eLearners News is edited by Steve Foerster.
Steve has worked in higher education for nearly ten years, both as a staff person specializing in eLearning and international higher education, and as an adjunct instructor, designing and teaching online courses in IT and business.
He's also an eLearner himself, having completed a Bachelor's degree from Charter Oak State College and a Master's degree from George Washington University, both thanks to eLearning.
For more about Steve, visit his website.
Recently I relayed my experience at a conference on how colleges and universities can implement a digital textbooks strategy. At this conference there were two speakers from Indiana University, a huge university system which has embraced digital textbooks whole heartedly, in the process simplifying their own processes, and saving their students a noticeable amount of money.
Now their success has inspired other big name universities to come together to explore the possibility of moving to digital textbooks. The University of Virginia; the University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Wisconsin have joined together to run a pilot project to help them determine whether digital textbooks might be a good solution for them as well.
While those who promote digital textbooks cite many advantages to adopting them, at least in the case of the University of Virginia the primary motivation seems to be to save their students money:
The texts work with pretty much any sort of computer, [UVa Deputy CIO Mike] McPherson said. Officials at UVa hope the texts will be available for about 35 percent of new-textbook cost, he said. (He emphasized that it's not a promise but a target.) Printing, distribution and buy-back costs are all eliminated, he said. "There are lots of costs in creating the [physical] artifact that just dont exist when you go electronic."
But as attractive as cutting costs for students may be, that's not the schools' only motivation:
In addition to cutting costs for students, Virginia officials are attracted to the texts because they could offer pedagogical innovations, including instructor-annotated texts and interactive features, said... McPherson
It's gratifying to see that big name schools are finally taking a look at the spiralling costs their students face. Adopting digital textbooks and saving students more than fifty percent off the cover price may not be as helpful as slashing tuition, but in today's expensive higher education environment, anything that helps is better than nothing.
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