Multimedia Reporting (Kuhr-Musser)

Most students who have the option of purchasing an online version of their textbook this semester choose not to.

Textbooks for select introductory economic and geology classes are available in an online version which can be accessed by subscribers, but bookstores are learning the hard way that most students do not want a digital textbook.

“Students seem to want a print copy in hand,” Bill Madl, textbook manager at Jayhawk Bookstore said.

Jayhawk Bookstore sold individual access codes for the online texts through a company called Aplia last semester. Because sales of the product were low, this semester it only carries the supplementary online kit that accompanies new text books.

KU Bookstore at the Kansas Union does sell the online edition separately, but David Walts, a textbook manager said that this version is unpopular.

“The vast majority, if not everybody likes the printed version, even when they see the price,” Walts said.

Cheaper pricing is a major appeal for the online edition. The online version of a $130 macroeconomic book can be purchased for $60, less than half of the book price.

“It’s certainly the less expensive way to go, especially if you print it off someone else’s computer,” Neal Becker, professor of economics joked.

This is not necessarily true. The online text can be purchased cheaper than a book, but unlike a book, it cannot be resold. Madl said that by the end of the semester when the book has been re-sold, costs of the two versions almost equal out.

There are some benefits to owning a digital copy of the textbook. It makes one less weight that students must carry around campus with them. Also, the text does not occupy space in cramped dorm rooms or apartments. Yet these benefits are not enough to motivate students to purchase the computer version.

When given a choice between an online version or the actual book, students overwhelmingly opt for the latter.

“It’s not worth it,” Keane Crowder, Lawrence junior, said of the online textbook. For him, this version is very inaccessible because he has a slow computer at home. Brian Wendt, Lawrence sophomore, also prefers the actual book.

“It’s a lot more convenient than having to read off the computer,” said Wendt. “You can take it more places.”

Madl predicted that habits will likely change in the next few decades as publishers promote their online products and children are taught with computers in the classroom starting at a very young age. But for now, today’s generation of students is reluctant to embrace the new digital textbooks, preferring instead to keep with traditional, bound books which they are accustomed to having.