Vol. 128, No. 98 Tuesday, February 26, 2019
OPINION
SPORTS
ARTS & CULTURE
Campus tours are unrealistic
Softball and baseball differ greatly
Art and cats come together at Grand Cats Gallery
page 6
page 10
page 12
The Colorado State University Bookstore offers inclusive access books through the program Verba to provide lower online textbook costs for students. Of the courses which use inclusive access books, 52.1 percent require an e-book and homework bundle, while others require one component or the other. INFOGRAPHIC BY MEG METZGER-SEYMOUR COLLEGIAN
Students, faculty, bookstores adapt to digital textbook model By Samantha Ye @samxye4
As more professors turn to the convenience of the access code textbooks, students and bookstores are finding new options for affordability. According to Colorado State University Bookstore data, 50 lower-level courses, covering
16,297 students, had digital materials listed on the Bookstore’s inclusive access program this spring. In comparison, there are 45 higher-level courses with digital materials, covering only 6,250 students. These digital materials can only be accessed through codes students must purchase through the publisher in order to view and submit assign-
ments. E-books may have physical options at a higher price, but the assignments can only be completed through the online platform, making it nearly impossible to pass the class without it. Digital materials have been known to be cheaper, or even free. Yet prices remain high with many homework and
e-book bundles topping over $100, according to The Atlantic, despite students’ access expiring after a set time limit. The New York Times writes that access codes eliminate students’ cost-cutting options like sharing, reusing or reselling books, leaving them with basically no cheaper options. So, college bookstores are starting to come at the costs
from a different angle. For the last few years, the CSU Bookstore has been expanding Verba, an inclusive access program which allows students to purchase access to the e-books and homework assignments directly through the Bookstore, no access code
see DIGITAL on page 4 >>
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