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E-textbooks lighten the load for college students
| Monday, January 30, 2012 |
Hefty textbooks are a fact of life for college students. They can take a toll on both your wallet and your back. Fortunately, as more schools embrace technology, electronic textbooks, or e-textbooks, are becoming just as common as hardcover editions.
In fact, 62 percent of college presidents feel that half of the textbooks used by undergraduates will be entirely digital in 10 years, the Pew Research Center reported.
At the same time, students’ reliance on technology for learning purposes is growing. Based on the results of a 2011 survey, e-textbook provider CourseSmart found that 27 percent of students consider their laptop the most important item in their backpack.
Additionally, CourseSmart found that of students who own laptops, smartphones and other technological devices, 63 percent have read an e-textbook at least once. As for students’ reasons for choosing this digital alternative, survey respondents said they are easy to carry, can be read on the go and help them save money, which, in turn, can make paying for college easier. Some students also felt the e-textbooks’ features allowed them to search within text faster and saved them time.
These are not the only benefits to using an e-textbook. In a Wired article, writer Eric Blattberg wrote that the four major digital textbook publishers – Pearson Education, Cengage Learning, Wiley and McGraw-Hill – have loaded many of their offerings with audiovisual content.
According to Pearson’s PearsonChoices Web site, CourseSmart e-textbooks allow students to access the same content they would find in a traditional textbook online and save up to 50 percent of the book’s suggested list price. In addition, the text’s digital format allows for easy navigation, book marking and note-taking tools, while search features allow the user to scan for key concepts. If students require physical pages, they can easily print them out.
Digital texts are available for upload to computers and e-book readers including the iPad, the Kindle and the Nook. Before you complete your purchase, make sure the e-textbook you need is compatible with your system. Some texts are not suitable for e-readers and can be viewed only on a computer. Oftentimes, you can download an app that allows an e-textbook stored on one type of e-book reader to be viewed on a competitor’s product.
In additional to purchasing an e-textbook, many vendors also allow you to rent the digital text for the semester. This option further decreases the amount you will have to budget for books. SchoolGuides.com – helping you find colleges and universities that offer the accredited programs that most interest you.
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