Fixing the Textbook Model - Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

Indiana University's Brad Wheeler explains how his institution is ditching the college textbook and replacing it with digital alternatives that are accessible to students from day one. Here's the idea that kicked off the pilot: to negotiate with willing publishers to lower the pricing of their textbooks in return for getting the near-guarantee that every student in a course section would pay for it all upfront as a course fee and receive it in digital form. That included the ancillary content ("digital thingies" in Wheeler's parlance) such as labs, flash cards and other digitized resources, which the university would take over and distribute — reducing support hassles. https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/06/21/fixing-the-textbook-model.aspx