Online Learning: Textbooks Still Required

Posted by Jen Zeman on February 25th, 2009

All of my courses at UMUC required the purchase of at least one textbook, but most were two to three books. I purchased textbooks online through UMUC’s bookstore and the books were shipped to my house. The books were shipped quickly and I was never late in receiving any of them. Most times I was able to purchase used books, which, of course, saved me a ton of money. In addition to the required textbooks, all of the classes also had additional readings each week that were posted online within each classroom. These additional readings were usually articles related to the course topic and weren’t too significant a burden.

Since my degree was in Legal Studies, UMUC also offered access to Lexis (a legal database) free of charge for Legal Studies students. Lexis is an online database that houses all of the relevant materials that a well-maintained legal library would contain. Having access to Lexis online was a huge timesaver since students then didn’t have to locate and then physically go to a law library for the required legal research in each class. We also received access to WestLaw (free of charge), another legal database. Both Lexis and WestLaw are used in most large (and perhaps medium-sized) law offices; so not only were the databases a time-saver, the instructors also offered the opportunity to learn the intricacies of each database, which provided students relevant experience to carry over into their new careers.

Tags: books

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Online Materials, Student Voices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.