Price pushes textbook alternatives

By Danny Valentine, UWire

Published Aug. 31, 2009

For years there was only one way to buy a textbook: The bookstore.

But as students, parents, faculty and even legislators balk at the ever-increasing price of traditional textbooks, new vendors are eagerly attempting to break into the market and provide students more options.

“It seems that the whole textbook industry is in a state of great turbulence,” said Steven Bell, an associate university librarian for research and instructional services at Temple University Libraries. “It seems to be one of the hottest areas in higher education.”

Bell, who frequently blogs about text book prices, said new players enter the market seemingly every day.

Used bookstores have been a stalwart presence on many campuses, but students can now rent books or purchase an eTextbook, carrying it around on a handheld devise, such as an iPhone. There also are open-access textbook Web sites that allow professors to change textbooks to their own specifications and then provide free access for students online.

Bell said the primary reason for the changing textbook landscape is price.

While traditional sales still dominate, companies like CourseSmart, which sells eTextbooks, are seeing rapid growth. Between 2008 and 2009, sales increased 600 percent, said Frank Lyman, the executive vice president of CourseSmart.

Students can either download an eTextbook or access it online and save on average of about 50 percent — typically a savings of $50 to $60 per book, he said.

While numerous University of Iowa students had heard of eTextbooks, only a few had actually purchased the digital versions. Some said they wouldn’t because it would be more difficult to study.

Jules Pratt, a sophomore at the U. Iowa, said her human biology book is the first time she’s had the opportunity to go digital. The $50 price tag enticed her, she said, and she grabbed the last one from the campus bookstore’s stack. But the communications major said she only went digital because it’s a class for non-majors.

“It’s something I know I wouldn’t have to rely on,” she said.

Jamie Grant, a junior at the same school, said he preferred a hard copy and didn’t want to lug around his laptop everywhere.

But one of the perks of eTextbooks, Lyman said, is that students can do everything they could with a regular book yet also electronically search the document and copy and paste large swaths of text directly into their notes.

“We try and bring the best of both worlds,” he said. Students could theoretically copy the whole book into a new document and share it, but much of the formatting would be lost, Lyman said.

For students who think of skimping a bit more and sharing copies, Lyman said there were measures in place to prevent more than one person using the textbooks at one time. The text can be downloaded to only one computer or be accessed online by one user at a time.

Richard Stratton, an economics professor at the University of Akron, has used another option called Flat World Knowledge, an open-access textbook provider, textbooks for two semesters of his microeconomics class.

He said while the online medium had definite perks, most of his students found that reading digital textbook was more difficult than traditional texts. His students said there were more distractions, such as constantly checking Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail.

Eric Frank, founder and chief marketing officer of Flat World Knowledge, said eTextbooks are just “the first act.”

“It’s an attempt to take the same product, put it online and add a little bit more functionality,” he said, noting that even though eTextbooks were cheaper, he still didn’t think they were reasonably priced.

Flat World Knowledge, which has published textbooks being used in 400 college classrooms, provides open-source textbooks - meaning anyone can use them online for free and alter the content for their own specific needs. If a professor wanted to reorder a textbook to fit the syllabus or delete something confusing, they could.

The for-profit company plans to make its money by printing on-demand, providing PDFs and creating audio recordings of the textbook for a price.

About 65 percent of students end up placing an order for some form of the textbook, he said.

“Even if you offer a free textbook online…given a reasonably priced alternative, a significantly large number of students will buy those other versions,” he said.