Signing up for a class online is a great way to check out a new career interest without giving up any other schedule commitments. However, it’s not always the most financially savvy way to figure out how much you’re interested in a new career.
One entrepreneur, boggled by the high costs of textbooks, has built a web site where curious students can take a look at potential course topics by perusing free textbooks online at TextbookRevolution.org. Meant to ease the financial burden of textbooks for enrolled students, it can also serve to assist a prospective online student in getting a feel for the material before investing the bucks.
Here’s what U.S. News reports:
The net result for students is that their book bill now averages about $900 a year and can be even more costly for those enrolled in courses like sciences or art history, which use required reading that is particularly expensive to produce. “Lots of material gets added because the publishers want to serve as many people as possible,” says Angelica Stacy, a chemistry professor at the University of California-Berkeley. What’s more, she says, “You end up with huge books that you can’t get through in a course.”

Other avenues for a quick perusal of what you may be in for? Try used books at Half.com, Ebay.com or Amazon.com.