As registration time gets closer, many students are facing the same questions: Is Course Ready worth it?
Some students had difficulty getting ahold of their books at the beginning of the semester. Some didn’t get them until well into the semester. One unlucky class, Diction for Singers, had to go three weeks without their textbooks. That wasn’t just one student; an entire class of about 13 students didn’t get their books on time.
My experience with Course Ready was a bit odd, to say the least. For starters, I didn’t know you could opt out of it. When I went into myDrake to look at my first billing statement, I noticed the additional charge for Course Ready. I assumed it was a mandatory thing, but after talking with a few upperclassmen, I learned that this is not the case. This has left many students, especially first-years, thinking about opting out.
However, Course Ready does make getting textbooks cheaper and “easier” than alternative methods. Instead of having to look at alternative websites, like Amazon, for your books you are able to arrive for your semester and your books have already been ordered. It is also easier on students because we don’t have to look for our books, our professors assign the books and we just go and pick them up. This also makes receiving our books a lot cheaper since we don’t have to hunt down specific copies of books, order them, pay for shipping, and wait for them like we normally would.
Speaking of alternative methods to getting textbooks, most first-years who are contemplating opting out of Course Ready may find it hard to find a different way to get their books. For us first-years, Course Ready is the only way we know how to get our books every semester. Another issue I’ve noticed with Course Ready is it is on a semester basis instead of an annual one. Some students may have to give their books back in December only to get them again in the spring because they are taking a class that lasts the whole year instead of just a semester.
At the start of the semester, I was a bit confused when I was supposed to collect my materials. I went three days in a row at various different times, and it wasn’t until day three that I finally got my books. The actual time slot each day where they would be giving out our textbooks was not communicated clearly.
In addition to this, I noticed other people ahead of me in line had received emails about their supplies being ready only to show up and get nothing. I still wonder when those students actually got their stuff. However, getting my supplies wasn’t the only issue I had with Course Ready.
This semester I only had two books for my classes, one for my First-Year Seminar and one for my education class. There was nothing wrong with my FYS textbook, but my education book had a problem. A week or two ago, my professor asked us to flip to a specific page where there was a quote he liked. We couldn’t find the quote because the book we all were given was the wrong edition. After we brought it to our Professor’s attention he quickly realized that Course Ready didn’t have the newer edition of the book and instead filled in with an older version. We were able to find a solution, but it could have become a problem had we not caught it. This did cause further problems when we were assigned a group project and the section my group was meant to present on was just not in the book. Our professor explained that it was added in the newer addition we were all meant to have and that he would email us photo copies of the section instead.
Overall, my experience with Course Ready has been a bit rocky, but it’s by far the easiest way to get my books so I will be renewing in the spring. While there may be some issues, Course Ready is still a cheaper and more efficient way of getting books than if I had to go and find them all myself. Yes, a lot of people’s materials were delayed, but that could happen with anything, even if we just ordered them ourselves. The benefits of Course Ready far outweigh the small issues some have faced, and all in all it is a very reliable resource that I will continue to use throughout my time at Drake.
