Partly in response to growing concerns about the price of textbooks,
in Fall 2008 the only textbook used for 369 was the free, on-line textbook
A First Course in Linear Algebra,
by Robert Beezer.
The experiment was worthwhile, but not completely successful. Exit
questionnaires filled out by students fell roughly into three
different categories:
- I liked having just a free textbook. Some students
indicated that since they never open a textbook anyway, it's cheaper
to not open a free one than an expensive one.
- I would be willing to pay a little bit ($20-$50) for a good
textbook. If hypothetically a good textbook were available
at the price, then paying a little bit for it seemed reasonable.
- I want the best textbook I can find, no matter the
cost. Given the initial cost of a university course, it
makes sense to some students to invest more, even in an expensive
textbook, in order to maximize the chance of success.
Since 2008, FCLA has improved greatly, and may now be a viable,
standalone solution. However, I recognize that some students prefer a
more traditional textbook, and the department has recently been using
Elementary Linear Algebra, by Anton and Rorres.
As we go through the semester, I will post information about the
relevant sections in Anton and Rorres, and link to the relevant
section of Beezer.
A word about using the on-line textbook: it's available in several
formats, including HTML and PDF. I will typically link to the HTML
sections, but if you're seriously reading a section, you will probably
want to either look at the PDF online or print something out.
If you try and print out the whole
book, you'll kill several trees to no good effect. Instead, you might
want to consider printing the PDF of each week's section(s).