One of the rites of passage for a college student is to wait in line to pick up textbooks, then stuff the often heavy, hardcover tomes into a backpack. And lug them around campus and beyond all semester.
At University of Wisconsin-Stout, the lines at the textbook rental center have all but disappeared. It’s a new age for textbooks — the digital age. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS AND FULL STORY.
If students’ backpacks look a little less full on campus, it’s because they are — 75% less. This semester, the average full-time student has six to seven digital textbooks and just two traditional, printed texts, according to Bob Butterfield, director of Instructional Resources Service in the library.
“We let students know they don’t have to come and stand in line anymore,” Butterfield said.
IRS has issued 30,000 digital text downloads and only about 10,000 printed texts for the spring semester, which began Jan. 24. When digital texts are available, students are notified by email, log in to an account and download their books onto their university-provided laptop computer — no wait and no weight. Or they can access the text remotely with their phone or other electronic device.
UW-Stout has become a digital text leader in the UW System and nationally but not overnight. Ten years ago, Butterfield helped start an e-textbook pilot program in eight class sections. The effort has grown annually as digital texts become more available, students and professors adapt and costs are streamlined.
