Is this the end of the line for college bookstores?

iTunes did it to CD stores. Redbox and Netflix did it to Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

Now Courseload and IU are doing it to college bookstores as eTexts are finally starting to find their way into college classrooms.

A new agreement between IU and numerous electronic text publishers will allow students to purchase their class materials at a fraction of the price they would pay otherwise.

Students will have access to highly discounted digital or printed copies of their textbooks for their entire college career, according to the agreement. In return, partnering publishers will receive an eText fee from each student enrolled in a
participating class.

To receive their texts, students will not even have to do anything. When IU students register for classes where their instructors have decided to participate in the program, the fee for their eTexts will automatically be charged to their bursars and the text uploaded to the courses’ Oncourse pages, which means no more last-minute trips to the crowded bookstore before classes start.

While publishers will supply the content, Courseload, an Indianapolis-based company founded by former Apple employee Michael Levitan and Kelley School of Business Professor Alan R. Dennis, will supply the software.

Courseload’s software gives students the ability to access their texts on any platform that has a web browser.

The software also includes features that allow students to highlight, annotate and perform searches within their text and also to ask their instructors questions and collaborate with their classmates.

According to Courseload’s Director of University Partnerships Michael Barton, IU’s partnerships could save students 60 to 70 percent on their course materials.

For students, instructors, and the University as a whole, IU’s pioneering program represents the way of the future for classroom instruction, and IU and Courseload should be commended for their vision.

Including eTexts within the cost of tuition seems like a move more universities are going to start making, if not for academic reasons, then financial ones.

With students spending hundreds of dollars every semester for books they may or may not read, a model that gives them the same content for a fraction of the cost is bound to find success on college campuses.

But this program will not just save students money. It will also deepen the relationship between IU and the publishers that create the books that drive class
instruction.

The relationship is mutually beneficial: The University will ensure that its students have their course texts on the first day of class and receive them for a fair price, while publishers will sell more texts as a result of the decline in demand for used books.

Perhaps this new model will even mean fewer “new editions,” which have been a way for publishers to combat the used book market for decades and have been the source of headaches for students and instructors alike.

If this model catches on, which I think it will, we could very well be seeing the end of the line for college bookstores such as T.I.S.

In this age of digital content, brick and mortar stores are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

This development could also cause problems for some small academic publishers. At about $500 a book, not all publishers can afford to digitize their entire library. Most small academic publishers are already in the red, and a book market that demands both physical and electronic copies puts them in a costly situation.

However, if small academic publishers such as IU Press wish to keep up with what will become a growing market for digital content on college campuses, they have no other choice but to make the necessary investment in eTexts. To not make the investment could prove fatal as their books will no longer be considered for classes where the instructors wish to use an online platform like Courseload.

While IU’s innovative new model for class instruction could hit some industries hard, in the long run, it will improve learning, decrease costs for students and put IU on the map as a pioneer in education technologies.

­— nperrino@indiana.edu