Chegg.com rents textbooks

I just read a New York Times article about a company called Chegg that rents college textbooks. What a good idea!

Alan Bradford, a senior at Arizona State University, read about Chegg in a campus newspaper in 2008 and calculated that his bill for books that semester would have been $334 with Chegg, far less than the $657 he paid. Since then, he has ordered about a dozen textbooks from Chegg.

“Nobody likes paying for textbooks,” he said.

CHEGG is shorthand for “chicken and egg,” a reference to what Mr. Rashid called students’ quandary after graduation: they need experience to get a job, but can’t get experience without having a job.

As a test case, I looked up the price for the text that is being used for Microcomputer Applications this summer. Microsoft System 2003 selts for $100 new, and a used copy of the book costs $81 at the college bookstore. It is available for $25 on Half.com or Amazon, but costs only $9.99 to rent. I’m not sure what shipping costs. If anyone tries Chegg, write a comment below to tell us what it was like and whether you are happy with the service.

Concerns Cloud

In cloud form, this is what the class of 2012 was concerned about during orientation last August.

These are the words first-year students used to express their concerns last August

Hopes Cloud

These are the words incoming students used to describe their hopes for their first year of college

Last August during orientation here on the Rindge campus, we asked incoming students to tell us what their hopes were for the coming school year. At a meeting today someone said they’d like to see it as a word cloud. Why didn’t I think of that?

“Academic Culture Shock”: Adjusting to College Life

In my work at the Academic Services Center, I work a lot with first-year students, many of them the first person in their family to attend college. There are certain aspects of being a first-generation college-goer that can be both wonderful and stressful, including the emotional investment a student’s family might have in their success, the feeling that one is rebelling against expectations, heightened awareness or pressure about the financial costs of school.
I came across a website today, First in the Family, that discusses some of the challenges and rewards of being a first-generation college-goer. Here’s one of the slideshows, “Academic Culture Shock,” from the site. I think it might be informative for any new student.
http://www.firstinthefamily.org/collegeyears/soundslides/AcademicCultureShock/index.html

Writing Drop-in Help: Summer Hours

Need help with a writing assignment in your summer courses? The Academic Services Center offers individual assistance with essays and other writing projects. Contact us at 899-4107 to make an appointment, or come to drop-in hours 3-4:30 pm Monday through Thursday. Contact Tracy Mendham at 899-1168 or mendhamt@franklinpierce.edu for more information.

Take the Facebook Quiz

I’ve created a quiz on Facebook, “Which ASC staff member are you?”  Come on by and figure out your true Academic Services Center identity.
Tracy Mendham's Profile | Create Your Badge


Choosing and registering for summer courses at the Rindge campus

The College at Rindge will be closed on Monday, May 25th in observance of Memorial Day.

If you are a Franklin Pierce student concerned about course choices for summer session, take a look on eRaven/Campus Web to see what classes are available: https://campusweb.franklinpierce.edu. For College Writing on the Rindge campus  look at the “2009RSUMMER” term.  For other Rindge courses, including online courses offered through the Rindge campus, look at “08-09RSummerI” or “08-09RSummerII.”  You can contact the Registrar’s office–registrar@franklinpierce.edu–from your campus email to register for course, or call.

Grades are up

Drumroll, please… Grades for the Spring 2009 semester have been posted on CampusWeb. Rindge students, grades are not mailed to you–you can check them and print them out online.

Stanford profs using Facebook to extend office hours

BJ Fogg responds to commenter's questions about the dark side of social media.

The Wired Campus blog had a post about some Stanford University professors using Facebook to hold “open office hours.”  I know instructors at Franklin Pierce in Rindge (and practically every other college) lament the fact that students don’t attend office hours even when it would really be to their benefit.  I’m not saying everyone in higher ed can or should use Facebook the way Stanford does, but I do applaud their learner-centered approach.  I think that rather than asking, “What’s wrong with students–why don’t they use office hours?” they asked something like, “What do students use now and how can we bring office hours closer to their comfort zone?”

Stanford University bills its new Open Office Hours experiment as a public version of the old weekly tradition. Only in this forum you don’t need perfect SAT’s and a 4.0 GPA for the privilege of interacting with the California university’s professors.

It’s free. It’s open to anyone on Facebook. And it’s sort of like video blogging. Faculty members share their thoughts in introductory clips. They respond to questions in follow-up videos.

Last exam begins at 1 pm today!

Free at Three

By three o’clock today (Tuesday, May 12) the last exam will be complete and all school work is finished for students on the Rindge campus.

Congrats on a job well done (or at least, on living through the semester)!