Digital vs Physical Textbooks at ASU: What Students Prefer

The Format Question Is Actually Important

Most textbook articles tell you to just go digital because it's cheaper. That's not always right. The format that works best depends on how you study, what the course requires, and whether you'll need the book after the semester ends.

Here's an honest take from the ASU student experience.

What ASU Students Actually Prefer

Informal surveys and Reddit threads from ASU students consistently show a split preference: physical textbooks for STEM and lab-heavy courses, digital for reading-heavy humanities and social science courses.

The reasons make sense:

STEM courses involve working problems, flipping between chapters, writing in margins, and using the textbook during labs. Physical is faster for nonlinear navigation.
Reading-heavy courses where you're going chapter by chapter — history, literature, political science — work fine digitally. You're scrolling forward, not jumping around.

The Case for Physical Textbooks

You can annotate freely. Highlighting a digital book in VitalSource or Chegg eReader is clunky and the notes often disappear when your access expires. Physically marking a book is fast and permanent.

You can resell it. A used physical copy you bought for $40 might sell for $30 on ASU List. A digital rental expires and is worth nothing. A digital purchase is often non-transferable.

No internet required. In Hayden Library, the Brickyard, or during finals at 2am when the campus WiFi slows down, a physical book doesn't care.

It's yours to keep. If the book is something you'll actually reference after the course — pharmacology, circuits, organic chemistry — owning the physical copy has ongoing value.

The Case for Digital Textbooks

Cost: Digital editions are usually 30–50% cheaper than new physical copies. Against a new physical book, digital wins on price. Against a used physical copy you can resell, digital often loses.

Instant access: The day a semester starts, you have immediate access. No waiting for shipping or scheduling a meetup to buy from another student.

Search functionality: For courses where you need to find a specific term or concept quickly, full-text search in a digital book is faster than an index. This is actually useful for research and paper-writing.

Weight: If you're commuting to campus or biking to class, not carrying a 900-page anatomy textbook matters.

The Access Code Trap

Many courses require a publisher's online homework platform — MyLab, Connect, Achieve, MindTap — and the access code is often bundled with a digital textbook. In these cases, you're buying digital by default.

Check if the access code comes with a digital textbook. It usually does. In that case, don't also buy a physical textbook — the digital version that comes with your code is enough for course purposes. If you want physical to study from, find a cheap used copy separately and treat it as a study tool.

When Digital Is Clearly the Right Answer

You're an ASU Online student with no practical access to physical book swaps
The digital textbook is available through ASU Library at no cost
The course is one semester, reading-heavy, and you'll never reference it again
You're mid-semester and need access immediately

When Physical Is Clearly Better

You need to annotate heavily and want to keep your notes
The book is a core reference for your major
You found a cheap used copy you can resell at the end of the semester
The course involves lab work, problem sets, or non-linear textbook navigation

ASU Study Spaces and Format

The format you choose should match where you study. The Brickyard's open spaces and Coor Hall's study rooms both have good WiFi — digital works fine. The Engineering tutoring center in ISTB and STEM study spaces tend to be full of students with physical books open. Match your format to your environment and your studying style, not just the price tag.