NEW - Straighterline offering e-books

[koenigtv]

Straighterline now has E-books available for a lot of their courses. I'm enrolled in Algebra and Accounting I and both now have e-books for purchase (the Algebra e-book is $80+ as opposed to the $200+ hardback version). I had a live chat with their presumably outsourced customer service and they said the e-book can be used during the final exam - but I will need to check that with a real person on the phone.

Hope this info helps.

[Daithi]

I've taken several of the StraighterLine courses and the vast majority of the time a used book from Amazon has only cost me about $5 (including shipping). I honestly don't think I've ever paid more than $10 for a book. I've also noticed that several of the tests appear to have been written based on a version of the textbook that is a couple years older than the version the site is recommending. So if they recommend the 8th edition of XXX then I buy the 7th edition. I'd also rather have a hard copy than an ebook because I think the hardcopy would be a lot easier to flip back and forth through to find answers during a test.

[chiquitacobbe]

Straighterline now has E-books available for a lot of their courses. I'm enrolled in Algebra and Accounting I and both now have e-books for purchase (the Algebra e-book is $80+ as opposed to the $200+ hardback version). I had a live chat with their presumably outsourced customer service and they said the e-book can be used during the final exam - but I will need to check that with a real person on the phone.

Hope this info helps.

Also check of the ebook is acceptable to use on an ipad? I heard they wouldn't allow it on an ipad but would on a kindle reader.

[koenigtv]

Straighterline says you can use the ebook on any device BUT it has to be the SAME device you take the test on. Not sure if it would be practical or convenient to take the test on an iPad.

Unfortunately I live overseas and the cost of buying and shipping books costs more than the ebook.

I used the ebook for the SL Business Communications class and there are some pros and cons. Pro is that the search function works really well, making it easy to find things and cross reference them. The major con (besides the price) is the ebook interface is very clunky and you can't make the the type or screen larger. The ebook is not a downloadable PDF, you have to use the clunky interface.

Having said that I was still able to pass 9 of the Bus Com 20 question topic quizzes in 2-3 hours just by using the search function without any studying or even reading the book.