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CourseSmart

The eTextbook

By Submitted Lauren Mallenbaum

On August 30, 2009

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CourseSmart, the nation's largest digital course materials supplier, currently offers more than 7,000 titles across multiple publishers, providing core higher education textbook titles at about 50 percent less than the cost of print textbooks. According to CourseSmart's annual student survey, the following features and benefits of an eTextbook are the five most often cited reasons why students choose a digital option:

It is a guaranteed way to save money. All students want the best deal possible on their textbooks. CourseSmart's eTextbooks average 50 percent less than print textbooks. The savings are guaranteed up front, with no mystery about how much – if anything – you are going to get back at the end of the semester. Students don't have to worry about highlighting and note-taking ruining a used book's value or adding to rental costs. Students who purchase eTextbooks are encouraged to use the highlighting and note-taking functions.

You can get exactly the content you need. CourseSmart has more than 7,000 textbooks from 12 different publishers. These are the exact same titles (author, title, edition, ISBN) as the print versions assigned by professors. CourseSmart eTextbooks have the same page layout, page numbers and all of the content of the print book, including graphs, charts and images. Students view the exact same content as students who choose to purchase the print version. Nothing is missing; it is all there.

No need to lug your books around. With an eTextbook you can access your textbook anytime, anywhere, and from almost any device. Further, students can choose either an online or downloadable version of their assigned eTextbook. The CourseSmart online eTextbook can be accessed from any computer, netbook or smart phone connected to the Internet. The CourseSmart downloadable eTextbook can be downloaded to your laptop and accessed without Internet access. Additionally, students using either format can further lighten their load by accessing their eTextbooks on an iPhone or iPod Touch using CourseSmart's eTextbooks for the iPhone app.

Access your textbook instantly. When the bookstore is closed and students don't have time to wait for a new, used or rented book to come in the mail, they can immediately access a CourseSmart eTextbook. Students who wait until the last minute to purchase their required textbooks do not have to be at a disadvantage in completing "first day reading assignments." They can simply spend a couple of minutes to create an account on www.coursesmart.com, find their required text and be reading their eTextbook instantly.

Search, copy/paste, and print just the pages you need. CourseSmart eTextbooks may have the same content as print, but there are plenty of things students can do with an eTextbook that they can't do with the print version. Searching full text in individual eTextbooks or across a student's entire eTextbook stack, copy/paste into notes summaries or study guides, and print just the pages you need to print – helping to save quite a few trees along the way– are just some of the benefits. Further, for students who have stopped highlighting and taking notes in their books because it destroys their used book or rental value, CourseSmart encourages students to highlight and make notes in their eTextbooks – which can also be accessed and searched on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

To create its extensive, and growing, digital library of more than 7,000 textbooks that are faculty recommended and publisher approved, CourseSmart has partnered closely with all of the nation's major publishers, including Pearson, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, John Wiley & Sons and the Bedford, Freeman, Worth Publishing Group.  For more information or to purchase your assigned textbook as an eTextbook, visit www.coursesmart.com. For a fun look at "Life Before eTextbooks" and a chance to win $10,000 or free textbooks, visit our sweepstakes at www.lifebeforecoursesmart.com.  

 About CourseSmart CourseSmart provides eTextbooks that improve the educational process by offering students and instructors a unique combination of the right course material, anywhere, anytime access and a low cost. As the nation's largest digital course materials supplier, CourseSmart has a rapidly growing digital library of more than 7,000 core college textbooks, which are faculty recommended and publisher approved. The company's eTextbooks can be purchased for an average of 50% less than print texts and offer users the ability to print what they need as well as search and copy and paste features which help to streamline students' studies. Additional information can be found on the company's Web site: www.coursesmart.com.