Learning from a book that is not really a book

AURORA – Each college student dreads that extra cost. They've already shelled out for tuition and room and board, and the day before classes start they have to dig deeper in their pockets to pay for those text books.

There is now a cheaper alternative.

"It's not necessarily what we think of as a book anymore," said Lisa Cheney-Steen, the co-executive director for Learning Technology at Colorado Community Colleges Online.

Colorado Community Colleges Online just signed a deal with the Pearson Publishing Company to start getting required textbooks over the Internet.

The cost of college textbooks has sparked rallies at the Capitol prompting a change in the law to ease the pain in students' pocketbooks.

"It can be pretty expensive," said Morris Bundy, a student at the Community College of Aurora. "I spend at least $300 altogether on just three books."

Cheney-Steen says reading the real page on a Web page can cut costs by half or more.

There is a $49 flat fee to access the online textbooks for each course. However, the same books for the same course could easily cost more than $100 a piece.

Cheney-Steen says the computer version can also be better.

"A map in a textbook is just a flat diagram. A map in the online world can be interactive," she said.

"It's something that I think our students quite frankly have been demanding for a long time," said Dr. Nancy McCallin, president of Colorado Community Colleges.

McCallin thinks the move by the online courses is the first chapter in providing online textbooks for every student in every classroom. She says traditional classes could start using Internet textbooks within two to three years.

"We need to continue to monitor this and then see how we can put it throughout the entire bricks and mortar infrastructure within our colleges," said McCallin.

Despite the potential to save, some students are skeptical about giving up on paper.

"I'm just so used to having books, though, you know, it's just a part of school, I guess, to me," said Bundy.

The other advantage to the online form is that students don't have to bear the weight of carrying the big books from class to class.

Bundy was forced to consider this while laboring to carry is 30 pounds of books.

"Not to have carry any books around would be good. Just going in there, getting on the Internet," he said.

"It's still a book in the sense that it's still information, but you don't have to start on page one and go through page 496," said Cheney-Steen.