Switching to online textbooks has more benefits, saves time and money

Feb. 8, 2016

Abbie Stillman
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Like the landscape of UCCS, the classroom is always evolving, and with it, the tools students are using.

Gone are the traditional schoolroom supplies such as chalkboards and rulers. In their place, new technology takes the reins.

One of these adaptions includes the development of textbooks. Except, they’re not textbooks anymore, they’re e-books.

While both give you the same content, using an e-book has more benefits.

With e-books, you save trees, money, minimize your backpack weight and create more room in your bag.

Some teachers require several books for their class. Keeping track of and carrying anywhere from eight to 15 textbooks can be difficult.

I have all my books in one, easy-to-handle location so I don’t misplace them.

Some teachers even recommend you find e-books so you don’t break your wallet.

Not only are college students in debt paying for a higher education, they are spending hundreds of dollars per semester for textbooks and receiving almost nothing in return.

Junior health sciences major Nikki Velasquez started using e-books this semester. She has five required books this spring, some of which are not available as an e-book.

“I like e-books because they are cheaper, easier, I can carry my laptop and everything is already on my laptop,” she said.

“I’ve seen them be up (to) $60 cheaper,” said Velasquez.

E-books save you money, are convenient for traveling during the semester and offer other features that are beneficial for students.

You can look up page numbers and skip to that page without flipping through the book, and you can read through the chapters without giving yourself a paper-cut in the process.

You can also highlight important passages and take notes using different colors. Sure, you can always highlight your textbook and put sticky notes on pages you’ll need, but it’s easier using an e-book.

Adjusting the brightness or the color of the white pages is also nice when your eyes start to wear out.

You can click on the search icon, type in keyword(s) you need into the e-book and everywhere your search material is found in the book, it pops up for you to locate your answer.

Google or Wikipedia buttons on the bottom of the search bar make searching easy while staying on one page at a time allows your focus to stay maintained on the task at hand.

The next time you get ready for class, think of using an e-book. It might save you more room, time and money than you think.