This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Flat World Knowledge for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
As a college graduate, I know firsthand just how tough it can be to pay for school fees, an apartment and other costs along the way. While I was lucky enough to have a scholarship for classes, books were an entirely different story! I had two jobs to pay for my textbooks each year and to pay for other bills. Most of my upper level course books were no less than $60, but some were close to $200! Sometimes I actually couldn't even afford the book and just had to rely on my notes.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who has/had a problem paying for books. Students spent an average of $1137 in 2010-2011 on textbooks and supplies, according to The College Board. This means textbooks are costing students almost as much as their tuition AND, even more scarily, the textbook prices continue to rise at 4x the rate of inflation! Sadly, 60% of students who dropped out admitted textbooks and other fees besides tuition directly effected their ability to graduate and 58% of those who actually did graduate also had issues with textbook prices and other fees.
What Can We Do To Fight These Costs And Be Successful In School?
Flat World Knowledge has the answer to this question. They use technology as a means to reduce cost barriers and increase the ability for students to access the textbooks they need to succeed. Pairing open licensing and textbook personalization with a completely new and radical pricing model, this amazing online resource makes textbooks available free of cost. Yes, I said free. This formula has the ability to completely distrupt the $8.5 U.S. textbook market and begin a Textbook Rebellion! For the very first time, books are made affordable for the average student.
Flat World is definitely catching on and, since Spring 2009, their books have been adopted by 1600+ professors at 900+ schools in over 44 countries. That's over 115,000 students! Faculty has the ability to change the textbook from just a book to a platform where students can readily consume content that fits their learning style. Having raise over $27 million over the past 2 years, Flat World is well on its way to creating a sustainable model which builds open content. The possibilities are endless, as early pilot studies by colleges using Flat World open textbooks have demonstrated as much as a 15% increase in course completion rates, which is quite a significant increase compared to other institutions using only traditional books.
Flat World Knowledge is an amazing approach to college text books, helping students not only afford a proper education, but to succeed in ways a simple text book could not provide. I wish this had been available when I was in school! Are you in school? Know someone who is? It's time to Spread the word about Flat World. With today's economy, Flat World could seriously increase their chances of completing their studies and graduating.
Let me think about this- $35 for a Introduction to Chemistry book (which you will probably need during your first year of college) or FREE? That's really a no brainer! Visit their site and request more info
0 comments:
Post a Comment