Representatives from Cengage, a digital education company, visited Kennesaw State Thursday, March 1, to promote its new textbook subscription service called Cengage Unlimited.
The service allows students to access the company’s wide range of educational materials, including more than 22,000 e-books and resources, for a payment of nearly $120 per semester.
“With Cengage Unlimited, students finally have an alternative to the traditional and costly approach of paying for each course’s materials individually,” said Cengage CEO Michael Hansen. “We are taking unprecedented action to break down cost barriers and end the cycle of students having to choose between course materials they can afford and the results they want.”
The informational meeting was held in the Kennesaw campus student center for faculty to learn about the new program and its benefits to students.
Key account manager Michael Schmitz said Cengage created this program as a first-of-its-kind digital subscription service for textbooks, similar to a Netflix subscription.
“Kennesaw State has already shown a lot of interest in Cengage Unlimited, so they got chosen as one of the schools where we are holding this learning event so we can introduce it to people,” Schmitz said.
Cengage wants to partner with campus bookstores to make the service more accessible to students. KSU bookstore faculty were present at the event to learn more about the program.
“Students would actually be able to go to the bookstore and use their financial aid to get the subscription,” Schmitz said.
According to research from Cengage’s website, the average college student spends more than $500 on course materials per year, and 45 percent of students choose not to register for a course due to cost. Additionally, 20 percent of students failed a course because they could not afford course materials in 2016.
The service offers the option to rent a printed copy of a book per semester for $7.99 shipping to supplement the online version.
After a student’s subscription ends, Cengage Unlimited allows them to maintain access to no more than six-course materials for a year at no extra cost.
The new program will launch in August, making the program available to students for the 2018-19 academic year.
