A common challenge associated with illuminated screens is that the user can strain their eyes if they stare at it for extended periods. That’s especially true if you’re poring over digital pages late into the night while preparing for an exam or class project. Printed textbooks hardly strain your eyes, as long there’s enough light close to you.
Higher education instructors tend to have more flexibility in selecting course materials compared to their K–12 counterparts.16 The K–12 system operates in a top-down approach in comparison to higher education. Given their power of choice, higher education instructors need to e text books how to select optimal instructional materials to meet their pedagogical needs at the lowest cost for students. Reading digitally only started becoming a norm about a decade ago, thanks to advancements in technology and consumer products such as e-readers and tablet computers.

If you’re big on portability, accessibility, affordability, and the ability to share content, then a digital textbook is ideal for you. But if you’re wary of straining your eyes and online distractions, you may want to think twice before purchasing e-textbooks. Online textbooks may be highly flexible, but their heavy reliance on expensive electronic devices and internet access pose a problem. Not every college student can afford an iPad or a reliable computer.
On top of that, we all could do with a lot more self-awareness about how we learn from reading. Research suggests that students retain more details when studying from printed text rather than a screen. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. We’ve prepared a definitive guide on some of the top e-books pros and cons to help you decide. If you purchased your eTextbook from your campus bookstore , please return to the bookstore so we may retrieve your transaction information and re-issue you an access code. If your access code is not working or is loading an incorrect title, and you are using the NOOKstudy e-reader, please call the Customer Service team at THE-BOOK and we’ll be happy to assist you.
The big three textbook publishers (Pearson, McGraw-Hill Education, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) were quick to develop digital initiatives for K-12 materials. The pace accelerated in higher education as well, most recently with inclusive-access models, where publishers provide reduced-price digital texts to all course enrollees. The overall teaching and learning implications of e-textbooks are fairly insignificant; both traditional paper textbooks and e-textbooks are fundamentally just content delivery mechanisms. The difference between print and e-textbooks are more often detected in the additional online content that publishers may provide with their textbooks.

VitalSource is a phenomenal resource for students wishing to eliminate paper copies of textbooks from their lives! Simply open one app or a browser on your device and see your entire library. We have many tips available whether this is your first time selling books, or if you have your own book buying business. Interactive media – Flip PDF e-textbooks give you interactive reading experience with hyperlinks, image slideshow, SWF, video and audio, etc.
In some cases, digital textbooks may cost 40-50% less than physical copies, although savings are not always this high. Most texts can be viewed with a standard laptop, phone, or e-reader. Depending on the type of digital textbook purchased, you may need to connect to the internet to access your book. Alternatively, you may be able to download the material permanently to your device.

For students, though, the savings depend on how many of your courses rely on Cengage textbooks. And since those decisions most commonly happen at the faculty level, that number can change dramatically from one semester to the next. In this way it maybe mirrors the Netflix model a little too closely; what you get out of it can change precipitously from one month to the next.
Restrictions have been set by the publishers to prevent unauthorized reproduction of their textbooks. These restrictions limit the number of pages you can copy and print from a book. Once you've downloaded your eTextbook it is accessible to you anytime.
Learn from an expert how they approach advising HBCU students and set them up for success. Physical textbooks for college usually cost more than e-textbooks, but learners can find some savings by purchasing used books. Students can also resell their books once they finish a course, or simply rent them in the first place. Check out our guide on renting versus buying textbooks for more information. Continue reading to weigh your options and determine whether you should buy physical textbooks or e-textbooks for college.

A K-12 student learning from an older print textbook still learns the basics of anatomy, physics, algebra, geometry, and the US government. Students who own tablets purchase and read more books than those who read print books alone. There are thousands of education and tutoring applications on tablets, so teachers can tailor student learning to an individual style/personality instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. There are more than 20,000 education apps available for the iPad alone.