Self-paced online that uses physical textbooks?

[pluggingalong]

I was curious, if you have more success studying from physical books instead of "ebooks", is there a self-paced online school that uses those?  Granted physical books can be amazingly expensive.

[rachel83az]

It depends on what you consider to be self-paced. IIRC, Davar and Coopersmith both have recommended physical textbooks. Straighterline gives you the ebook, but nothing's stopping a person from purchasing the physical version. Between those three and maybe some Sophia, one could get at least most of the way through a TESU degree.

For UMPI, everything is in Strut or Brightspace (depending on when they finally switch over), but I suppose one could purchase the textbooks that are recommended for the in-person classes?

[davewill]

Textbooks are only expensive if you have to buy the latest editions. Most of the textbooks for my TESU courses were cheap. One of them was $10 from a university library who was selling their old texts. The book looked like it had never been opened since the librarian stamped the school name inside the cover.

[ss20ts]

I haven't seen a CBE program that requires physical textbooks. These programs tend to be all inclusive which is part of the appeal. At UMPI all of the reading material is on the learning platform. WGU includes all of their material as well.

I haven't purchased physical textbooks in years. Amberton required textbooks (not a CBE program) and I used all digital textbooks I purchased or rented on Amazon for the Kindle app. I'm far more likely to read a book on my phone than a physical book. I can read books on my phone anywhere. I'm not carrying a textbook everywhere I go. I do bring my phone everywhere.