To those of you that attend schools that give the choice between electronic books or hard textbooks, what are the pros and cons of each and which did you choose. Are you happy with the decision? Can you get the textbooks and copy a friend's DVD?
Well, for PBL handouts we read a bit of it, then we got lazy and just used the internet (read: wikipedia). But for pathology, we did skim through it which isn't bad. However, when you have to study anatomy on the computer (our slides were horrible and un-readable), it is much easier, imo, to use a textbook due to the amount of illustrations you have to flip back and forth to.
Well if you're using internet searches and wikipeia to do your PBL handouts, I would think that at least searching and reading textbooks on VitalSource would be more credible.
I wonder why!At first, I was reading the assigned readings like a good boy ~ but after a few weeks, I stopped and ... sure, my grades dropped...
I wonder why!
It wouldn't have to do with watching "Death Note" series all the time.
At BU dental, I'd recommend real textbooks because you can sell them back to the bookstore (and this is the only deciding factor... none of the 'I study better with books bs').
At Buffalo we don't have a choice - only Vital Source. Here are my opinions:
Pros:
~Searching and referencing all your textbooks at once. Sometimes you're surprised at which textbooks give you the info you need, and you may not have thought of looking at the hard copies of those books
~Carrying your computer to the library and having 50 textbooks at your disposal (saves your back and you don't forget anything)
~You can turn the books to a "browser view" (up and down instead of left to right), so it's sort of like reading an article on the internet, as well as highlight, pull out sections and they are already cited for you, search by page numbers (good when profs reference specific pages or tables in their powerpoints)
~Not as bad as it sounds to read the textbooks on your laptop, though I know there are varying opinions on this (there were maybe 1-2 classes per semester that I actually read the reading, since I got more out of the text in those courses than in the powerpoints...all the others were just supplementary information or looking at diagrams or anatomy atlases)
Cons:
~We have to renew the VERY expensive licence every year for all 4 years of books. So as a freshman you're paying for senior books and vice versa. Also, you cannot renew the license after you graduate so you're stuck with whatever edition was the most advanced when you leave dental school
~Some people don't like reading off the computer, though the few times I actually read a whole chapter it didn't take long and I was okay
~For courses like anatomy, it may be helpful to have an atlas or hard copy to flip through. A lot of my classmates bought maybe a total of 3 real books if they got sick of the laptop
Like my buddy dreaming, I used the DVD option for my 1st year, then switched to books in my 2nd year.Cold Front, do you use the Vitalbooks or the text?
Man, you really know how to compliment!No, instead of studying, I kept praying for the python swing phenomenon to happen.