Students can save money through Flashbooks, finding cheapest options from KentWired.com on Vimeo.

On Friday, March 1, the University Library hosted an ‘Affordable Course Materials Summit’ that showcased the progress the Flashbooks program has made in it’s pilot year. 

Flashbooks is an initiative that was created last year in hopes to provide less expensive court materials for courses. 

Associate Provost of Academic Affairs, Mandy Monro-Stasiuk, helped create Flashbooks. She said there has been a mixed reaction by students on whether they like the program. 

“Incoming freshman really like the program,” Stasiuk said. “Students who have been around for a couple years don’t seem to like the program as much. 

Psychology/ pre-med freshman, Sydnee Shankel, said a method that saves her money on books is waiting until her professors say the book is mandatory. “I don’t even use the books,” Shankel said. “I’ve done fine without them and I save hundreds of dollars.”

“When I’m buying textbooks for my classes, I always check online,” said biology/ pre-med sophomore Samantha Yoder, “but a lot of the time, I find I can only get them through Kent.” 

Yoder said she found off-campus bookstores to be cheaper than the University bookstore and also looks through Facebook to find people selling used textbooks. 

Flashbooks would be more expensive than renting used textbook options, but Dr. Stasiuk says Flashbooks have the online access code and students and start using the textbook the first day of class. 

“[Flashbooks] doesn’t work for every single course but I think it works for many courses,” Stasiuk said.  

Stasiuk said success rates have increased in those courses that use Flashbooks.