A Digital MBA

The majority of my course readings for my MBA classes are case studies or articles published by  Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Stanford, or Darden.  Traditionally, Fisher professors create course packets for their courses which students purchase in hard copy from the university printer UniPrint here on Ohio State's campus.  We are charged a copyright fee for each article or case, as well as a sizable printing fee when we purchase from UniPrint.

In the interest of creating my own digital library of what I read, I've started purchasing electronic versions of my course reading.  The benefit of digital that appeals to me most is that, post MBA, I will have my course material on my laptop, easily accessible and searchable without any special software.

The customer experience I want, as an MBA, with course material is the following:

• Easily order and purchase case or article on a website at student rate
• Instantly download to my computer
• Be able to highlight and comment the pdf using my pdf reader software (Preview)
• If required, print document out, as some professors do not prefer student laptops in class
• Keep on my hard drive forever and my desktop search engine can access and index the document contents

It has not been a pleasant experience going digital, and I am not near this desired customer experience.

Buying from Harvard Publishing has been close - I can acquire an unlocked pdf, which I am allowed to comment on and print, and my Mac OS X search software Spotlight can access the document contents.  Some imperfections, though, as the Harvard website does not allow a la carte purchasing at a student rate - a professor must register the course with Harvard, select the material, and require all items be purchased.   This "all or none" is a bummer, since an article or two sometimes overlaps with other courses and I pay twice.   Academic rate purchase must also be setup by the professor for the class, so I am dependent on his or her's whim.  I often end up paying the full rate for cases because of this.

Buying from Darden Publishing is a nightmare.  No academic rate, you get a locked pdf which Spotlight can't access, you have to use Adobe Reader, no comments or highlighting can be done, and you have to be connected on the internet in order to unlock the document every time you want to read it!  Much to improve, here.