Aug 30, They offer academic ebooks from all the world's leading scholarly and CourseSmart has over 6, college textbooks from 14 leading textbook publishers. course materials to determine the best options for their students. Aug 3, One of the biggest shocks for me when I first enrolled in college was the I thought the cost of school was covered and I was good to go. Their ebooks are rentals, so you have full access to the book for a period of days. Jul 26, Pop quiz: do college students prefer digital textbooks or the good old-fashioned Just about every student has a tablet or ebook reader or laptop along with site isn't just waiting for students to come to its site, however.
| Author: | KATELYNN HASSELVANDER |
| Language: | English, Spanish, Portuguese |
| Country: | Maldives |
| Genre: | Lifestyle |
| Pages: | 195 |
| Published (Last): | 29.01.2016 |
| ISBN: | 741-8-15096-302-5 |
| Distribution: | Free* [*Registration needed] |
| Uploaded by: | EDMUNDO |
Mar 27, Browse our list of the best websites for free textbooks for university and college students. Interactive: Leadership: Theory and Practice Interactive eBook "I always check VitalSource when downloading my college books because I know if they have it. Spend less and access your textbooks from anywhere with ebook rentals from TextbookRush. As a college student, you shouldn't have to worry about carrying all your Some of the advantages of using an e-book rental site include: specific to a particular title and edition of a book and the best way to identify your book.
How to Buy E-Textbooks Lighten your load and save your wallet by buying or renting digital textbooks this school year. Terms of use.
Pop quiz: do college students prefer digital textbooks or the good old-fashioned paper versions? It depends on who you ask. In , research found that students with iPads were split on whether they liked their tablet or paper books better. A further study by the University of Washington showed a quarter of students who got free e-textbooks still bought the paper versions.
But e-textbooks have their benefits. College textbook costs rose US PIRG , a public interest research group, finds that "65 percent of students said that they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive" and 82 percent believe they'd do better if the textbook was free online. Some community colleges have developed curricula specifically to cut costs by using open education resources, maybe even bundling the cost of texts with the tuition.
The difference between open and regular e-texts is that while e-text from big publishers may be cheaper, they still have lots of rules and limitations; open texts are much more affordable and accessible, but not necessarily vetted by the admins and educators. It doesn't help when major textbook publishers pursue practices they say are to prevent counterfeit textbooks, but most others see as a way to keep the prices high. Some have even sued students who legally bought physical textbooks overseas and brought them to the US—but thankfully even SCOTUS didn't side with that ridiculousness.
Publishers are feeling the scorn. Pearson, one of the major textbook publishers, had the biggest loss in its history in Wiley had similar issues due to shrinking textbook sales.
Both have launched online libraries and courses as a solution.
So maybe it's time to ditch the papyrus books for good. Just about every student has a tablet or ebook reader or laptop along with their smartphones; all feel the pinch of higher costs.
It's clearly the inexpensive e-textbook's time. So where does a thrifty student go to get the ebooks he or she needs at prices that won't deplete all the funds for beer cultural events on campus? The key is to shop around. Not every online book store has every single obscure text you may need or desire, especially in an electronic edition, so embrace multiple platforms and apps to save money.
That's because there are several major vendors vying to be your digital college bookstore of choice.
Here's where to go to get the digital-based tomes that will teach. The Big Stores Amazon There are a number of ways to save on a wide selection of e-textbooks with Amazon's Kindle platform.
This membership provides free two-day shipping, access to streaming movies and TV and music, and—of course—discounts on many print textbooks: up to 40 percent off some new print books, up to 90 percent off some used books, and up to 70 percent off some textbook rentals.
If you go with Kindle e-textbooks , it's 80 percent off the list price on rentals for 30 days, which you can extend any time; there are seven-day trials on purchases. Students can also trade in their print textbooks back to Amazon, even if they were purchased elsewhere, for up to 80 percent of the purchase price. E-textbooks can also be rented. Amazon's e-textbooks for the Kindle platform can be read on iPads, iPhones, Android devices, Mac and Windows PCs, and any Kindle device preferably the color Kindle Fires, as the e-ink screen of standard Kindles may not be as easy to read if it's a full-color book.
There's also an "Xray for Kindle" feature on some books—a "smart glossary" that provides links to extra content—and a flash cards feature to quiz yourself. You have seven days to return a Kindle e-textbook and the list of publishers is comprehensive.
Amazon isn't just waiting for students to come to its site, however. The mega-retailer has also taken to helping the stores at several colleges with websites that provide limited same-day delivery of more than just books.
They've also set up "pickup center" lockers at some campuses, and a few even have full physical stores: Purdue University was Amazon's first staffed college store location in , but it's since expanded to 17 others, though some are pick-up only spots for online orders.
After filling out all kinds of loan applications and paperwork, I thought the cost of school was covered and I was good to go. Then I walked into the bookstore and realized that some of the books for my classes cost more than two hundred dollars. Not all books are available in this format, but if yours is, it is an option worth looking into.
To me, the most crucial one of these is the ability to search in the document. Their ebooks are rentals, so you have full access to the book for a period of days. This allows the books to be a little cheaper than some other sites, but it is unfortunate that you do not own the book. All electronic textbooks available on their site can also be read on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
They have a full search function that allows searching by author, ISBN, title, and keyword. CourseSmart CourseSmart offers the same basic search functions as the previous site. All of their books are viewed right in the browser, and they even offer the ability to read your books offline.
They allow you to get access to 3 chapters from up to 5 books offline at a time. CourseSmart allows you to preview and get a trial of any book available in their store.
