Students now have the opportunity to purchase textbooks online for a discount of about half-off normal bookstore prices.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut announced last week, that the University System of Ohio will, in agreement with leading textbook publishers, offer “eTextbooks” to students.

To implement this, they created the Web site, http://www.textbooks.uso.edu, to offer about 4,500 titles, including many required for Kent State courses.

“We hope that this is helpful to students who are interested in digital textbooks,” Fingerhut said yesterday in a phone conference. “We want to help students become aware of these alternatives.”

The University System of Ohio is partnered with CourseSmart to give students from public and private colleges the choice to buy books online.

“Even though the online textbooks are sold at a discount of 50 to 55 percent off the new print price, some students would rather have the actual textbook available to carry around.

“Online books are more convenient money-wise, but real textbooks are more convenient in class. You can follow along easier,” said Matt Bartelme, freshman visual communication design major.

The University Bookstore in the Student Center has been expecting this switch to online textbooks.

“It doesn’t bother us,” said Michael Marquardt, manager of the University Bookstore. “We’ve been preparing for this. We are offering eBooks on three or four dozen titles right now.”

The online textbooks through CourseSmart will offer high-speed search and the ability to electronically take notes. Typically, students will have access to textbooks for 180 days. Some books can be accessed for 360 days or more.

The online textbooks have page numbers and are set up exactly like the hard copy of the textbook so students can easily find pages referenced in class or homework.

Furthermore, the University System of Ohio is also offering grants and awards to faculty who put in a real effort to keep the price of learning materials and textbooks low.

Students and faculty members can nominate department members at Ohio’s colleges and universities who choose to enhance learning in ways other than textbooks by going to http://www.uso.edu.

Ten of the nominated professors will receive $1,000 prizes for their efforts.

“In our symposium last spring, we learned that faculty members are the most important link to keeping course materials cheap,” Fingerhut said. “They choose the course materials, and this will encourage faculty to take initiative to lower the cost to students.”

This process of rewarding faculty members who keep costs low will have long term significance. As faculty continue to find new ways to teach material, students will continue to save money, Fingerhut said.

“This is not the solution for everyone, though,” Fingerhut said. “Students can’t sell back eTextbooks and that’s one of the downsides. There are many answers, and we are trying to give as many options to students as possible.”

Contact student finance reporter Kristina Deckert at [email protected].