iPad and college text books

[Itzxdjx]

Im a college student was just reading an article about college kids getting use out of the iPad with the ereader. A lot of literature material from college and some from high school are available for free with the kindle and iBooks app. That thought lead me thinking, what if college text books went eText or iText for college students. It would a eliminate the huge weight those 5 to ten pound books are. You prob never have to worry about reselling (it would prob kill the used text book market) and overall just making life easier. Do you think big text book companies will ever see this as an option?

 

[Seadog]

I hope so, but it may take a long time. What would be an excellent deal for students, they could do an option to lease a book for a year, just like a movie rental. Here is the deal. Professors pick the books for the classes they teach. Some derive financial benefit from this, legally and illegally. For example, if a professor has written a text book, he will usually insist on its use in his classes. The only way to get this to change is for the administration to have incentives that reduce the costs of text books. Either by mandating a percentage of books be available on e-reader format, or by incentives for professors to use e-books.

 

[DavidNM]

I think some books will work great on the iPad. But some - and you need to think about this - won't. With any eBook reader you can only look at one page at a time - and if you have a boot that requires a lot of highlighting, notes, stickies, whatever - you may need to rapidly flip through pages back and for - comparing illustrations, etc. I'm not saying it isn't possible - but rather an interesting question.

 

[Sonny Burnett]

What would the cost be? The rental of the ePubs plus 499.00 for an iPad for 4 years. In the end would the cost be cheaper just buying the regular books or the iPad and the ePubs?

The bigger question is what happens if you lose your iPad or it gets stolen?
Will the iPad last 4 years or will you have to buy a new one at the beginning of year 4?

 

[Itzxdjx]

Assuming if they ever come around to it there would be plenty of options ie 1st gen ipads, and assuming the majority of students would have to own some sort of ereader. I would picture that the text books would have to be more in a sense of individual apps to each specific text more than just any old book. And have full note taking features, highlighting, maybe i small q&a pop up animation. Does that seem practical or to much? i thought anything was possible! Seadog the leasing of books, you hit it right on the money with that.

 

[Itzxdjx]

Also i would pay how ever much more it took. If it means not lugging those huges things around! Im to young to have back problems lol

 

[stever]

What would the cost be? The rental of the ePubs plus 499.00 for an iPad for 4 years. In the end would the cost be cheaper just buying the regular books or the iPad and the ePubs?

The bigger question is what happens if you lose your iPad or it gets stolen?
Will the iPad last 4 years or will you have to buy a new one at the beginning of year 4?

Some of this is already available.
We have been discussing this in another thread (iPads for Students)
With one of our members who is active duty military overseas using Coursesmart.
He says:

• He is able to get most texts he needs right now.
• The texts are cheaper. (He just bought books for 2 new courses, at $65/$55, instead of $120/$135)
• So a few courses, will PAY for the iPad.
• Also, being overseas, ordering hardcopy texts can take months to receive. He was a month into one of his classes before he got that text.
• The digital texts arrive instantly.

I have been talking to one professor locally, who has received a grant to work on making texts and lectures, and other course materials, available over the internet.
I know there are others around the country, and around the world, working on the same purposes.
(Check out all the podcasts available already on iTunes, in the iTunes U category. Hundreds of Thousands already, it looks like.)

Coursesmart, and other similar, do already have some of the ability to add highlighting and notes, and improvements are happening all the time.

It has already begun.
.

 

[gentlefury]

My little brother is starting college soon so I bought him an iPad...I really think it will be a great student device!

 

[john]

I hope to get text books for the pad, but if not I still have my kindle. So across the two I hope to get them. I do find reading easier on the kindle, both on the eyes and handling the reader (kindle) is easier as I don't need to turn the page (advancing a page) by swiping on the right side of the page. I can advance with either of the buttons on the side. So if I want to hold it with one hand and read I can easily.

 

[Superbike81]

What would the cost be? The rental of the ePubs plus 499.00 for an iPad for 4 years. In the end would the cost be cheaper just buying the regular books or the iPad and the ePubs?

The bigger question is what happens if you lose your iPad or it gets stolen?
Will the iPad last 4 years or will you have to buy a new one at the beginning of year 4?

Some of this is already available.
We have been discussing this in another thread (iPads for Students)
With one of our members who is active duty military overseas using Coursesmart.
He says:

• He is able to get most texts he needs right now.
• The texts are cheaper. (He just bought books for 2 new courses, at $65/$55, instead of $120/$135)
• So a few courses, will PAY for the iPad.
• Also, being overseas, ordering hardcopy texts can take months to receive. He was a month into one of his classes before he got that text.
• The digital texts arrive instantly.

I have been talking to one professor locally, who has received a grant to work on making texts and lectures, and other course materials, available over the internet.
I know there are others around the country, and around the world, working on the same purposes.
(Check out all the podcasts available already on iTunes, in the iTunes U category. Hundreds of Thousands already, it looks like.)

Coursesmart, and other similar, do already have some of the ability to add highlighting and notes, and improvements are happening all the time.

It has already begun.
.

Yeah, that's me

I have purchased this term's books through Coursesmart. I've seen also the magazine reader App "Zinio" has a decent selection of books available, although nowhere near Coursesmart.

The problem right now, is it's still very basic, but that's not the fault of the iPad or Coursesmart, it's the fault of the way we have been reading e-books. Right now, it's just basic scans of each book, which is perfectly fine, but it would be great if in the future we could get truly interactive e-books. For example, I'll be reading a section in my Organic Chemistry book, and a process is explained, but it would be nice to see that process in action. So instead of having to go to YouTube or Google to look it up myself, there will be an embedded video right there. Or external hotlinks to other sites with more information about the subject.

It's really in its infancy right now, so I can't wait to see what they do in the future, I hope more students start buying their books this way, because that will push the publishers to make them better.

 

[Itzxdjx]

Wow that's awesome yes I can def see the limitations just being because it so early in the game. I can't wait for that to happen I'll prob be out of school but it will be ok. Superbike that's exactly what I'm picturing when I think about THE FUTURE! Ha

 

[Itsmyipadtherealguy]

I've been talking with a professor in Spain that's already doing it, he teaches a app dev class, the class or part of it created a software company called ZenBrains.

 

[Itsmyipadtherealguy]

"Superbike" that's kind of funny because Im in a wheelchair and in the future I wanna drive one that will convert to a "Superbike"

 

[bubbaba]

here is an article regarding textbooks on the IPAD, looks like many textbooks are ready to go.

AppShopper.com Blog Archive CourseSmart Puts Textbooks on iPad

 

[Itsmyipadtherealguy]

Not exactly sure how it went down, but I think the professor and the students told the faculty.

"If you buy us an iPad for our class, we will not only show how it saves money, we will also start a company and donate a portion back to the school" Pretty smart group if you ask me