EDUCAUSE Live!

eTexts: A Perishable Opportunity for Higher Education?

Date: January 24, 2012

Time: 3:00 p.m. ET (UTC-5); convert to your time zone

Moderator: Diana Oblinger, President and CEO, EDUCAUSE

Summary

What role, if any, should colleges and universities play in the shift from print to digital textbooks (eTexts)? One perspective is that eTexts are a consumer transaction between a publisher and student, and institutions need not be involved. Another perspective is that volume licensing by institutions can dramatically reduce the costs to students and improve the terms through a business-to-business negotiation. Likewise, what software is needed? Do institutions want a common software platform for eText reading and annotation, or are four different software systems to read five eTexts just fine for a freshman?

This EDUCAUSE Live! program will address the strategic, business, and policy implications for institutions in light of a changing world of consumer electronics and new models for digital educational resources such as eTexts, website tutorials, and other licensed content. As price points and terms begin to solidify in 2012, there may be a perishable opportunity to set an eText strategy that reduces the cost of higher education while serving the interests of students and faculty.

Related EDUCAUSE Resources

• A Study of Four Textbook Distribution Models, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, December 2011
• Textbook Affordability: Emerging Solutions in Ohio, ELI Web Seminar, April 2011
• Digital Texts and the Future of Education: Why Books?, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, March 2011

Additional Resources

• 5 Colleges to Test Bulk-Purchasing of e-Textbooks in Bid to Rein In Costs, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Pulling for Better E-Textbook Prices, Inside Higher Ed
• Internet2, McGraw-Hill, Courseload, and Five Universities Implement eText Pilot in Spring 2012, Internet2
• Technology, costs, lack of appeal slow e-textbook adoption, USA Today
• eTexts at Indiana University
• Join the new eTexts Constituent Group, an EDUCAUSE e-mail discussion list 

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