Despite saving students money and conveniently helping them avoid back problems, it seems electronic textbooks aren\u2019t gaining popularity on BC campuses.<\/p>\n
Glenn Read, Thompson Rivers University\u2019s bookstore manager, says etexts, which have been offered for four years, are consistently less than one percent of total textbook sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not caught on,\u201d says Read.<\/p>\n
The numbers are the same at Capilano University, says Brian Ball, bookstore manager, with etexts accounting for less than one percent of total sales.<\/p>\n
Ryan Hirowatari, manager of the University of BC\u2019s bookstore, says etext sales are 1.5 percent of total sales.<\/p>\n
And at Simon Fraser University, etext sales are about 6.5 percent, according to Carrie Harfman, bookstore supervisor.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering we have 28,000 students, yes, it\u2019s very low,\u201d says Harfman.<\/p>\n
Though there\u2019s no way to say for sure why etexts aren\u2019t very popular for postsecondary students, several theories are out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen digital came out, there were certain restrictions that didn\u2019t lend itself to a semester,\u201d says Read. \u201cSome etexts had a time frame, like 180 days. So sometimes it didn\u2019t last the entire semester and when it came down to crunch time when preparing for exams, you no longer had access to it or you\u2019d have to pay more to acquire it again. It wasn\u2019t really designed well, in my opinion, for the benefit of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harfman has a different theory. \u201cThe reason why etexts are not taking off as fast in Canada, compared to the US, is because of the cost benefit and the conversion of Canadian content,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Ball says interest in etexts is rising, but access is still difficult. \u201cRight now there is not enough comfort for students to try digital books,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur bookstore is posting links to digital books, which helps get students the right book,\u201d says Ball. \u201cIt can be confusing, as the publisher often has quite a few different versions of the same material. Some come with study aids, some don\u2019t, some have quiz components, et cetera.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiesha Collins-Newton, a first-year bachelor of science student at TRU, purchased one etext and says she wouldn\u2019t do it again. She says despite the convenience of being able to fit it on her iPad, the etext was slow and difficult to work with.<\/p>\n
Peter Schmalz, a first-year tourism management student at TRU, also purchased one etext. He says it was a fraction of the price and came quickly.<\/p>\n
Ball says etexts will slowly become more popular as more students try it successfully and the word spreads. He\u2019s expecting etext sales to reach 10 to 20 percent in a few years.<\/p>\n
Read, however, isn\u2019t certain whether etexts will become more popular in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe that will change as the next generation comes along that has been accustomed to a tablet versus a traditional book,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not sure. Time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite saving students money and conveniently helping them avoid back problems, it seems electronic textbooks aren\u2019t gaining popularity on BC campuses. Glenn Read, Thompson Rivers University\u2019s bookstore manager, says etexts, which have been offered for four years, are consistently less than one percent of total textbook sales. \u201cIt\u2019s not caught on,\u201d says Read. The numbers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-march-20-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6628,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions\/6628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}