萬本。

However, he was so troubled by the $263 list price set for the last edition released in 2010 that he resolved to find a cheaper way to get the book made.

然而，這本書2010年發行的上一版標價263美元，這讓他十分困擾，他決心找到辦法讓這本書更便宜。

Last month he released an updated hardback version selling for $118 and a paperback for $50.86, having found a new locally based publisher.

在找到一家當地出版商以後，他的著作上個月發行了新版本，精裝本售價118美元，平裝本售價50.86美元。

“When students are having to pay over $200 for a book, it impedes learning,” Professor Wirtz says.

“如果學生們不得不花費超過200美元的價格來買一本書，這會阻礙學習，”維爾茨教授說。

He notes that he makes minimal amounts from writing textbooks. Most of his income comes from teaching, so the lower price makes little difference to him. “For me as an author it is more important that the book is being used.”

他指出，他從撰寫教科書中得到的收入很少。他的大部分收入來自於教書，因此書價降低對他沒有什麼影響。“對作者來說，有人使用這本書更重要。”

The rising prices of textbooks appears to be reaching a tipping point, the professor adds. The latest US Census Bureau statistics show that textbook prices increased more than 800 per cent from 1978 to 2014, more than triple the cost of inflation and more than the rate of increase of college tuition.

維爾茨教授補充道，教科書不斷上漲的價格似乎即將到達臨界點。根據美國人口普查局(US Census Bureau)的最新數據，從1978年到2014年，教科書價格上漲幅度超過800%，是通脹速度的3倍多，超過了大學學費的增速。

Concern that prices are now just too high is pushing both academics and business schools to seek alternative methods for getting material into students’ hands.

考慮到教科書價格現在已經太高，學者和商學院正在尋求讓學生們獲得課程材料的替代辦法。

MBA course organisers at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management have made a policy of replacing “wherever possible” paper textbooks with electronic versions, which only contain the chapters that will be necessary for the students. To facilitate this, all Desautels’ MBA students are issued with an iPad during their orientation.

麥吉爾大學(McGill University)德索泰爾商學院(Desautels Faculty of Management)的MBA課程組織者制定了一項政策，“儘可能”用電子版教材替代紙質教材（電子版教材中只包含學員需要使用的章節）。爲了方便起見，德索泰爾商學院會在迎新過程中給所有MBA學員發放一部iPad。

At Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management, use of books on the masters courses has been replaced with digital case studies and articles are available through the school’s university library, which pays for the copyrights. As a result, students will not have to pay extra for the material.

在伊拉斯謨大學(Erasmus University)鹿特丹管理學院(Rotterdam School of Management)，碩士課程已不再使用紙質課本，而是改用電子案例研究和該院圖書館中已付版權費的文章來教學。這樣一來，學員就無需爲教材額外付費。

In 2009, HEC Paris became one of the first higher education institutions to start offering reading material, alongside videos and other online content, through Apple’s iTunes U network.

2009年，法國巴黎高等商學院(HEC Paris)成爲第一家通過蘋果(Apple)iTunes U提供閱讀材料、視頻和其他在線內容的高等教育機構。

That year the school also issued about 500 iPads to students to encourage them to experiment with accessing the material. It has since switched to putting the material on its learning management system, which can be used on any tablet device or mobile phone.

同年，該校也向學員發放了約500臺iPad，以鼓勵他們試着獲取材料。後來，該校又轉爲將材料放在可在任何平板設備或者手機上使用的學習管理系統上。

Going online has encouraged students to look further afield for information that can support their studies, according to Karine Le Joly, HEC’s director of innovation for executive education.

巴黎高商高管教育創新主任卡里納•勒若利(Karine Le Joly)表示，轉向線上鼓勵了學員去探索更多可能有助於他們學習的資料。

“It changes the behaviour of learners because they now have access to a wealth of information,” she says. “It then becomes part of our role as educators to incorporate this information into the teaching we provide.”

“這改變了學習者的行爲，因爲他們現在有機會獲得豐富的信息，”她說，“因此，將這些信息納入我們所提供的教育中，就變成我們教育者的職責的一部分。”

Although Ms Le Joly believes the technology has enhanced teaching at HEC, she admits demand for the textbooks has not dried up just because the information is available online. “Students still prefer to have the paper version,” she says.

儘管勒若利相信技術加強了巴黎高商的教學，她承認，可以通過網絡獲取信息，並未使對教科書的需求消失。“學員們依然更傾向於擁有紙質版本，”她說。

Lillian Cheng, adjunct lecturer at the NUS Business School and a marketing consultant, is preparing a case study on textbook pricing. She likens the academic publishing market to that of prescription pharmaceuticals, where the person prescribing the use of the product does not incur the cost of usage and the person using the product is left bearing the captive prices or not reaping the benefit of the product.

新加坡國立大學商學院兼任講師、營銷諮詢師Lillian Cheng正在準備一個有關教科書定價的案例研究。她將學術出版市場與處方藥市場相比：開處方的人並不承擔使用成本，而使用產品的人或者是承擔他們無權選擇的價格，或者是沒有從產品獲得益處。

The problem with challenging the status quo in textbook publishing is that students are already learning to pass exams without paying for textbooks, she says.

挑戰教科書出版現狀的一個問題是，她說，學員們已經在學習如何不花錢買課本就通過考試。

Kent Monroe, a pricing expert and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, claims that academic books have risen above the “acceptable price range” such that most students now find alternative ways to access texts.

伊利諾伊大學厄巴納-尚佩恩分校(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)榮譽教授、定價問題專家肯特•門羅(Kent Monroe)主張，學術書籍的價格已經超出“可接受的範圍”，以至於大多數學生現在都在尋找獲取課本的替代辦法。

“The problem then becomes that the individual student becomes less interested in learning because of the cost,” he says.

“因此問題就變成學生因成本太高而減弱了學習的興趣，”他說。

Some unofficial disruption of the textbook market has been going on for years, Prof Monroe notes. “You hear bookstore owners say they know when an exam is coming up because they see students reading the books in the aisles of their shops then putting them back on the shelves.”

門羅教授指出，顛覆教科書市場的一些非官方努力已經進行了許多年。“你會聽到書店老闆們說，他們知道學生們什麼時候快考試了，因爲他們看見學生們在書店過道里讀書，讀完再把它們放回書架上。”

In one of Prof Monroe’s MBA courses there has been an international version of a textbook that was significantly cheaper than the official American edition.

在門羅教授的一門MBA課程上，有一本教科書的國際版比官方美國版的價格便宜得多。

As a result, he says, significant numbers of his students buy the international version from online book retailers based overseas and have it shipped to the US. One of his students, from India, bought two editions, sending one home to his father, with whom he would also share his class notes, Prof Monroe recalls.

門羅教授說，因此，有相當多的學員從海外網絡圖書零售商那裏“海淘”該書的國際版，將其寄送到美國。他回憶道，一個來自印度的學生買了兩本，將其中一本寄回家給他的父親，他還會把課堂筆記與父親分享。

“His father was effectively taking my course in India. He was not just disrupting the book publisher, he was disrupting me as the tutor.”

“他的父親相當於在印度上了我的課。他不僅是在顛覆圖書出版商，他也在顛覆作爲教師的我。”