Sites such as, and can help you comparison-shop for new and used books, e-books, and rentals. The shift hasn’t just been to digital renting a hardcopy book (consider pioneer for this) has become just as popular as owning one, and it’s becoming easier to get by with used text as well. Platforms themselves offer a range of functions, from basic highlighting, to annotation, to embedded quizzes. With one subscription or account, students can access the textbook across multiple devices, including their laptop, phone, or even a touch-screen tablet to take notes. According to Educause, a non-profit advocating for information technology in higher education, the number of college students using an e-textbook for coursework rose from 42% in 2012 to 66% in 2016.ĭepending on the university, students may either purchase a subscription code for e-textbooks through their school, or purchase e-textbooks off of popular platforms such as Bookshelf, McGraw Hill-Connect, and Google Books. But recently, hardcopy textbooks have given way to digital e-books. For decades, universities required students to purchase those 10-pound tomes of knowledge––their prices even heftier than their weight.
