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The average college student/ in America/ spent an estimated seven hundred dollars/ on textbooks/ last year. The National Association of College Stores/ reported more than five billion dollars/ in sales/ of textbooks and course materials.

Association spokesman Charles Schmidt says/ electronic textbooks/ now represent just two to three percent of sales. But he says/ that is expected to reach ten to fifteen percent/ by two thousand twelve.

Online versions/ are now available/ for many of the most popular college textbooks. E-textbooks/ can cost half the price/ of a new print textbook. But students/ usually lose access/ after the end of the term. And the books/ cannot be placed/ on more than one device, so they are not easy to share.

So what do students/ think of e-textbooks? Administrators/ at Northwest Missouri State University/ wanted to find out. Earlier this year/ they tested them/ with five hundred students/ in twenty classes.

The university/ is unusual. It not only provides laptop computers/ to all seven thousand/ of its full-time students. It does not require students/ to buy their textbooks either. They rent them/ to save money. The school/ aims to save even more/ by moving to e-textbooks.

The students/ in the survey/ reported/ that downloading the books/ from the Internet/ was easy. They liked the idea/ of carrying lighter backpacks. And fifty-six percent/ said/ they were better able to find information.

But most found/ that using e-textbooks/ did not change their study habits. And sixty percent felt/ they read more/ when they were reading on paper. In all, almost half the students said/ they still liked physical textbooks/ better.

But the survey found/ that cost/ could be a big influence. Fifty-five percent/ said/ they would choose e-textbooks if using them/ meant their textbook rental fee/ would not increase.

Roger Von Holzen/ heads the Center for Information Technology in Education/ at Northwest Missouri State. He tells us/ that administrators/ are disappointed/ with the e-textbooks/ now available/ because the majority/ are not interactive.

He thinks/ growth/ will come/ when more digital books/ include video, activities, games and other ways/ to interact/ with the information. The technology/ is improving. But for now, most of the books/ are just words/ on a screen.

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