Little did we know, this site actually became a very useful and heavily-relied-on tool. Piazza, which is Italian for public square or marketplace, doesn’t give you the answers to your homework problems, but it can assist in closing the gap that stands between class sessions and confused minds.

Don’t attending office hours and emailing the professors do that too, you ask? Yes, but conflicting schedules and full inboxes may easily get in the way. Facebook groups could probably help too, but professors nor teaching assistants can confirm peer-provided responses. Let’s check out why else professors and students should totally start using Piazza.

Real-Time Discussions

Instructors start by signing up at Piazza and adding their college-level courses. After activating their accounts, they can invite students and teaching assistants to join. Students and instructors (including TA’s) can then connect by posting and replying to questions and notes in real-time, just like Facebook, except Piazza can help you stay productive. You can even see when fellow students are actually replying to a question or editing an answer in real-time.

As you can see in the screenshot, Piazza is not only gorgeous but also absolutely functional, in contrast to many basic classroom websites lacking a commenting system and education boards that look like they could use a revamp in looks and features. The layout of Piazza consists of two panes, one of which is a sidebar containing a list of discussions, and the other one which is a larger area to see the conversation for a specific question.

Questions that have received a student response will have a green “sr” icon, while those that have received an instructor response from the professor or TA stand out with the orange “ir” icon. There might even be checkmark icons on questions that have instructor-endorsed student responses, which are always great since that means students that understand the subject can explain it it to their peers as simply as possible.

Students Can Ask Questions Anonymously

If you’re too shy to ask questions during class, ahem, like this author, Piazza will be a lifesaver as it allows you to post questions anonymously and/or privately. This is perhaps one of Piazza’s biggest benefits.

There’s a reason this site will get more action than your average class website, Blackboard or Facebook group. Students will feel free to engage in the discussion even if they might think their question sounded too “stupid” to bring up in class. Not only can students ask questions freely, they can also respond anonymously as well.

Piazza was founded by a former female CS student, a fact that I adore because only a student could know the pain of being shy and being confused by some obscure topic at the same time. Thus, being able to ask and answer questions anonymously is quite a welcome feature, at least to me.

General Efficiency

Not only is Piazza a great Q&A board to learn from some very lively discussions, it’s also more efficient and/or convenient for both the instruction staff and students, e.g. in cases where students sometimes cannot make office hours due to scheduling conflicts. Piazza is a good supplement (notice that I’m not saying substitute) to office hours because it can also help reduce redundancy. Students might ask a lot of the same questions so it saves time for both the instructor and the student to see a general place where one question can be posted and discussed, instead of emailing back and forth the same questions and answers.

Both sides will still get notification emails, but these are quite adjustable. As a student, you can skip real-time notifications and opt for a daily digest instead, or go with summary emails scheduled to be delivered anywhere from every hour to every 6 hours.

Other neat features include the ability to post notes (like illustrative YouTube videos and general class announcements), and polls. Not only can you post multimedia links, you can also embed images and post code with simple “<pre>” tags.

Piazza also allows you to use LaTeX expressions to type mathematical formulae and the like.

Piazza also has Android and iPhone companion apps for posting and checking answers on the go.

Overall, Piazza is an incredibly useful and well-thought-out product that you, as a student, should definitely request your professor to adopt, or as an instructor, should start using now! It will save you both time and you have nothing to lose by using it (unless of course, neither of you responds to the questions at all).

What are your thoughts on using an online discussion board for college classes? Feel free to share your comments below.

Though Nuance’s PC and Mac speech recognition programs are relatively expensive, the company provides several free mobile apps that allow users to leverage the power of voice recognition. The company’s latest release, PaperPort Notes for the iPad may be useful to students and for those who want to use their iOS device for notetaking and annotating documents.

Main Features

PaperPort Notes is very similar to many other iPad note apps. It allows you to make typed and free handwritten notes using a stylus or your finger, make audio recordings, change fonts and font sizes, and much more.

But of course because this is a Nuance app, it includes a voice recognition feature that allows you to dictate your thoughts or what you read from existing text. PaperPort seems to be the only app of its type to feature text dictation.

PaperPort also includes a search feature, copying and pasting, bookmarking the pages, and the ability to capture and import selected content from the web, or entire documents from Dropbox and other sources.

Handwriting & Audio Recordings

There are a slew of free handwriting notebook apps, like Noteshelf, Penultimate, and Bamboo Paper that provide near real-life pen and paper quality when using a stylus pen.

While it’s great to see this feature in PaperPort, the digital results (see screenshot above) from handwriting are not as good and smooth as when compared to other notebook apps (see Noteshelf screenshot below).

The audio recording feature of PaperPort, however, does work very well. It will be useful for recording lectures while taking notes, or simply recording your thoughts verbally.

Audio recordings are affixed to a single page, so if you add a new page while a recording is active, PaperPort will automatically stop the recording for the previous page and start a new recording for the current one. Each individual page can be labeled and deleted, and all are kept organized in a drop-down box.

Voice-Recognition Feature

Probably the most inviting reason to download PaperPort is to use its voice recognition feature. Similar to other Nuance mobile apps you can dictate your thoughts or read them from existing text, and PaperPort will process and type out what you dictate.

The feature works fairly well (see unedited dictated note above); however, the biggest drawback is that you cannot see the results of your dictation until after you tap the Finished button. In the desktop versions of Nuance’s voice recognition programs, you see the results of your dictation nearly immediately after you pause after dictating a phrase or sentence. So as with the other mobile dictation programs, you will probably not use this feature for long extended pieces of writing.

You can use the voice recognition program in any page or document you import into PaperPort. You simply tap the Text box icon in the menu bar, and then touch-and-drag across an area on the page to either make typed notes or to start dictation by tapping the Tap & Speak button above the software keyboard.

You can edit dictated notes and add more dictations within the same note. The voice program provides the best capture when using a headphone mic or the mic installed on the iPad. It will not do a good job of recognizing and typing lectures given by someone standing in a room.

PaperPort also allows you to change the font style and size of text, as well as the type of background for added notes. You can select to have text-only, border, sticky style note, or custom image background.

Other Features

A few other advanced features in PaperPort include the ability to add various styles of paper, e.g. white or yellow lined, or graphing paper.

You can also import existing documents from Dropbox, Box.net, or from your PaperPort Anywhere account—annotate them and add written or dictated notes and recordings.

In addition, PaperPort includes a feature for capturing content from its built-in Web browser and other imported documents. You can select both text and images to add to the clipboard and paste them into any document or note page.

And finally, notes and imported documents in PaperPort can be exported in PDF format (with password protection) via e-mail, Google Docs, Dropbox, direct printing, etc.

PaperPort Notes for the iPad requires iOS 4.2 or later and is available for free in the iTunes App Store. Let us know what you think of it.

We’ve shown you Ubuntu chemistry applications for students, but we somehow missed this extremely simple and information-crammed version of the periodic table. That’s too bad. There is a lot of information to be found in gElemental, and it’s very logically arranged. There’s a reason it’s so highly rated in the Ubuntu Software Center, and I think it’s more than a competent replacement for a mere poster.

Whether you’re a student or just a science enthusiast, this is an application worth having around for offline reference. If you’re a real nerd, you can just explore it for fun in your spare time. Science is fun.

Using gElemental

If you’ve seen the periodic table of the elements before, the main screen of gElemental will be familiar to you. You’ll see the elements, all in their proper places.

Hover over an element and you’ll see its name, the series it belongs in and its atomic number at the top. By default elements are color-coded according to series; you can find a legend by clicking the drop-down menu at the bottom of the window. You can change this color code in the menu to any of dozens of factors, which is certainly something a poster can’t do.

It’s a simple interface but what else do you want? If what you want are details about the various elements I highly recommend clicking one of them.

You’ll find a variety of information right away, from basic chemical stats to the year and place it was discovered. Click the “Physical or Atomic” tab in this window and you’ll see even more information:

Under physical, you’ll find the melting and boiling points, the heat of fusion and vaporization and more. The atomic tab contains even more information. Rest assured, there’s more data here than most posters you’ve seen.

Are you wondering where this information is all coming from? There’s a complete list of sources which you can find in the menu.

You’re free to look through this and decide how trustworthy the information is, which is particularly nice if you need to cite something you find in this program.

Installing gElemental

Are you ready to install this program? Search your Linux distro’s repository for “gelemental” and you’ll have it in no time. Are you a Ubuntu user? Then simply click here to install gElemental, thanks to the magic of the Ubuntu Software Center.

If you can’t find gElemental in your repositories, head over to the gElemental homepage, where you’ll finds the source code to compile it yourself.

Conclusion

I love simple applications that do one thing very well. So far as I can tell, this program is a great way to quickly pull up information about the periodic table of the elements. Do you agree? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below along with any alternative applications for the job.

We’re not talking about merely podcasts and videos. The courses on iTunes U include everything, and that means handouts, exams, answers and much more material in the form of PDF files you can download for free. The app offers courses on numerous different topics, which come from big places like Harvard and Cambridge, or small ones like community colleges, and even includes K-12 courses.

The main screen of the app looks very much like iBooks, and displays the courses you’ve subscribed to on the familiar wooden shelf. You can browse the iTunes U catalog by institute, browse new courses, or search for your favorite topics. When you subscribe for a course, iTunes U downloads all the core material, and informs you that supplemental material may be purchased from the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore.

This venture of Apple’s goes hand in hand with their new iBooks textbooks, and is aimed at both educators, who can design entire courses and make them available through the app, and for students, who can easily access course material and sync it between their different devices.

What do you think of iTunes U? Are you planning to use it?

Source: TUAW

Lectures are available online to watch at your leisure, as are reading materials and quizzes. Teaching staff monitor forums so that important questions can be answered. Dedicated students should find it is possible to learn as much from these courses as from their paid, internal counterparts.

Since Stanford expect very high enrolment numbers for these subjects, they have ensured the Q&A forum for each class is quite sophisticated. When a question is asked, students can respond and they can rank both questions and answers given. When the teaching staff monitor the forum and offer their expertise, the difficult questions will be easy for them to spot in the midst of the forum action.

Stanford don’t seem to have created a page specifically to list of all their available free subjects, however there are links to all of the currently available courses at the bottom of each course page. For an example, see the Human-Computer Interaction class page.

And remember, it’s not about accreditation. It’s about what you learn and the great minds you meet along the way.

Source: Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Course

YouTube for Schools is a special network which school administrators can turn on to grant access only to YouTube EDU content. YouTube EDU is a huge source of educational videos which is divided into videos for primary & secondary education, university and lifelong learning.

But anyone can access YouTube EDU from anywhere, so what’s special about YouTube for School? Using the network, schools can use content from YouTube EDU in a way that doesn’t expose students to inappropriate content. There are no related videos, no comments, and only educational videos to go around. To make it easier for teachers to find the right videos, they have been divided into categories such as math, science and social studies, and are further divided into subjects and grade levels within these categories.

In order to get started, head over to YouTube for Schools and sign up using the school’s Google account. YouTube for Schools can actually be a useful solution for other organizations, who wish to allow only educational, appropriate content.

Do you like the idea? Or do you think it’s bad for education? Share your opinions in the comments.

Source: Official YouTube Blog

This whole semester I’ve been dealing with e-textbooks and using just an Android tablet (Acer Iconia A500) to digitize all of my schoolwork to answer these questions. It’s not even the end of the semester but I can conclude that it’s been more of a hassle than a convenience. The tablet itself is great, but using technology in school isn’t quite the same. Remember the Kno tablet? While I thought it was revolutionary, the concept didn’t seem to be picked up by schools. Universities, professors and students simply (some may be but most) aren’t ready to embrace digital textbooks, and not all professors make it easier for students who want to use their laptops or tablets to replace pen and paper.

Have An e-Textbook? You Will Fail An Open-Book Test

The argument of e-books versus traditional textbooks books goes beyond whether you prefer the look and feel of an actual book to the more unnatural book-on-a-screen experience. In terms of practicality, there are many obstacles and opposing forces to replacing physical books with digital versions for good. For instance, even right now when tablets have been hot for at least a year since the iPad 1 came out and there are quite a few people who can afford them, none of my professors at my apparently-expert-in-social-media school so far have declared that they prefer digital textbooks. One of my Computer Science professors reasoned that you can easily cheat on a test, go online on your web-enabled device and easily call or email your mom and ask her to look up the answer in a textbook for you. You could also simply Google the answer.

Having e-books and web-enabled devices also limit forms of testing, which is a just a headache for instructors. They’ll probably hate you for making them figure out a way you can’t cheat on the test and giving them additional work. This is true when the study material is as difficult as figuring out the answer to some obscure logic riddle, and some professors might prefer to give open-notes and open-textbook tests. Right now, since there are some students with the physical books and some with the e-books, those who purchase the digital versions of the textbooks end up disadvantaged.

Students could solve this by printing segments of their textbooks for the exams, but this is usually not permitted per the textbook publisher. How do I know this? My classmates who buy the (cheaper) digital textbook end up going through hoops of inconvenience to secure a remotely decent grade during these open-textbook exams. That usually includes having to figure out a way to bypass the limitation the textbook publisher has imposed for the e-book – you can only print 10 pages at a time. So the unpleasant options you have when you buy the digital textbook are to either print 10 pages at a time, harass a classmate to make photocopies of their physical book or buy the textbook anyway. I swear this is happening in one of my classes this semester.

Have An e-Textbook & Are Majoring In The Sciences? Your Book Will Confuse You

Another downside I have seen when traditional textbooks are replaced is that not all the text in a specialized textbook will be compatible with the rendering engine of an e-reader or tablet. I am NOT kidding. I’ve seen this first hand when one of my classmates who got the Kindle textbook ended up being totally confused with a formula. The way the formula was displayed on the Kindle involved a delta triangle instead of the correct symbols.

Talking about incompatibility, here’s an example of something equally confusing from my actual Logic class notes on my Android tablet.

I’m pretty sure those squares up there in the screenshot were meant to be curly braces, but that is just a guess.

Stylus Or Not, Hand-Writing On A Tablet Will Suck (& Be Slower Than If You Just Freakin’ Use Pen & Paper)

Right now, iPad and tablet owners have probably thought it best to try a stylus in the hope that they can replace paper. I know I have. I used Bamboo’s Stylus for iPad, which is supposed to be one of the best styluses out there, on Autodesk’s SketchBook Pro, which is probably the best drawing app on the Android Market right now. Though both were good, no matter how long I tried to get used to it, I have found that using a stylus on a touchscreen just isn’t as pleasurable as it is using pen and paper.

It’s probably too much to ask for the stylus experience to be similar to what you get with a pen, I reckon, but it’s the precision and extra pressure you need to add that put me off. Want some proof? Here are my actual notes, taken with a stylus. Does this look legible to you?

Parts of my hand-writing aren’t so bad; some other parts look like hieroglyphs. If you own an iPad and have experienced something different, let me know in the comments. For me, no matter how much I try to like a stylus, it just doesn’t cut it for me.

As you can see here in my actual Logic class notes, another problem I’ve experienced is that if you’re focusing somewhat hard on making your notes legible, guess what, it’ll take you longer than usual and perhaps the professor will have moved on and erased the tidbit of information that was meant to copied quickly.

There are also problems when your tablet doesn’t actually support palm rejection or requires you to write really big and you have to keep zooming in and out. There have been some newer tablets that hold promise and seem to solve some of these problems, like the Noteslate (which seems to be vaporware), the HTC View and the Lenovo Thinkpad tablet. If you have these tablets, please share your experiences in the comments.

Now if we’re talking about a graphics tablet (like a 12’’ Cintiq), it might be a whole different ball game, but you’ll have to lug around both your laptop and the graphics tablet to school, and set up your little office during every single class, provided you have enough desk space…

There’s No Way To Sync Last-Read Points In Your Study Material

You like having your leisure books synced on the Kindle, Kobo, Google Books, etc. apps, right? Imagine having to study books and slides (especially PDF slides and Powerpoint presentations that professors use so much these days) and not having a way to sync these across your computer, tablet or phone. It becomes increasingly annoying when there are more and more instructors relying on these slideshows and there’s always a need to either print them out (countering the purpose of saving paper in the first place) or re-figure out again where it is that you last read.

This frustration is something I’ve personally experienced and perhaps is not well-founded since you could try to figure out a way to remember the last checkpoints in your collection of slides, but I just don’t see why e-books can be synced so easily nowadays, yet digital slides, online tutorials, etc, aren’t so easy to organize.

That’s why I appreciate ideas like Ibis Reader which allows you to upload PDF documents and read them on the web with any device, but until the project is optimized for bookmarking last-read pages and so forth, it’s just for the casual reader that’s not in school.

Yes, Benefits Do Exist

I’ve encountered some inconveniences as you can see, but there are more good sides of owning a laptop , tablet or smartphone.

Not only do tablets (and smartphones too!) make good clocks, they also are just lighter than a pile of textbooks of course, offer excellent battery life, are great e-readers (not for school), can be your personal planners, etc.

The point of this post isn’t to bash tablets or laptops. This rant is just my opinion of the current state of personal technology in schools. There are many ways to solve or remedy these concerns, but as of right now, the notion of having digital textbooks and using tablets for school is fraught with many problems. The transition to digitizing schoolwork is just fractured in many places because some are enthusiastic about the old ways, and others are ready to touch the future (on their tablets).

Agree or disagree? Let us know your opinions in the comments below!

Image credit: karam Miri, Dmitry Lobanov, Digital Storm, Olaf Speier

Sure, we’ve talked a little bit about instructor ratings here on MakeUseOf before, but surely there’s something a little better out there. Fortunately, I’ve found found a little site called Koofers, and with over 4000 universities using it nationwide, you know that it’s your all-access pass to professor reviews, study tips, and more.

A Review On Reviews

As just a personal preference, if I’m going to any third-party website concerning my university, I’m only really going to go there to check out the professor reviews. With Koofer’s you can definitely do this using their 5-star rating program complete with personal student reviews. Granted, you should keep in mind that any online university review is biased, so use your judgement when taking into consideration the opinions of others. Sometimes a person who is a poor student will simply blame the teacher, but other times the professor is just that pitiful.

Fortunately, there is another system in place in which you and others can actually rate the reviews. If a review doesn’t seem legitimate (or the reviewer only gave the professor his stars and wrote nothing else), you can click whether or not his input was useful. Koofers will place the most helpful reviews at the top of the list, and from there, you can get a pretty solid understanding of what the professor is actually like.

As always, I like to take a look at the search system of a website simply because if you have a bad search function, then it’s likely the website is poor as well. Koofers allows you to search by class, instructor, and even class by instructor. Yes, you may hear a horrible review about a professor’s 2020 class. However, if you click over to his 2030 class, there may be glowing reviews. That’s a pretty good thing, in my opinion.

The Campus Online

Another element of Koofers is its desire to bring the campus online. Part of me doesn’t necessarily like this feature, for it seems to pass itself off as a weak social networking system that is supposed to bring the classroom to the tubes. The idea in theory is wonderful, but since Koofers’ users probably already communicate via Facebook (or in at least my case, do not communicate at all), there isn’t really much of a place for it. However, with elements such as the “class wall” which allows you to post messages to your fellow students, I am positive others could make use of it.

Despite the in-house social networking attempt, Koofers does an excellent job of integrating with Facebook. Simply sign in with your account, and when you start adding classes to your schedule, you will be able to connect with your classmates and be able to communicate with them via Facebook as well. The only downside to this is the practically forced option of Facebook. You can sign up with your email address only, but you will miss out on some features such as building your class schedule and communicating with fellow students.

In addition to the class community building, Koofers also allows you to share notes, videos, and flashcards with all your classmates so that you can work on studying together. Besides this – and I’m not sure how ethical it is – the website also allows past students to post old tests, quizzes, and exams on the site itself. Is it likely that the professor will change the test each semester? Yes. Is it also likely that he won’t? Yes.

Some Spiffy Tools

Besides all the basic stuff focused on your educational enrichment, Koofers also has set up a portion of its site in which you can buy or sell textbooks. So if you really want to go see that Deathcab concert, you have a place to sell your books even if it’s the middle of the semester. (No guarantee that anyone will buy, though.) Besides this, there is even a GPA Calculator for people like myself who often think, “Well. If I make a C in here, and if I make a B in there, I can still come out with a 3.25!”

Also, if you’re feeling a little studied out, Koofers supposedly has a variety of web games to play. However, while working on this review, I noticed that the games actually didn’t load… Chances are that they may not actually work, but that doesn’t take away from the functionality of the rest of the site.

Conclusion

Being a university student, I can definitely see where Koofers could help me out. As an endnote, you should know there is even a karma system based on information sharing, so you can use this to know who is reliable on Koofers. Also, whether you are a student yourself or if you know one, this is a nice website that should definitely be shared with the rest of the world, so pass the word on.

What other sites do you use to aid you in class selection and studying? What do you think of Koofers online university reviews?

TaskMate

Keeping up with tasks and other responsibilities is the key to academic success for all students. There are several task management applications for Mac users with  the cost up to $80. But TaskMate is a free, easy-to-use, tool that sits in your Mac menubar. You can quickly add a new task, and review and export your list for printing or sharing.

See our article, 8 Easy Ways To Manage Tasks With Remember the Milk for other tasks management ideas.

iProcrastinate

For a more elaborate test management tool, the well designed and equally easy-to-use, iProcrastinate looks to be almost perfect for students. iProcrastinate is more than a todo list application like TaskMate; iProcrastinate allows you to break down your academic assignments and tasks into subjects, as well as assign due dates and “Star” tasks that are most important to you.

iProcrastinate includes features for creating steps for accomplishing tasks and linking to related files in your hard drive. An iPhone version of iProcrastinate is also available in the iTunes App Store.

Evernote

We have written several articles about Evernote, which is a cross-platform application, perfect for keeping class notes, webpages, and related text files.

The best thing about Evernote is that whatever you add to it can be accessed in your online account, Mac computer, or iOS device. Evernote is also supported by other third-party applications and iOS apps.

MindNode

Brainstorming ideas and drawing connections between various concepts and facts is what is done by all students in most academic courses. Using what is called mindmapping may be a better way to develop and visualize ideas and related concepts than making simple lists.

Jeffrey’s article on mind mapping explains more about the process. If this appeals to you, you should check out and download the free version of MindNode from the Mac App Store.

Carbon Copy Cloner

While Mac computers are well known for being very stable, regularly backing up your hard drive is nevertheless essential for unexpected crashes and failures. Apple’s Time Machine is pretty sufficient for retrieving previously deleted documents, but a full-blown backup application called backup Carbon Copy Cloner will make a bootable copy of your entire hard drive.

You can set up Carbon Copy Cloner to run in duplicate your hard drive on a scheduled basis—daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Cloner makes incremental backups (only copying files that have been changed since the last clone) of your hard drive to an external drive so it can be booted whenever needed.

Namely

If you have fifty or more applications installed on your Mac, it can be a painful waste of time to open your applications folder in order to launch a program that you might not use very often, and does not reside in your Dock. There are several tools for launching Mac applications, but hardly none are easy to use than Namely.

You call up this tool using a keyboard shortcut (the search box will pop up under your menubar), and then simply type the name of application you want to launch.

Skim

I have reviewed Skim before as the best PDF reader and annotation tool for Mac users. While Apple provides a free PDF reader (Preview) as part of OS X, Skim is much better for students who do lots of research. Skim includes features for not only annotating documents, but also for bookmarking pages of individual PDFs and exporting notes to a plain text format. Skim is also a free Mac tool.

Bean Text Editor

Apple’s TextEdit may be the only word processing application that most students need. However, if TextEdit seems somewhat limited, but you don’t want to use a larger application like Microsoft Word or Pages, you might want to give Bean a try. While Bean doesn’t do footnotes or predefined text styles, it does include features like live word count, auto saving, a floating Windows option (like Stickies has), built-in dictionary, word completion, and date stamped backups.

Think

When you use the computer a lot, it’s often easy to get distracted by other applications and Internet browsing. Think is a Mac tool that may help you get more focused by blocking out other running applications and Finder windows on your Mac, so you can concentrate on a single application you’re using for homework or a specific course assignment.

When you launch Think, it presents you with a familiar application switcher of your opened applications. After you select one, Think darkens everything else on your desktop except for the selected application. You can adjust the opacity of the dark backdrop to your liking.

Dropbox

Similar to Evernote, the cross-platform application called Dropbox is another essential tool for any student who wants to access files from his or her desktop, online account, and/or iOS device. For the most part, Dropbox has replaced the Documents folder on my Mac—simply because it enables me to access my documents from anywhere I have Wi-Fi connection. Dropbox is also supported by many third-party applications, and has several uses that we have previously written about.

Let us know about other free Mac tools you recommend for academic success. And for more ideas about free Mac tools check out this article.

The reason for my ire is that we didn’t have websites which told us where to find (rent or buy) cheap college textbooks. But today’s generation just has to type in a URL and hey presto, there are more than a dozen sites plying cheap textbooks for sale or rent.

I am on a slow burn, but let’s take a look at ten websites where you can get college textbooks for cheap.

Note: Most of these sites are US only.

BookRenter

Start with the large search box that helps you trawl through 5 million textbooks. BookRenter offers you no-questions asked book return program plus free shipping. The range of categories cover almost all subjects that are taught in colleges (don’t forget to click the little ‘More’ links). BookRenter gives you different rental rates depending on the borrowing periods. You can also buy used books from the BookRenter Basement. What’s more you can take notes (use highlighters for instance) on the books you borrow from BookRenter. You can return in-store at any of the affiliated locations or ship your return with a pre-paid shipping label. (Read Directory mention)

Chegg

Chegg is very similar to the previous book rental website when it comes to book return guarantees, shipping speed, and even social service. Chegg is a selling point for your own books as well as textbook rentals at low prices. The differentiator is that Chegg offers course reviews and grade distributions as well as homework help for a course you select. Along with first hand reviews of a course, you also get a detailed schedule of the books you need for it. Comparing the list price and the rental, Chegg offers significant savings…some go up to 90%. (Read Directory mention)

Textbooks.com

This too is a similar site with a very similar service. Textbooks.com shows that when it comes to cheap textbooks for purchase or rent, no site is too many as it almost mirrors the service offerings of the above two sites. The book rental site has a referral program that lets you earn $5 for each friend you refer to the site for a book rental or purchase. The site offers free shipping on orders above $25.

eCampus

You can sell and ship your used textbooks for free via the buyback program.  Most of it goes back into the textbook rental program on eCampus. You can also choose to buy a book at a low-cost (with savings upto 90%). Some books also have digital copies (eTextbooks) which again come in two versions – online version and an offline viewing version. When it comes to returning your rented textbooks, shipping is free for all orders over $59 and rental return shipping is always free.

Campus Books

This book rental site comes with its own smartphone apps. Campus Books also offers in-store pickup of books along with a very handy local search feature. The iPhone and Android apps use GPS to locate one near you, and you can the site search to get to libraries or retails shops for the book you want. Campus Books also searches a catalog of 8 million books for the best deals available. If you want to rent textbooks, use the rental comparison engine which compares results from ten book rental companies at once.

BookByte

BookByte is a simpler textbook buying and selling service. The Guaranteed Buyback service is appealing because at the end of the term you are not obliged to return the book. You can sell your book back to BookByte for a lower purchase price and a 10% rebate when you return the textbook. Also, if your Guaranteed Buyback order totals over $49.00 then your shipping is free.

Big Words

Bigwords.com is a comparative search engine that compares books across bookstores and brings you the lowest one on new and used textbooks. You can also use it to search for student loans, DVDs, music, and games.

Direct Textbook

Using Direct textbook to hunt for a new or used textbook is a three step process. Simply search for a book, browse through the search results, and then visit any of the 200 stores that the site taps to buy or rent your textbook. The textbook search engine sources online book retail sites like Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and some of the others we cover here. If you are planning to sell your used textbook, the site lets you check the best buyback price at 25+ stores.

 Student Book Trades

The unique feature of the college textbook book site is definitely the monthly free giveaway. Above that, the site is based on trade…you can list your textbooks here (the ones you have and a wishlist of the ones you want) and use it to trade and exchange textbooks with others. Check out the long list of participating colleges on the site.

Textbook Recycling

The name of the website gives away the reason why I included it here on the list. You can buy, rent, and sell college textbooks here. When you sell books to this website, they will donate 1/2 % above what they offer you to one of the charitable organizations they support.  Donated books help support global literacy partners through their Books Overseas^TM program.

These textbook websites are just tip of the knowledge iceberg. Check out two previous posts too which give a few more options for cheap college textbooks:

The Top 5 Sites To Find Your College Textbooks
3 Websites To Purchase Electronic College Textbooks

Where are you heading? Let us know which book rental website is your favorite just for the user experience.