Electronic Textbooks | News

CourseSmart Launches Faculty Review Program for Digital Textbooks

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 07/13/10

A company that produces digital versions of textbooks for higher education has launched a new program that makes the materials immediately and freely available for review by faculty members. CourseSmart has opened the Faculty Instant Access Program to a few institutions, but a company spokeswoman said it would be rolling out the initiative to others through the spring 2011 semester.

According to the company, the service allows users to gain access to the e-textbook formats of more about 90 percent of the most popular textbooks through the given college's learning management system or campus portal.

"The new Faculty Instant Access program creates a more streamlined evaluation-to-selection process for instructors while introducing them to digital tools that can enhance their students' classroom experience and ease their administrative burden," said CEO Sean Devine. "In creating this new program, we are focused on supporting institutions and their faculty members as they embrace the digital transformation of education and make the often time consuming process of selecting course resources as digitally efficient and simple to manage as possible."