I may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site at no extra cost to you. By using the links, you are helping support College EDC, and I genuinely appreciate your support.
RedShelf Review: Is it Good for College Students?
The popularity of digital textbooks has risen tremendously over the last few years thanks to their affordability, accessibility, and interactive features. At the forefront of the digital book and textbook industry is RedShelf, which is one of the fastest-growing EdTech companies in the country.
They’ve developed software and partnered with thousands of publishers to deliver super convenient digital content to all readers. They’ve also partnered with hundreds of colleges to make it easier and more affordable for students and faculty to gain access to digital course materials.
RedShelf Software and Online Tools
One of the main reasons RedShelf has become so popular with publishers, colleges, and businesses is because of all the tools they offer that make it very easy for content creators to convert their books and other materials to digital.
Over 10,000 publishers and content creators now use RedShelf because of their super convenient distribution software. At the core of RedShelf’s software is their Content Delivery System (CDS) and eReader. RedShelf’s CDS serves as one main platform for all partners to manage their textbooks and other digital material.
With the CDS, publishers can easily digitize learning content and distribute it to thousands of colleges and businesses. The CDS will also seamlessly integrate all the learning content and course materials into any learning management system that a college or business uses.
RedShelf’s eReader is a streaming platform for all of their digital content and packed full of awesome features for college students. If you’re reading a eBook for one of your classes on the eReader, you’ll be able to highlight the text and take notes that can be used to create a study guide for you.
You can also create flashcards to study and collaborate with other users to share notes or subscribe to them. You can even turn on the text-to-speech voice feature so it can read aloud. Additionally, all partners will have access to the RedShelf Partner Dashboard.
Publishers can use it to maximize sales, upload new content to distribute, monitor analytics and nationwide pricing, view processing reports, and much more. Colleges and businesses can use the dashboard to monitor the usage of all materials, edit their catalog, easily grant access to students or trainees, monitor learner compliance, and more.
How Does it Work?
When you’re on the RedShelf homepage, you can click on the search bar and type in the ISBN number of a book, the exact title, or a keyword. You can also browse through all the categories they have.
When you’ve found an eBook you want, just click on it, and the product page will come up on your screen with a description of the book, the rental period options, its eBook features, and if it has accessibility options.
When you add the eBook to your cart and click proceed to check out, RedShelf will ask you to create an account. All you have to do is put in your email and a password. From there, you can add in your billing and payment information.
After that, you’ll have instant access to your ebook and it will get stored on RedShelf’s cloud along with any other eBooks you purchase. You’ll be able to use the eReader for all your books, as well.
Once your rental period is over, the eBook will be automatically removed from your online shelf. If you’re not satisfied with your eBook, you can request a refund that will be processed within 24 hours. You can expects your funds back within 5-7 business days.
RedShelf Products
On the RedShelf Website, you’ll be able to discover over a million different eBooks and study aids that are sorted into dozens of different categories. Some of the eBook categories college students might be interested in are business and economics, computers and technology, law, and science and math.
They have many other intriguing categories, as well — romance, sports and outdoors, travel, crafts, children’s books, and more. Along with the eBooks, they have a large number of study aid categories that students might find very useful. They have ones for the SATs, the Bar exam, financial aid, and graduate school guides to name a few.
All of the RedShelf eBooks will be accessible through their browser-based platform. Every eBook has different rental periods. I’ve seen as low as 30 days and as high as 365 days with different options in between depending on the book. Moreover, you’ll have the option to buy lifetime access, which will cost a little bit extra.
Prices for their eBooks range anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred dolors, but the majority of their eBooks are extremely affordable compared to renting or buying a print version. Besides the eReader features, the publishers might include some bonus features with their eBooks, such as offline access, printing, and copy/paste.
Not all the eBooks have these features and the ones that do have a threshold because of copyright restrictions. For example, some of the digital textbooks you’ll check out might only allow you to print 20% of the book and only allow copy/paste features for 10% of the text. It varies for all the digital content on the site.
Is RedShelf Good for Students?
Overall, I would say RedShelf is an excellent resource for college students to use. Not only do they have a million different affordable eBooks to choose from, but they also have great customer service and technical support.
RedShelf’s goal is to enhance the learning experience for students in higher education and give them the best opportunity to find high-quality digital course materials at affordable prices. As I mentioned earlier, RedShelf is one of the fastest-growing EdTech companies in the country.
They are constantly growing and looking for better ways to provide colleges and students with the best learning materials. RedShelf has also partnered with ISACA, a global learning organization known for information security, privacy, and governance in information technology.
All of ISACA’s certificate and certification manuals are now on RedShelf for people to use. Students studying information technology and cybersecurity can use these resources to boost their knowledge about these subjects.
Besides ISACA, RedShelf has partnered with Follet, Cengage, and Nebraska Book Company — all very successful companies that provide higher education materials and work with thousands of colleges to provide an improved learning experience for college students.
