If you haven’t seen an eBook before, here’s an image from what mine looks like:
A Page from My EBook, with Highlighting
One of the nice features of Cengage‘s eBooks is that you can highlight, as I’ve demonstrated in the image, and take notes. So two major barriers to using an online resource instead of buying a hard copy have been nicely addressed. Yes, you can’t take the eBook to the beach very easily, but I’m not sure people (other than serious brain geeks like myself) read neuroscience at the beach 🙂
And here’s the best part. The whole thing is SEARCHABLE. That’s not something you can do with a hard copy, no matter how good the indexing can be. In terms of trade-offs between enjoying a hard copy and reading online, this search feature tips the scales for me.
Not only is this eBook option much cheaper than a hard copy, but you have all the resources (quizzes, animations, etc.) that go with the book all in the same place. I was very impressed.
As an author, I’m also encouraged by the innovations publishers are using to reduce the costs of textbooks to students. By reducing the used book market (our industry’s version of Napster), authors will be fairly compensated for their work. We won’t be stuck making sizeable, involuntary, non-tax-deductible contributions to the campus bookstores, who make obscene profits on our work, pay us nothing, and charge the poor students top dollar.
9 Comments
NikkiNoroian · October 31, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Although I am not one who usually goes for eBooks, being able to search the entire book would be amazing! This feature would definitely make me more likely purchase the electronic version. You can really waste so much time trying to find a particular topic in the index. My only concern is that often times students are only given access to the eBook for a short period of time–it would be nice to be able to reference the text at a later date for another class.
aterpenny · November 1, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Last quarter I took ECON 221 and used an eBook for the class in addition to the paperback I had already purchased. Personally, I would have to say that the search feature was of great help to me. While on Aplia, I was able to quickly reference material in a matter of seconds, as opposed to having to skim through pages or look in the index. The only down side for me personally with eBooks is that I cannot stare at a computer screen for too long. Also, the book itself, for this class in particular, was much smaller than my laptop, so taking the actual book to class instead of the eBook on my laptop made life a little more simple.
ylabiaga · November 1, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Question: If we have a hard copy of the textbook, does it include any online resources/an online version? Just wondering…but yes, eBooks sound really interesting! Being more old-fashioned, I’ve never used one before. I’m sure there are so many useful features for eBooks, but I love the feeling of sitting down with cup of hot chai (or whatever you drink) and flipping through the pages at your leisure.
vdowell · November 3, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I think that another benefit to the eBook would be being able to scroll through the text on the computer and not having to read it in a book. While staring at a computer screen can get old, I think a lot of students in this generation enjoy spending time on their computer and associate it with good things, while a lot of people feel like sleepy anytime they confront a thick text book to read. Also when you’re reading on your computer you can make yourself read faster by scrolling the side bar after every paragraph to help keep you focused. Others might not feel this way, but this has been my personal experience with reading on my computer.
hpetersen · November 3, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I think that it’s really helpful that they made it possible to highlight and take notes on the online books. That was always one of my biggest drawbacks. I’m one of those people who has to write all over the book to remember things. I still don’t know how I feel about having to look at a computer screen for too long, but I think that having the new improvements plus being able to use the search feature might make me want to try it out sometime.
adugandzic · November 4, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Like everyone else I definitely agree that the book being searchable is a huge plus. I like to highlight to remember where things are but I sometimes miss small things and I often find myself wishing I could just find it through a search tool! One of my only hesitations is that I like having an actual book in front of me to read from. Looking at a computer screen can be really difficult, especially when reading for long periods, and I just find it easier to read from a book. I’m also just really technologically challenged and I feel like if something can go wrong with my ebook, it will! However, I would be absolutely open to trying one in the future.
BreehanYohe · November 4, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I have been suspicious of any books that are not made on printed, tangible paper for a long time, but I have to admit, the price of textbooks is getting over the top, especially when the textbook manufactorers insist on charging us top dollar. When I was still a journalism major in my (recent) past, I wrote an article about why they are so darn expensive.
A few of the main reasons: Publishers don’t like to advertise their actual prices to professors; they are happy to advertise content and curry favor with professors by giving them free textbooks, but ask for a price and you might as well try to solve one of those impossibly complex riddles, it would be easier than to squeeze the truth out of those publishers that your students will have to shell out $205.50 every quarter. The second main reason is that publishers love to charge even more for new editions when the only changes they have made is one or two new constructs or new studies
Of course every publisher is going to be different, and maybe some are better than others with being honest about prices and not charging so much for new editions, but even e-book skeptics like me are starting to check out new digital options.
BreehanYohe · November 4, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I have been suspicious of any books that are not made on printed, tangible paper for a long time, but I have to admit, the price of textbooks is getting over the top, especially when the textbook manufactorers insist on charging us top dollar. When I was still a journalism major in my (recent) past, I wrote an article about why they are so darn expensive.
A few of the main reasons: Publishers don’t like to advertise their actual prices to professors; they are happy to advertise content and curry favor with professors by giving them free textbooks, but ask for a price and you might as well try to solve one of those impossibly complex riddles, it would be easier than to squeeze the truth out of those publishers that your students will have to shell out $205.50 every quarter. The second main reason is that publishers love to charge even more for new editions when the only changes they have made is one or two new constructs or new studies.
Of course every publisher is going to be different, and maybe some are better than others with being honest about prices and not charging so much for new editions, but even e-book skeptics like me are starting to check out new digital options.
Laura Freberg · November 5, 2009 at 7:22 am
Hi, Breehan.
In all fairness, the publishers take some unfair heat. When nobody resells your book (like Harry Potter), the publisher can spread costs across all sales. With the resale market in textbooks, the publisher can only recover costs on the first sale of a new book, which raises the costs considerably from Harry Potter’s $20. The used book market pays us nothing, but profits enormously from our work–they’re the Napsters here. Students should direct their angst at the bookstores, who set prices for buying back books and selling used books, when all they do is store them a few days.
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