MARYVILLE, Mo. - Representatives from a leading textbook publisher visited Northwest Missouri State University this week, where a pilot program involving electronic books is under way.

Known as an ebook, the electronic version of traditional textbooks will cost less and offer perks to students, such as note-sharing and electronic study group capabilities. Northwest is on a path to eliminate traditional textbooks in three years and go to the electronic form, which will be downloaded onto students' laptop computers.

Four representatives from McGraw-Hill visited with faculty from several departments Wednesday and Thursday to get updates on what teachers are wanting from publishers and how their current ebooks are doing in the classroom.

Jeff Ho, a product category manager at McGraw-Hill, said only 40 percent to 50 percent of college students actually purchase books for their classes. Cost is considered to be a major contributor to that trend. However, Northwest students pay a fee per credit hour to rent their textbooks, which are handed out at the beginning of each semester. About 500 of those students are now getting a portion of their books in the ebook format.

The pilot program began last fall when a group of students and professors were given a portable device called an e-reader, where the textbooks were downloaded. Paul Klute, executive assistant to Dr. Dean Hubbard, president of Northwest, is heading-up the pilot program and is the liaison between the university and publishers.

"They were good attention getters," Mr. Klute said of the e-readers, "not attention keepers."

The laptop is now the primary format. The books are viewed on a program called Vital Source. The program is similar to iTunes, which helps users manage their music. Vital Source can be used in the same way, with a search function that allows users to quickly find the information they're looking for across all the books they've downloaded. This is a key feature, considering that most students refer to Internet search engines to answer questions before asking a professor or referring to an actual text.

Ebook users are able to highlight passages, make notes, stream videos, increase font sizes, produce study materials and print flash cards and various other study guides through the program.

Meeting with a group of philosophy professors Thursday afternoon, the publishing representatives learned that students and teachers would prefer to have online access to the books they use, as well as the downloaded versions, on the university laptops.

Surveys show that more than 75 percent of students using ebooks are satisfied with the product. Only 8 percent reported having to call for technical support.

Less than 10 percent of McGraw-Hill customers use ebooks, but representatives say that is changing quickly. Private colleges tend to be more "voracious" users of ebooks, said Mr. Ho. And though Northwest is unique in its approach to the ebook concept, public schools such as the University of California-San Diego and Florida State University have joined the trend.

Regardless of format and the bells and whistles attached to ebooks, Mr. Klute observed that the student who refuses to read his or her text in paper form is unlikely to read it in an electronic form.

Jimmy Myers can be reached

at jimmym@npgco.com.