By Abigail Bender

Every semester, University of Maryland students are met with a list of required online materials for their classes. However, many students said they question whether these digital resources are worth the steep costs.

Lexi Herskowitz, a sophomore psychology major, said many of her classes required her to purchase online textbooks, but she does not see a benefit to using these resources unless the class uses the book consistently.

“My first semester, my freshman year, I bought one [textbook]” Herskowitz said. “And I realized that I never used it compared to the physical textbooks, and also a lot of professors don’t really use their books as much as they say they do, so I find it a little bit of a waste of money.”

Students spend an average of  $1,250 on textbooks and supplies per year, according to Open Educational Resources at UMD. The cost of these books and supplies is billed directly to the UMD Student Account.

Leora Vogel, a sophomore letters and sciences major, said she tries to find required online course materials on cheaper, alternative websites.

“I think there’s so many more resources that are free or cheaper to use than the textbook,” Vogel said.

Vogel said she cannot justify buying the online textbooks due to the high cost.

“I think they cost a lot, and, like, if they were free, I do think I would use them more,” Vogel said.

Halle Kraus, a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major, said many of her professors do not mention or reference the online resources in class.

“I think by this point, if they want us to use these platforms, then they should have them there for free,” Kraus said. “And also having an entire textbook is hard to pick out the information you want, so I think if they could maybe put it in their own platform and make it shorter.”

In addition to required online textbooks, Kraus said some of her science courses, such as Principles of Ecology and Evolution, have required her to purchase online homework platforms.

One of these platforms is SimBio, which creates virtual labs and has interactive chapters, according to UMD’s Nutrition and Food Science website

“It was a completely different platform that we had to pay for that was homework and it was graded,” Kraus said. “So basically, we were required to buy this additional platform, which we weren’t told before we took the class.”

Kraus said the online platform for her biology class offered some course review, but it was mostly a paid platform where her homework assignments were graded.

Students do have the option to borrow textbooks for four hours at a time at the McKeldin Library Services Desk. Additionally, the Teaching & Learning Transformation Center offers free online materials on Creative Commons that are published under an open license.

Despite lower-cost alternatives, Kraus does not feel the cost of online resources is justified and avoids using them.

“I didn’t think it was worth it,” Kraus said. “I think everything it talked about was what we learned in class.”

Featured Image: Shelves of textbooks at the University Book Center in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, on Oct. 20, 2026. Photo by Paige Trendell.