I. Textbooks are still a necessity for almost any student. Whether you are in college or any other learning environment, some type of book is most likely required. According to Nytimes.com, the costs of textbooks have nearly tripled since 1980’s, making textbook prices at an all time high. Therefore, most college students are spending an increasing portion of their college budget on overpriced textbooks required for their courses.  Inflation of these books has been an ongoing issue for cost conscious students and their academic success.
As a student, time and money are precious resources that should be used with care.The key to finding an affordable textbook is to know where to look. It is our goal to help students find a textbook quickly and cheaply. We will provide a simplistic way to buy, sell, or rent textbooks, lab manuals and workbooks for all students. This website will give students the opportunity to save big on the reading materials needed for their education.
II. The sources that were gathered are based on affordable ways to obtain a college textbook(s). According to Tyler Alicea, Congress could help students financially by passing the Affordable College Textbook Act. This would aid in students sharing textbooks and materials. Another article written by Daizchane Baker gives college students tips and ways to spend the least amount of money on books. In this article, the key to spending less money is to shop online and in local book stores.
Other reliable sources that we have found are websites in which one can buy, sell or rent textbook(s). One website called Makeuseof.com features two articles about top sites to find college textbooks. It lists the three top websites to buy, sell or rent, new and used affordable textbooks. The top sites are Half.com, Amazon.com and Chegg.com. The website describes each individual site on their features and how affordable they are. The search engines such as Directtextbook.com, and Affordabook.com help compare textbook prices based on their affordability. Other popular websites that we found to rent textbooks are Bookrenter.com, and Bookbyte.com.
III. According to College Board, the annual cost of textbooks has reached the statistically estimated margin of approximately twelve-hundred dollars this previous academic year of 2012-13. In Carl Straumsheim’s article an example of investments successful in lowering student spending on course material can be made of pilot studies done at Lynn University and West Governors University. The two universities adapted a digital approach in their trials by making large investments into digital readers and partnerships with corporations that offered the digital read itself. This method is highly dependent on the funding of the institution itself and the attitude of its student body to technological hardware. According to Alicea, there is also a bill being pushed in order to further make textbooks more affordable.
IV. We propose to create an information resource website that has value to all college students. Our site will help students save as much money as possible when they have to buy a college textbook(s). The site will include a home, proposal, about the project, buy/sell/rent, our tips, share your tips, documentation and works cited page.
The “home” page will welcome students and briefly explaining the purpose of the site. The “proposal” page will introduce the topic of the project, a summary of the sources used, a discussion of the way our research has guided the proposal and a description of the actual information resource site. The “about the project” is a page that will have a drop down menu that contains the proposal, documentation and works cited page. The “buy/sell/rent” page will have a brief description of the page and will include a list of five to ten links that each student in the group has researched. These links will be to websites that allow both the buying, selling and renting of college textbooks. Each link will also have a one to two sentence description of the website.
The “our tips” page will consist of a list of bullet point providing different ways to acquire textbooks. The “share your tips” page is where students from any college can contribute their low cost methods and solutions to finding affordable college textbooks. The students can contribute by commenting and discussing their struggles and successes from the websites in this section. The “documentation” page will have a breakdown of our process over the three week timeline for this project. The break down will consist of an outline on our thought process throughout the project. It will consist of a weekly documentation on how the research, design and presentation were completed. The “works cited” page will include all sources pertaining to affordable textbooks. It will be in MLA style correctly formatted.
Our goal is to help students find a textbook quickly while simultaneously saving money. It will be an information resource that is simplistic and user friendly for all college students to buy, sell, or rent textbooks. This website is geared to help students save big on the reading materials needed to continue their education.
