CourseSmart has a website that currently provides more college textbooks online in eTextbook format than any other website in the world. Providing students with the majority of the popular college textbook titles in a standard online format is certainly not an easy task to accomplish. It is probably safe to say that a relatively new or smaller company would simply not have the financial backing or resources to accomplish this type of goal. However, all of the major “players†in the North American textbook industry certainly have the financial backing and resources available to make this a reality in today’s technological landscape. By combining all of their resources together, these “mega†companies were able to develop what college students now know as CourseSmart. CourseSmart is now a new business entity with seemingly unlimited potential as the company has financial backing from Pearson Education, McGraw Hill Education, Cengage Learning, John Wiley & Sons, the Bedford, Freeman, Worth Publishing Group (publisher of Macmillan textbooks), and the F.A. Davis Company. CourseSmart textbooks can be found online at www.CourseSmart.com. The location of the CourseSmart offices is in San Mateo, California. They are a privately held business with more than 15 employees.
The CourseSmart business model is subscription-based. Their catalog contains more than 90% of the basic college textbooks being used today in North America, all of them available in an easy-to-use eTextbook format. The company also maintains the largest online collection of electronic educational resources and other digital course materials. All of these etextbooks, educational resources, and digital course materials are available to students instantly upon purchasing. Students have the added luxury of browsing their CourseSmart textbooks entirely online or they can download their required etextbooks to their hard drives to read through at a later date or time. CourseSmart textbooks operate flawlessly on all of the new, popular gadgets like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch as well.
Okay, so what are the real benefits of purchasing your online textbooks through CourseSmart? Well, for starters, students will most likely end up saving money as their etextbooks cost an average of 60% less than regular physical textbooks. Next, students get the additional benefit of having a digital “full text search†option in order to help them study more efficiently.
CourseSmart online textbooks completely integrate with most of the popular word processing programs out there too. By choosing CourseSmart, students gain the convenience of “choice†in this growing digital age that we live in. They can read their required textbook material on their desktop in their dorm, on their laptop while at the library, or on their iPad while riding the bus. These “convenience†possibilities will continue to grow as further devices are invented and CourseSmart follows by integrating their material into new channels. Highlighting and taking notes is easier than ever when operating entirely in a digital textbook environment. It is quite clear that CourseSmart will continue to grow by providing students with an exciting and evolving alternative to purchasing standard physical textbooks.