Opportunity

I have a belief  that an opportunity exists in regards to the price of college textbooks not just at the University of Florida, but at most universities. The potential solution involves program in which textbooks are distributed online for open and equal use among students. For those offline the book would be include with the course they payed for. Decreasing the amount of textbook cost immensely.

 Students aleready have to pay large amount for tuition, housing, and food, but just when you think your OK, you need to buy a textbook. The national average for college textbooks is about $153 and the amount and the course of a year, the average college student spends more than $1,200 on books and materials. The main reasoning for this is that the main costs of the books comes from the book publishers or faculty control. You see publishers don't make money when too many used books are in circulation. They will often release new editions or variations every few years in order to make the used books obsolete and make us by the new one for the curriculum. The other factor is faculty control, highschool textbooks are often chosen by a department, county, or state legislature. However in college it is the professor that chooses the book or specific editions that only some publishers have. That means they’re able to drive up prices with no fear.
There was a policy that was almost put into effect similar to this back in 2014. It was called the "Affordable College Textbooks Act", the policy would create open textbooks which would be able to be accessed freely online, or buy a physical copy for low as $20. With the expenses students already have to pay for a little slack wouldn't hurt, we already owe 1.5 trillion in student loan debt anyway.

Prototypical Customer: College students of varying colleges, grades, and ages
Questions:
1. How do you feel about the prices of student textbooks nowadays
2. Do you think that textbooks should be included with the course you taking and why
3. How much would you say you spent already on textbooks or textbook material in college already.
4. Do you believe that this a fair price for the given specific material.
5. Do you normally obtain your textbooks normally by buying them or is there some other manner of obtaining the given material
6. Are you fine with this?

Interview 1 UF College Student -20 (old roommate)

•  "I feel like there are very over expensive"
•  "Yes, i think it is absurd that i have to pay 600 for a course the have to pay another 170 for the book for the class i'm taking"
•  "Around 600 to 700 dollars"
•  "Not at all, still seems like too much even base off of subject
•  "If it's not required i'll go off of the teachers PowerPoint and if it is absolutely needed then i usually look online for a free or cheaper alternative first"
•  "No i wish i didn't have to jump through all the hoops to get the material

Interview 2 UF College Student (new roommate)

•  "Too high an not formal for a lot of students"
•  "Yes, if your paying for the course it should come with"
•  "I'd say roughly a $1000"
•  "sometimes, but they should be subsidized by the state or something"
•  "I usually use the rent program at the University, it's cheaper but still pricey"
•  "I think they should have a program in which you could pickup your book from the store as apposed to finding having to look for the book and then buy it." 

Interview 3 My Mom (University of Pennsylvania 1986-1990)

•  "Feel like they are very high but there are more options today to get used or rent in previous years"
• "Yes, and any materials and lab fees built into the cost of the class 
•  "$400/year , $250/semester
•  "Thought it was overpriced even back then"
•  "Bought most new, but you could buy some used via campus bookstore, which i did when i could"
•  "Would have preferred to be able to get all used books or ideally that they could come included and were passed out us."

  Reflection: In after interview all these people it solidified my thinking that students think this is a issue, even people who graduated college years earlier thought and still think books are overpriced. What surprised me that even with option to get used or online, books still remained overpriced and no one has made really a clear cut way to fix it.

Summary: My original opportunity still pretty much the same, but may require some tweaking to take consideration of different subjects and the material covered, also accessibility for students. My opportunity seems to have a bit of more detail, but is still a little vague in some areas. I think entrepreneurs should shape their idea around feedback, adhering to the customer, but stay true to its roots and not have it change completely. You don't have to lose your idea completely, monitoring and using feedback ensures you can adjust to keep customers happy, make sure that they are heard too.