Electronic Textbooks: The Next Campus Fad?

ByABC News
August 18, 2000, 10:00 AM

N E W   Y O R K, Aug. 18 -- For more than 20 years Dr. Sanford Berg hastaught Managerial Economics, a required business course at theUniversity of Florida. He will do so again this fall with onegreat difference.

Students will have the choice of using the traditionaltextbook or downloading an electronic version on their laptops,Berg said. The technology is still young, but we feelits important to be out front on this kind of thing.

Econ 101: Electronic Publishing

Most people think of Stephen Kings entry into online publishingwhen they think of e-books, but many publishers and professorsbelieve college texts are the more promising market. E-texts arecheaper (the cost is comparable to a used book) and easier toupdate than the paper versions.

And while John Updike has written that nothing can ever replacethe aesthetic pleasure of holding a bound paper novel, its hard toimagine students feeling the same way about a backpack overloadedwith school books.

I think this is going to happen faster in education than inanywhere else, said Susan Driscoll, president of WorthPublishers, which this fall will release several textbook titles inelectronic form.

Students do everything on laptops these days, so I definitelythink electronic books are a trend thats going to expand, saidDr. Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology who plans on using e-books next year.

Over the next few months, publishers will be meeting withauthors, professors and college officials to work out agreementsfor the upcoming year. This week, WizeUp Digital Textbooksannounced that more than 75 titles would be available for thisfall, with Harvard, Georgetown and Ohio State among the schoolsusing the books.

There was some skepticism two years ago, but now teachers aresaying, Finally. This is what weve been asking for for sometime, said David Gray, CEO of WizeUp, which expects to tripleits electronic offerings by next year.