Big Jump in Sales for Online Textbook Company

ABC News on Campus reporter Matt Markham blogs:

Textbooks are often a source of great grievance for college students. 

While they’re a necessary resource for higher education, students often complain textbooks make their backpacks heavier and their wallets lighter.  But several Web sites are now hoping to lift those burdens.

Students seeking digital textbooks can now choose from several vendors, including ecampus.com and cengagebrain.com. But the most well-known digital textbook vendor is CourseSmart.com, now in its fourth year.  The successful company boasted a 400 percent increase in sales from 2008 to 2009 – and they say they have hundreds of thousands of customers, although the company would not specify exact sales figures.  CourseSmart.com cooperates with 15 textbook publishers to offer students a digital version of many textbooks they would otherwise have to buy in print at the bookstore. 

At the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry assistant professor of chemistry Kelley Donaghy is spurring the digital textbook trend.  She offers her students the choice to purchase their class textbook online.

Donaghy said the high cost of textbooks was the leading factor in her decision.  “One of the things I can’t stand is students having to pay $172 for a textbook that they only use for one semester,” Donaghy said.  “This generation is coming to school in the digital age, and they don’t mind reading on a computer screen.” 

She says her students see the benefit right away.  “They can sit and read the textbook at the computer screen, which brings costs down as much as $32 for my class’ textbook,” Donaghy said.

According to CourseSmart, some students are saving as much as 50 percent per textbook.  A few weeks into the second semester for most colleges, the Web site reports an average savings of $69.24 per textbook this month.

Gabrielle Zucker, CourseSmart spokesperson, said that outside of saving money, e-textbooks boast a wide range of other resources ordinary textbooks don’t.  CourseSmart offers an iPhone application, which allows students to read their textbooks wherever they are, right in the palm of their hands.  Zucker also said CourseSmart has a plan to integrate its technology into a digital tablet device.

“Students initially are attracted because of the cost savings,” Zucker said.  “But then when they realize the digital efficiencies, the cost savings become just one in a list of many benefits.”

That said, e-textbooks are not for everyone.  Brian Allen, a senior business economics and German major at Providence College in Rhode Island, said he prefers holding and reading a physical textbook.  “I don’t like reading anything lengthy on the computer, so it’s a process to print all the pages you need to read off the computer.  And then you can lose them,” Allen said.

Assuming most students don’t print their e-textbooks, Donaghy said digital books can promote “green” practices, cutting down on the amount of paper typically used when manufacturing a textbook.  But the lower cost of e-textbooks is still paramount.

“Students would say after taking my class that their textbook is a great doorstop,” Donaghy said.  “With a $172 textbook, that’s an expensive doorstop!”