Missouri School May Be First College With All Digital Textbooks

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:07:00 GMT

Printed college textbooks may soon become a relic of the past as more schools follow the lead of Northwest Missouri State University, the first college in the country that is attempting to do away with traditional college textbooks, National Public Radio reports (“Paper Cut: Missouri College Embraces E-Textbooks” Feb. 25, 2009).

Professors all across the nation are starting to assign digital books, or e-books, and a full 18 percent of college students have purchased at least one, according to the National Association of College Stores.

At Northwest Missouri State, the school is testing out a digital textbook program that could cut students’ textbook costs by up to 50 percent. If the pilot program is successful, the school will replace traditional books — which can cost the average college student nearly $1,000 a year — with laptops and other digital reader devices.

"The timing is just right. Everybody is anxious about the cost of higher education going up," says university president Dean Hubbard.

Northwest: Paperless in Three Years?

In the fall, the digital textbook program began with four classes and 200 students, reports the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (“Missouri Campus Opens New Chapter With E-Textbooks,” Jan. 19, 2009). This spring, 4,000 of the school’s 6,500 students will use the electronic textbooks. “I think that it’s the way the world is going,” said Hubbard, who believes that his institution will move toward a bookless campus as fast as the availability of e-books allows.

“Publishers don’t have all textbooks online yet,” he added. “But I would think as a realistic measure we could be totally out of the printed textbook business in three years.”

The transition to a textbook-free campus wouldn’t be difficult, Hubbard said, because Northwest already issues laptops to all freshmen, allowing them to download and use e-books, and because the school doesn’t sell new or used textbooks to students, it rents them. The school’s textbook rental program could easily be eliminated, Hubbard said, and save Northwest as much as $400,000 a year in textbook inventory costs.

Not All Support Ditching Traditional Books

Although the e-books have many unique features over traditional books — such as allowing readers to do full-text keyword searches in just seconds, or to take pop-up interactive quizzes — e-books haven’t won over everyone. Some students and professors aren’t ready to go all digital, preferring the hands-on feel of physical books.

“I always worried that something would happen, like it would crash on the night I had to study for a test,” said Jennifer Martin, a Northwest senior. “It’s a good concept, but I didn’t like it that much. I would rather flip pages back and forth in the textbook when I’m studying.”

Some professors feel so strongly about traditional textbooks that Hubbard said they teared up when he discussed his plan to move the university away from traditional books. Hubbard said, “The philosophy professor talked about books that were so important to him that he took them and had them leather-bound.”

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Student Loan Debt Is on the Rise, and College Grads Face Growing Financial Obstacles

Student Loan Girl — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:10:00 GMT

Money. Some of us have it. Some of us need more of it. Particularly recent college grads transitioning from their campus to the workspace, from having student loans available that help pay their living expenses to having to make it on their own—all while paying back those student loans that paved their way to graduation.

With the surge in student loan debt outpacing the growth in starting salaries, and with tuition increases far exceeding increases in federal financial aid, a growing number of college graduates are facing barely manageable levels of student loan debt.

Tuition Hikes Outstrip Increases in Federal Financial Aid Awards

“Student aid continues to grow, but not as fast as tuition, and not enough to make up for the difference between family incomes and the price of college,” says Larry Abramson in a story for National Public Radio (“Tuition Hikes Outpace Student-Aid Increases,” Oct. 26, 2007).

According to the College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing” 2007 report, average published tuition and fees for in-state college students at four-year schools climbed by 6.6% for the 2007–08 academic year, a hike that “outpaced increases in the financial aid that lowers what most students actually pay” writes Erica Perez in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (“College Costs Outpace Inflation,” Oct. 23, 2007).

Starting Salaries Increasing More Slowly Than Student Debt

With more tuition to have to pay, students are graduating with more student loan debt than ever. In 2004, two-thirds of college graduates left school with student loans, and between 1993 and 2004, the average debt for college graduates with student loans soared a staggering 107%, according to a report by Luke Swarthout, a Higher Education Associate for the U.S. PIRG Education Fund. Student loan debt, Swarthout notes, is rising faster than both the cost of living and the cost of health care (“Student Debt and Consumer Costs in the Minneapolis–St. Paul Area,” July 2006).

Student debt levels are also eclipsing income gains. The “rapid rise in student debt comes while the real median income of younger Americans has only modestly increased” by 4.4% between 1995 and 2004 for household earners under 35, writes Swarthout.

Starting salaries for recent graduates can’t keep pace either. A report on “Student Debt and the Class of 2006” released by the Project on Student Debt found that for graduating seniors, average student loan debt rose 8 percent between 2005 and 2006, while starting salary offers rose only about 4 percent.

“Too many young people leave college saddled with heavy debt burdens and struggle to cover their loan payments on top of basic living expenses,” says Robert Shireman, Executive Director of the Project on Student Debt, in a press release for their recent study. “Students need better options and counseling when they’re deciding how to pay for college.”

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Student Loan Blog : National Public Radio

Missouri School May Be First College With All Digital Textbooks

Student Loan Debt Is on the Rise, and College Grads Face Growing Financial Obstacles