If they can undercut CourseSmart's prices, this would be huge. I just paid CourseSmart over $100 for a semester virtual rental of a textbook, and that's way too expensive for an eBook. I don't mind paying for quality content, and purchase apps and eBooks. But $100, and I don't even own the book, when the paper copy costs only 20% more and you could keep it forever or resell it? That doesn't make sense.
College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#22Nice idea, but the problem for me would be the screen. I used to spend hours staring at my textbook back in the day. Hours spent staring at a backlit screen like a laptop would give me a headache (and does today, when I spend hours programming). But the e-ink offerings aren't there yet in terms of usability for textbooks. They're great for novels, where progress is linear, and bookmarks are search are rarely needed. But for a textbook, where I'm often flipping to the index, back and forth between subsequent pages rapidly, need color diagrams or big tables and diagrams (600x800 is often not enough room for a large table or diagram), or flipping to one of the hundreds of bookmarks that I've color-coded, e-ink and specifically the Kindle UI just can't do it. Tablet-type hardware might have a better chance, but at the cost of the backlight.
So if I was back in college, even though today I do all of my pleasure reading on a Nook Simple Touch, I would still buy paper textbooks.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#23Thank you so much.
Now, if only people begin releasing .mobi versions of their books along with .pdfs
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#24As 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 just checked how much my textbooks for the next semester will cost. Around $700, used. Ouch
No kidding!
Years back, in college, I hunted around and bought a copy of the textbook required for a course on discreet math. It was small and very expensive. Later I learned that some enterprising students had gotten a copy from the school library and, at $0.10/page, photocopied it (or at least the parts needed) and saved an ass-load of money.
I have no idea if an open-book test would allow for bringing in a stack of photocopied pages, but ...
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#25As 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 j…
Also, I can search my textbook. Can you?
Yes, it's called an Index.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#26As a leach, I don't like it. This could be the beginning of the end of cheap obsolete used textbooks. For years I've enjoyed going through bookstores, especially in college towns, just to pick up interesting looking textbooks dirt cheap.
One has to wonder how much longer the typical bookstore (in it's current form factor) will be around. The large book retailers are already retrenching, but hopefully a market still exists for the small, independent, bookstores that add so much character to Main Street.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 j…
Also, I can search my textbook. Can you? Yes, it's called an Index.
I would like for this to be a valid argument, but in at least 3/4 of the textbooks I own, the indices are such trash that they're not even worth looking at. The Table of Contents is often faster.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#28Nice idea, but the problem for me would be the screen. I used to spend hours staring at my textbook back in the day. Hours spent staring at a backlit screen like a laptop would give me a headache (and does today, when I spend hours programming). But the e-ink offerings aren't there yet in terms of usability for textbooks. They're great for novels, where progress is linear, and bookmarks are search are rarely needed.…
My problem is that I can't write on my reader. All my textbooks are filled with highlighted sentences, penned in notes, and black marker through every distracting fluff sentence. I will continue to buy paper books until I can achieve this functionality easily in digital form.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#29As 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 just checked how much my textbooks for the next semester will cost. Around $700, used. Ouch No kidding! Years back, in college, I hunted around and bought a copy of the textbook required for a course on discreet math. It was small and very expensive. Later I learned that some enterprising students had gotten a copy from the school library and, at $0.10/page, photocopied it (or at least the parts needed) and saved a…
Where I study, photocopying is not only the rule, but informally encouraged by some teachers. And it's about 0.035€/page.
Re: College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon
#30As 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.
>The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
Awesome! But in the meantime I'm not going to deal with shitty UI because it might get better. I don't buy anything for my kindle other than things I expect to read cover to cover because it simply is terrible to navigate.