College students are all-too familiar with losing the last of their spending money to buying colossal textbooks. eBooks are electronic versions of textbooks which can be read on a computer or a smaller special eBook reading device.
“The primary benefit is price said Pepperdine bookstore Manager Chris Renbarger. He said the price typically starts at 45 percent of the cost of its more tangible counterpart.
While their sales have increased gradually, eBooks have yet to become a trend at Pepperdine and units sold are still insignificant Renbarger said.
Less than 30 have been sold during the 2009 fall semester.
Because of this, the demise of the printed book is further than speculators forecasted. The main contender to the bookstore currently are Web sites such as Amazon, Half and Chegg. Print copy sales tend to be most effected by price competition Renbarger said.
Despite what some praise of the convenience of eBooks others persistently pick the pages rather than the screen. All of those students who have fallen into the habit of highlighting and note taking in their textbooks will understand this.
Follett Higher Education Group the company that owns the bookstore has developed CafeScribe software. With the new software Renbarger said choosing an eBook over a textbook does not rid students of the opportunity to highlight and take notes within the text. This electronic adaptation is trying more and more to resemble the real thing. What a textbook doesn’t offer that CafeScribe does is the ability to share notes and discuss facts with students nation-wide through user group postings online.
“This has been the best format to date as it offers features resembling a social networking site focused on a certain textbook he said.
Though technology can be a student’s godsend or worst enemy, Renbarger said there have not been major issues with the software is as with all computer products there are the occasional issues with compatibility involving the e-book readers but those have been resolved on a one-on-one basis.”
Some students from other universities complain though that the e-books aren’t necessarily compatible with print books in class when looking for passages that a professor refers to.
However this is not an issue in classes where the professor teaches solely out of eBooks.
For those who are anxious to go digital with textbooks on a large scale Renbarger said it’s possible but not for a while: “The transition from traditional textbook to eBook will be slower and more gradual.”
Two faculty members on campus whose attempts to lead their classes using only eBook texts showed that students prefered to have a physical copy in hand.
One of those people is Professor of Economics Robert Sexton who wrote the textbook used for his classes. Yet he said he knows the financial burden that books such as his can place on students which is why he has tried alternative methods for his money-strapped students.
“I have this other thing called Aplia Sexton said. So for $60 they get the system and the e-book … You do a lot of stuff on your phones and computers and it just seems to me that it wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago but it’s something that’s becoming acceptable.”
“Still a lot of the students bought books at the bookstore he added.
Renbarger said eBooks face an uphill climb.
The nature of collegial studies lends itself to more traditional formats as has been shown by our two faculty members and the market trend industry wide Renbarger said.
