Item: CourseSmart
Rating: 8.6
Author: Jonathan Kerns

CourseSmart Review 2020

Important Note: CourseSmart has been acquired by Vital Source, a platform which is fully owned by the distributor Ingram Content Group. While a majority of books had been migrated over to the new website, you may not find some of the offerings in Vital Source.

Ever since mobile devices experienced a great leap in both functionality and popularity several years ago, numerous schools and companies have begun taking advantage of their incredible potential to make students' and even educators' lives a whole lot easier. One of the best services out there that does exactly this is CourseSmart, a company that allows you to rent out low cost eTextbooks that you can view using your personal computer or a variety of mobile devices, whether online or offline. Founded in 2007, this company has grown from a simple service that aimed to provide instructors in college and higher education a better textbook evaluation service into one of the best online textbook rental services in the industry. With a fantastic title availability, multi-OS compatibility, and even the ability to freely write notes and highlight passages, CourseSmart certainly has all the markings of a service to beat. But is their service, which relies heavily on eTextbooks alone, perfect for your needs? Keep on reading to find out now!

Great Returns Policy

If you thought that just because CourseSmart’s offerings are completely digital that you won’t be able to return them as you would any physical textbook rental, then you might want to rethink that. This company offers a pretty hassle-free returns policy that, while not as generous as returns on most physical book rentals, are perfectly reasonable given the nature of the medium. CourseSmart allows you to return your eTextbook and request an immediate refund within seven days of your initial purchase – provided, of course, that you meet their requirements. This means that in order to be eligible for a refund, you must have viewed and/or printed a total of less than twenty percent of your eTextbook, have not used the included access code to any online resource, and it must be “checked in.”

Ease of Use & Features

Even though this online textbook rental is a bit unique compared to most services out there, using CourseSmart’s website and searching for textbooks is similar to most websites in the industry. You can, for instance, search for textbooks immediately using their search bar, which accepts search parameters like ISBN, book title, author, or any keywords. The advanced search option, meanwhile, allows you to key in multiple ISBNs for quicker and more convenient searching. As for narrowing down search results, filtering and sorting options make it even easier to comb through hundreds, if not thousands, of books. You can, for example, filter by discipline (which is another term for subcategory) or you can sort by relevancy, title, author, copyright year, or edition.

Meanwhile, one of the great things about CourseSmart’s offerings is that they have over 90% of the core education titles in use today – a small nugget of information that most students will definitely appreciate. You can find books under subjects like Allied Health & Medical, Biological Sciences & Nutrition, Biology, Business & Economics, Education, English & College Success, Finance, General Interests & Hobbies, Humanities, and many more.

Finally, CourseSmart is compatible with most browsers, but offline reading requires Safari 5.1 and above, Chrome and Firefox v.19-26 on laptops and desktops. You can also view their eTextbooks using the free apps for iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets, as well as Windows 8.1 tablets. Some of the features allow you to search topics quickly within the book, write notes and highlight items, copy and paste passages, print any page, and many more.

Customer Support

CourseSmart offers a nearly complete suite of support channels so it is quite easy to reach them should you encounter any issues with their service. You can call them, send them an email, or initiate a live chat session with one of their support representatives. And in case you might want to take an in-depth look at other aspects of their service yourself, they also provide a pretty comprehensive Help section that details everything from browser requirements to returns and refunds.

What's the Verdict on CourseSmart?

Worth It, Some Issues