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HarryHirsch · 2017-09-16 · Original thread
Complain to your university's administration that the faculty is outsourcing assessment to the textbook company. The access codes are a racket, but they are a convenient racket, because the university doesn't have to hire extra faculty or assistants for grading tests and running tutorials, teaching faculty is seriously overburdened.

It's really bad and has gotten worse in the last 20 years. This is a standard text for advanced undergraduate organic chemistry: https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/0387683461

USD 35 on Amazon plus another USD 35 for its sister volume, good for all Orgo courses that an undergraduate might choose to take. A new edition would come out every 8 - 10 years. Solid. Good addition to the personal library when working in the field. Over 2500 pages altogether. Whoever says that isn't a fair deal is lying.

This is the slim-down-rip-off introductory textbook edition: https://www.amazon.com/-/dp/0073402745/

USD 268, but you get an access code. And a new edition seemingly every other year, as if the content in introductory courses changed that fast. It's a useless piece of dead tree, never to be looked at again once the course is over.

It's the students' turn to revolt. The situation has been intolerable for a long time.

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