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29% of students don't buy textbooks due to cost

What are eTexts?

At Indiana University, eTexts are more than just digital copies of textbooks. They represent multiple forms of digital learning materials. IU's eTexts initiative focuses on delivering eTexts to students at a reduced cost, while providing faculty with new tools for teaching and learning.

Courseload eText Reader on iPad
The path to digital.

Forget everything you thought you knew about textbooks -- the IU eTexts initiative reinvents the textbook model.

eTexts at IU reinvents the traditional sales model for textbooks with a new approach that reduces costs for each student, while allowing publishers to eliminate common restrictions associated with printing and access.


Explore the benefits

Features

  • Highlighting
  • Bookmarking
  • Notations
  • Search
  • Index navigation
  • Printing
  • Unlimited devices
  • Unlimited access: students retain access to their eTexts while they are enrolled at IU.

Explore The benefits

More than one-third of all students go without one or more required textbooks each year. While some make do with out-of-print editions, others opt for nothing at all. With eTexts powered by Courseload, students can access course materials any time, anywhere with any digital device.

Additional features and benefits include:

  • On-demand printing
  • Highlighting and annotations
  • Unlimited access to course materials
  • Collaborative studying

Accessing eTexts at IU

Courseload makes eTexts readily available for students and faculty members alike. The HTML5-based application provides nearly unlimited and ubiquitous access to digital materials, and features:

Courseload eText Reader on a laptop
For PCs, Macs, and tablets

Designed in HTML5 so you can access your eTexts on most current devices.

  • Support for nearly all web-enabled devices
  • Compatibility with every modern web browser
  • Offline storage options
Help: Accessing eTexts at IU
Stack of paper

Printer friendly

Print pages and chapters directly from Courseload at no cost. Bound, printed copies are also available for an additional $20-30—a small fee that is still lighter on your wallet than buying a traditional printed textbook.

iPad

Highlighting and annotations

Just like traditional textbooks, students and faculty members can make notes and highlight passages directly in their eText materials.  In addition, students and faculty can share annotations with each other, creating new opportunities for learning and engagement. 

Help: Highlights and Notes

Why choose eTexts?

Millennial students have grown up in a world driven by technology. This may explain why three-quarters of those polled preferred to have educational content delivered directly to their digital devices. Just think, this could mean the end of overpricing, outdated textbooks, and heavy backpacks.

Tablet

Courseload

Courseload software integrates directly with IU’s Oncourse system, and features a search function and tools for highlighting, annotating, and creating links to online content.

Faculty benefits

  • Use real-time analytics to develop new teaching methods
  • Share notes with students
  • Incorporate multimedia materials into courses
  • Integrate links and annotations into study materials

Student benefits

  • Substantially reduce textbook costs
  • Collaborate with study groups
  • View multimedia
  • Tag and annotate text