UVa e-textbook pilot aims to ease financial strain on students

The University of Virginia is exploring the use of electronic textbooks in the hope that they’ll offer a cheaper option for students who shell out up to hundreds of dollars per book for hard-copy texts.

Also participating in the pilot are the University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; the University of Minnesota; and the University of Wisconsin.

In addition to cutting costs for students, Virginia officials are attracted to the texts because they could offer pedagogical innovations, including instructor-annotated texts and interactive features, said Mike McPherson, UVa associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.

UVa is hoping to use the semester-long trial run to look at what infrastructure and logistics would be required to launch the texts at a larger scale, as well as to assess how they perform, McPherson said.

It looks like there’s not much infrastructure required to run the system, McPherson said.

UVa based its decision in large part on the experience of Indiana University, McPherson said.

Indiana University did two years of pilot programs to investigate the technology. The data were favorable, but the software tested wasn’t as advanced as what the university has since adopted, said Nik Osborne, who is leading the school’s e-texts initiative. Newer numbers would probably be even better, he said.

He said there have not been any downsides to the program.

“What we’ve done here is we’ve created a model that provides faculty with a choice,” he said.

At Indiana, professors can see which texts are available and at what price, then decide if they want to use them. If they opt in, all students in the class get charged a fee. Those who prefer hard-copy materials can print out the texts.

If they opt out, they can still use conventional textbooks.

Osborne also said that he only expects prices to drop.

Osborne compared the plight of textbook publishers to that of the music industry. Many students, he said, buy their books used, pirate books electronically or do without.

“What we’re offering the publishers is, ‘Hey, we’ll create a model where you’ll get paid every single time a student uses this content,’” he said.

By using the leverage provided by negotiating for a huge body of students, Osborne said, Indiana officials figure they can get all students the material for a price equivalent to the best deal currently available.

Osborne said Indiana officials also figure they benefit if other institutions take the same or similar steps.

“We need to start really asserting ourselves on behalf of our students,” he said.

The texts work with pretty much any sort of computer, McPherson said. Officials at UVa hope the texts will be available for about 35 percent of new-textbook cost, he said. (He emphasized that it’s not a promise but a target.)

Printing, distribution and buy-back costs are all eliminated, he said.

“There are lots of costs in creating the [physical] artifact that just don’t exist when you go electronic,” McPherson said.

So far, student feedback at UVa has been positive, McPherson said, adding that it’s still early in the trial.

Just fewer than 400 students at UVa are participating in the trial run, McPherson said. The texts are being tried mostly in engineering courses, he said. Officials will survey students and instructors several times, then at the end of the semester make a decision on whether to adopt the technology, he said.

During the trial, the texts are free for students, and the university paid the $25,000 pilot program fee.

“Those students I've talked to are delighted to have it so they can look at it on their laptops or iPads or what have you,” said UVa professor Larry Richards in a university news release. “This whole business of students just being able to carry around the text on their laptop — that's going to be revolutionary.”