Reading could be one click away for EC students as the campus is considering the allowance of online textbooks for classes.

While some instructors and professors already use the Web as a way to connect with their students, it is quickly becoming a popular device to enhance student learning.

“It is too bad everything can’t be online,” Maria Brown, history professor, said.

By using the Web as a tool for learning, students who cannot afford books can easily access materials through a teacher’s Web site.

Online books also cut down on the expense of books for classes.

“It is convenient because you do not have to make copies and distribute those copies,” Brown said.

By providing materials such as books, essays, or any other teaching aids, it creates another way to disseminate information to the students.

“I value the Internet because I think it can be effectively used as a teaching and a learning tool,” Elizabeth Shadish, philosophy professor, said.

Shadish has been cultivating online materials since 1994. She started off with easy materials like the syllabus before eventually adding materials like PowerPoint presentations to her Web site.

She said that besides helping students with their learning, online resources can also be a professional tool for teachers.

“I started wanting to teach an on-line class, then went a semester developing an online class, and it seemed like it would be fun,” Shadish said.

Using online materials could also allow students to use more resources as it is harder to find older materials from books and articles, Brown added.

These materials would be readily available online. Brown stressed, though, that books are a very important tool for learning.

“I would never say forgo the library, it’s full of information” Brown said.

While online materials would be very easy to use, some teachers fear that certain problems would arise.

By putting all of their teaching materials online, some fear that students will stop attending classes because they might believe that there is no need to come to class.

“On a widespread basis, if it is a risk students want to take, they can,” Shadish said.

Harold Tyler, director of student services, said that books and the use of online materials should work hand in hand.

Although online material may be accessible, he said it doesn’t beat the feel of an actual book that a student is able to highlight and to mark up.

He is also concerned that if instructors provide all of their class materials online, this means that every student must have a computer or at least access to one to get that material.

He also noted that Web sites can breakdown.

“Everything is fine until the system goes down,” Tyler said.