{"id":27515,"date":"2019-07-10T11:57:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T16:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=27515"},"modified":"2019-07-10T11:57:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T16:57:45","slug":"apsu-pilots-ebooks-program-to-reduce-cost-of-college-textbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2019\/07\/10\/apsu-pilots-ebooks-program-to-reduce-cost-of-college-textbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU pilots eBooks program to reduce cost of college textbooks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Here\u2019s a fun question to ask your college professor friends: \u201cHow would you feel if all your students showed up on the first day of class with their books?\u201d Paul Nicodemus, Austin Peay State University (APSU) professor of psychological science and counseling, has an answer.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Austin Peay State University First Day eBooks program ensures that students will have the right text for their class. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have to worry anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cI never have developed ulcers, but I\u2019m surprised by that because I always have students that don\u2019t have the right textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his career, Nicodemus has observed several reasons why students either don\u2019t have a book or why they bought the wrong book. Campus bookstores sometimes run out of required texts, and when students order a book online, they might accidentally pick the wrong edition.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the cost. It\u2019s long been known that life offers three absolutes \u2013 death, taxes and expensive college textbooks.<\/p>\n

This summer, Austin Peay State University is piloting a program that will hopefully resolve the age-old textbook dilemma. Students and professors in 10 summer courses are participating in the University\u2019s First Day eBooks program, which automatically uploads low-cost eBooks to a class\u2019 online shell when a student registers for that class. The eBook is added to the student\u2019s tuition, and they have access to the correct text on the first day of class.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simple reality for many students that they cannot afford their textbooks, and as a consequence these students must choose between buying the necessities of life or purchasing a very expensive textbook that often can be in excess of $200.00,\u201d Dr. Chad Brooks, APSU associate provost for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, data collected by Austin Peay State University\u2019s bookstore reveals about 50 percent of all students never buy the required textbooks for their courses,\u201d stated Brooks.<\/p>\n

The First Day eBooks program ensures that students will have the right text for their class, allowing them to fully participate and succeed in their course work. Students do have the option to opt out of First Day eBooks, but Brooks said those participating in this summer\u2019s pilot program will collectively save more than $23,000. Next year, he hopes to make that number grow by expanding the program to the entire campus.<\/p>\n

[320left]\u201cAs information dissemination becomes more freely available, open source free digital textbooks are becoming increasingly available and approaching the high standard of much more expensive textbooks,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

The University developed the pilot program earlier this year, after Dr. Rex Gandy, APSU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, became concerned about the exorbitant costs of some college text books. Gandy created a textbook affordability taskforce, which met with both faculty and nationally recognized book vendors. The result of that committee\u2019s work led to this summer\u2019s First Day eBooks program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like that they got this finally set up,\u201d Nicodemus said. \u201cThis is a game-changer. I think you\u2019re going to see more of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

For information on Austin Peay State University\u2019s First Day eBooks program, contact Brooks at brooksc@apsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Here\u2019s a fun question to ask your college professor friends: \u201cHow would you feel if all your students showed up on the first day of class with their books?\u201d Paul Nicodemus, Austin Peay State University (APSU) professor of psychological science and counseling, has an answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,15115,5465,33828,6533,262,15716,512,825,33826,33477,33827],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-79N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27516,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27515\/revisions\/27516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}