Should Students Write The Textbooks?

Was reading an ebook, Full Disclosure: Cracking the Google Online Marketing Challenge, the subject of which is the Google Online Marketing Challenge.

I read the whole book in a single setting. Quality content. Ease read. To the point. Overall, great learning object. … And, very inexpensive.

Most interesting thing about the book? … It was written by students.

It got me thinking that maybe there is something here. Maybe students should be the ones writing the textbooks instead of professors?

Let’s face it, with professors there are other goals embedded in writing rather than just generating a quality learning object (i.e., the need for bulk, tenure requirement, etc.). Textbooks written by students don’t come with this baggage and may connect more directly with the intended audience.

With Full Disclosure: Cracking the Google Online Marketing Challenge, it was written by students for students. As an educator, I am sure that it will help students learn and professors teach.

Maybe we should see if this student – lead textbook writing is a model that is transferrable to other contexts and domains in undergraduate education.