Are College Students Buying Required Textbooks?

A group of UM-Flint students recently launched Flintbookswap.com to allow students to directly sell to each other. Bookstores at Mott Community College and Kettering University last year rolled out rental book program Rent-A-Text. I know of three particular textbooks currently being used in college courses this Fall.
When using physical textbooks for college, students may find it easier to focus on the material. In the classroom, these books feature fewer distractions and help learners stay engaged in class discussions and follow along. Studying may also prove more effective, as some students can The Fundamentals of Ethics 5th edition recall and visualize the page and material better with hard copies. When using e-textbooks for college, students need their devices to be available and fully functioning. Depending on the type of digital textbook purchased, you may need to connect to the internet to access your book.

These platforms serve as a system of record, enabling instructors to plan and manage their courses, while measuring student progress with gradebooks. Textbooks.com is one website where you may buy cheap textbooks. Begin, as with the others, by entering the ISBN, title, or author. Then, look through your search results for both new and old books. The wonderful thing about Textbooks.com is that you can compare pricing while viewing the book's condition. You may readily locate cheap college textbooks, whether new, like new, or in acceptable condition.
The textbook is divided into sections that can be assigned for a variety of class period chunks. Usually 10 chapters are what we cover in a term class, but I really liked that chapters on finance, health, and social world were included. Each chapter begins with the student surveying themselves about where they are at, where they want to be and ways to get there. The activities, key take aways, checkpoint exercises, chapter reviews and outside the books are included in each chapter and are ones students would do. One of the strong points of the College Success text is its consistency. This is especially helpful to online students as they quickly learn how to use the text efficiently.
Over the years, the e-books vs. textbooks for college education debate has been a heated one. Some people prefer paper-based textbooks, while others swear by digital books. Some say that both printed textbooks and e-textbooks are beneficial. To accommodate that approach, the Riverside district asks that publishers provide content accessible on a variety of platforms and offer PDF versions of print textbooks for free.

I appreciate the way the sections on critical thinking and meta-cognition avoid mentioning learning styles. In general, it is straight-forward and cites outside sources pretty well in making assertions, though it might help to have more citations about the benefits of certain practices. (For example, a discussion of where the assumption of 2 hours of outside work per hour in the classroom comes from, or why Cornell Notes might or might not work, as it's been studied and found a bit lacking). I am very interested in piloting this text with our students because of the cost and interactive nature of the text. The frequent inventories that allow the student to examine themselves, their beliefs and skill levels should maintain their interest.
A few of the free textbook websites on this list have their roots in universities, and this is no different. Created and maintained by Grand Valley State University, ScholarWorks offers a wide range of free college textbooks for students and aims to improve learning at a higher level. This is achieved through the easily accessible digital books written and published by scholars. Sometimes your search for a free college textbook requires a trip to the past and that’s what PDFBooksWorld offers its users.

This is an area that is ever-changing so the text may need to be updated every so often to provide more inclusive information. The organization and structure are fine but I would probably go over the chapters in a different order to improve the flow and to better fit the needs of the populations that are being served. Although I did not test all of the hyperlinks, I did find some that did not work. Additionally, some words are in different colors that are NOT hyperlinks. Very confusing as to what the purpose of the colored text is. Pictures and charts seem fine unless you print the book out.
However, the truth is you really don’t need to buy textbooks anymore, when you can rent them for so much cheaper. That’s unless you plan to use them a reference after you graduate, and even then, most of the material is readily available online. A simple Google search will get you the information much faster than flipping through the pages of a worn-out textbook. Everyone knows the price tag for college rises every year, but even soaring tuition costs can’t keep up with the skyrocketing price of college textbooks. Physical books can cost hundreds of dollars per book, with the risk of damage and destruction. Plus, sometimes courses may only require learning a particular chapter or section from a textbook.