Tag Archives: eTextbook

Academic, Resources

Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks

Digital textbooks can encourage learning

Textbooks have long been a source of financial strain on college students, and can sometimes interfere with the accessibility of higher education as a whole.

To try and help with this issue, Western Sydney University and ProQuest teamed up to provide free digital textbooks to incoming university students through the University’s library. This article from No Shelf Required includes statements from both the University and ProQuest regarding the collaboration. Some of the goals for collaboration include making the cost of college more affordable, and textbooks more accessible, particularly to students with disabilities. The digital textbooks come from 60 academic publishers and can be accessed by students via Ebook Central which is ProQuest’s ebook platform. Continue reading Western Sydney University and ProQuest team up for free digital textbooks →

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Amazon launches Kindle Textbook Creator

a.com_logo_RGBMoving beyond just selling textbooks, Amazon recently announced that it will help creating them. Educators can use the Kindle Textbook Creator “to take any PDF and create a richly featured and widely available eTextbook,” said Chuck Kronbach, Director, Kindle Direct Publishing. The announcement states that students can use the textbooks “on a broad range of devices, including Fire tablets, iPad, iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets, Mac, and PC.”

Books created with Kindle Textbook Creator offer features for students and other readers that enhance the learning experience, including:

  • Multi-Color Highlighting—Highlight and categorize key concepts for easy reference.
  • Notebook—Capture key passages, images and bookmarks and automatically add them to the notebook. Students can add their own notes and easily access them from one location.
  • Flashcards—Create flashcards and study important terms, concepts, and definitions in each chapter with a simple, easy-to-use interface.
  • Dictionary—Find definitions and Wikipedia information for difficult terms to improve retention.
  • Buy Once, Read Everywhere—Read eTextbooks on the most popular devices students use, including Fire tablets, iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and smartphones, Mac, and PC.

Check out their KDP-EDU website to get started today!