Chegg, for many students, is still a better option. Great customer service. Simple Process. Wide-spread adoption and availability of titles. Granted, I'm a chegg user, but Amazon surely has a run for its money.
College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
11–20 of 44 posts
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#12As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Need to know the value of a constant in an equation? Just click on it.
The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#13As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
I believe the 3rd problem is partially a software problem. I think with proper software to either emulate the advancement through a book, or with a recall function of recently viewed or saved pages; This problem could disappear.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#14As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
4) Buying Kindle books and owning it forever is old news- but now you can rent them too. But as another student who has tried the Kindle-textbook solution in the past, I agree with the other points more or less. I will add that being able to search the entire text of the book instantly is a huge plus for me.
I really really want to like e-textbooks, but I wouldn't try experiment again without the large-format Kindle, and I just can't justify the massively increased price over the smaller Kindle.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#15As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
With the right kind of digitized textbook, random access can be really nice on a computer. For things like medical texts, where the topic that you're searching for might be referenced in multiple places not all of which show up in the book's index, computerized texts are fantastic.
If I need to learn serially from a book rather than merely reference it, I prefer physical texts; I simply find physical textbooks to be more pleasing.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#16I think it's a great idea, but at the same time, I'm wary to start jumping on eTextbook renting simply because of my tech ADD - and because it's easier to use a regular textbook. Sure, your textbook might be heavy, but you don't need to be connected to a power source/be dependent upon an electronic device for your materials.
I had to charge my Kindle one night every couple weeks with heavy usage. It was never a problem at all.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#17As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
4) Buying Kindle books and owning it forever is old news- but now you can rent them too. But as another student who has tried the Kindle-textbook solution in the past, I agree with the other points more or less. I will add that being able to search the entire text of the book instantly is a huge plus for me. I really really want to like e-textbooks, but I wouldn't try experiment again without the large-format Kindle,…
> Buying Kindle books and owning it forever is old news- but now you can rent them too.
Thanks for pointing that out; I've removed issue 4, because it's really just the product of my tired mind.
Having the entire text searchable is a really big plus. I wish that physical textbooks would start including a digital index, to make it easier to find things in them.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#18As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Need to know the value of a constant in an equation? Just click on it. The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
> Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts.
Emphasis added. Until they do, it's still an issue.
> The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
And let's hope that the people developing software to make this revolution possible don't drag their feet either.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#19I expect we will also be seeing more cloud-based ebooks in the future, such as those the bottom of the article indicates McGraw Hill has introduced. The same way that gaming companies increasingly push a subscription-based service over a singular single-player experience, a continual subscription to a cloud-based ebook service would help avoid the inevitable mass piracy of the materials.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#20As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up…
While electronic textbooks do let you skip randomly between pages, it would end up being a mixture of memorizing page numbers and looking at the table of contents.
Have you ever actually used a Kindle textbook? There's a bookmark feature that allows you to immediately jump to preselected pages in the book. It's infinitely more useful than having a bunch of stupid physical placeholders in a textbook that you need to jump around with. Also, I can search my textbook. Can you?