No more homework, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks. Well, one out of three isn't bad.
This school year could be the greatest market test yet for enhanced electronic books, which will infiltrate campuses in a variety of formats, from downloadable textbooks to e-book readers and other handheld devices.
Instead of standing in campus bookstore lines, lugging heavy texts to class, or copying lecture notes at the library, students can store volumes of electronic coursework in their back pocket or on their desktop computer. And they can do it without ever leaving their dorm room.
"Electronic textbooks will change all of that," said Julie Greenblatt, vice president of business development for electronic publisher Versaware." Students will be able to get immediate access anywhere they need it.
"This fall, students are going to start being introduced to electronic books. Come the following semester, students will be demanding these books."
With commercial e-book successes like Stephen King's Riding the Bullet, more publishers are developing content as they realize that they can get real revenue from publishing online.
"The whole publishing industry is shifting," Greenblatt said. "The hype of the Microsoft Reader and Stephen King has pushed e-books to the forefront."
While e-books are gaining popularity in the mass market, proponents say that enhanced textbooks have even greater potential to revolutionize the education market.
Students can buy textbooks on the Web from vendors such as WiZeUp.com, where they can download the entire book or individual chapters to their hard drive. They can add customized features such as sound and video, and they can take notes, highlight and bookmark text, use hyperlinks, and even email their professors.
Professors can take notes in one of WiZeUp's textbooks and export them to the entire class. Students can also send individual notes to their study groups that will appear in the exact same place in each member's digital textbook.
Such customized content makes learning more collaborative and interesting to students, said David Gray, CEO and founder of WiZeUp.com.
"With digitized content, students are able to interact more," Gray said. "Content becomes more alive and less static."
With custom publishing, professors no longer have to structure a course around a textbook. Instead, they can mix and match online material to create their own textbooks around their course ideas.
McGraw-Hill was one of the first major publishers to venture into custom publishing online with Primis, a database of over 240,000 pages of college-level material spanning over 20 disciplines.
Another academic textbook publisher, Taylor & Francis, recently announced that it will convert its complete print backlist of 17,000 titles, including selected out-of-print titles, to e-book form using Versaware's customized publishing technology.
Instead of waiting 3-5 years to buy new editions, students can download electronic chapters from journals, periodicals, and textbooks to their portable readers or personal computers each semester.
"Currency is key," said Lew Gossage, general manager for XanEdu, a division of Bell & Howell Learing Co, which is launching customizable electronic course packs this fall.
Instructors can choose from among pre-selected, peer-reviewed articles from a database of constantly updated journals, periodicals, and newspapers to create a customized course pack. XanEdu may begin testing its CoursePacks, CasePacks, and LitPacks on portable e-book readers as soon as this fall.
With no printing, binding, inventory, or shipping costs, electronic materials may cut costs and save time for professors and students.
XanEdu's course packs are priced 20 percent below print packs, averaging around $15 to $25. While a professor might have to wait four to six weeks to get print articles copyright-cleared, produced, and delivered to campus store bookshelves, XanEdu's electronic course packs can arrive in 24 hours or less.
Professors will soon be able to find free textbooks on the Web. OpenMind Publishing's open source publishing model, launching this spring, will offer free, collaborative content for instructors to create personalized textbooks and teaching tools. Students will be able to buy textbooks that they can access via the Web, CD-ROM, or print for approximately $20, about a third of the cost an average $60 textbook.
"Students will be more than willing to accept it as an alternative, especially because of the price," said Liz Arndt, spokeswoman for OpenMind Publishing. "The open source solution delivers content back to professors so they have it at their fingertips whenever they want, wherever they want, and it empowers students with content as well."
With such price cuts, electronic books could drive out the used book market, Versaware's Greenblatt said.
"Why should a student buy a used book when they can buy a new book for less online and download it whenever they need it?" Greenblatt said.
Electronic publishing may also save students trips to the library.
With virtual online libraries such as NetLibrary, students can download e-books immediately from the Web or download them to their PCs.
Versaware's eBookCity.com allows students to create their own customized, personalized research center where they can checkout, search, and organize books.
But whether students will use e-textbooks remains to be seen.
E-book readers are costly, with dedicated devices averaging $200-$600. Some say current e-book technology lags behind digital books in the education market.
"Reading device technology is nowhere near up to standard," said WiZeUp's Gray. Digital books downloaded to computers easily link to the Web and can display rich colors, graphs, and fonts. "Reading devices don't deliver that."
As more publishers digitize content and screen technology improves, e-book devices may take off on campuses.
"As soon as the price point hits $100 and clarity and readability improves, handheld devices will definitely cause change," said XanEdu's Gossage. "E-books are going to be here to stay."
