RedShelf offers accessibility features that allow you to easily navigate and read the RedShelf web interface. Provides easily accessible and affordable course materials to students around the world, accelerating the learning community's transition to digital.
Pros
Provides access with or without internet connection to read your books.
You can access the application from your mobile device, tablets, or desktop computers.
Streamlines the distribution of e-books, e-textbooks, and other digital content.
Cons
I work at Sydney University of Technology and can only say that this tool has been of great help to me and my students.
Likelihood to Recommend
RedShelf is an award for today's publishers, schools, businesses, and students. Provides them materials, digital course textbooks easily accessible in a faster and more efficient way.
RedShelf is primarily serving as a way for students to access their online textbook for a course, retrieve the access code for another online platform, and serve as a license key for other online platforms. Students access it via our learning management system (LMS), Brightspace, and a link is embedded within their individual course sites to allow them to access materials for that site. Because of this, we've been able to use RedShelf to implement a program we call "Direct Digital". This means that students don't need to go out and find/purchase the materials for the course, we actually just add them on as a fee onto the course. This allows students to easily use financial aid and other financial assistance to pay for those materials, and it ensures that all students have access to what they need to complete the course. Once the course is live, they will then just access all their course materials right within Brightspace, which ultimately just makes the process easier/simpler for students.
Pros
Online Textbooks
Accessibility
Digital Access
Cons
Consistency in User Experience
More apparent/Better messaging when being used as a key (when materials aren't accessed in RedShelf)
Likelihood to Recommend
RedShelf has been great in a higher ed environment to help connect students to textbook and publisher materials. It has helped make the process of purchasing/accessing those materials so much easier for students. I am at an institution now where we don't have RedShelf, and the faculty and students are regularly frustrated with this process, so I'll be looking to get us a license here soon.
RedShelf is particularly useful if instructors are using various different types of materials from different publishers. However, if an institution was only using Cengage Unlimited for example (that is a service where students will just pay for access to that site and all the books/materials for all of their courses would be accessible on there), that would be a time where I would think RedShelf wouldn't provide you with as much benefit.
That being said, we may be using RedShelf in a very specific manner, and it may be able to provide us more ability/features that we haven't taken full advantage of.
RedShelf is an innovative tool to support lowering the cost of course materials in two major ways. First, they provide the best eText in the industry. Easy to use for our students, consistent across all platforms, and at a tremendously reduced price. Second, they provide the platform for college bookstores to deliver day one access of digital content to our students in the LMS (Learning Management System). And most importantly they provide the opt-out tool for students. We sell eTexts through the RedShelf platform online and in the store and we manage our inclusive access program for day one digital access.
Pros
Communicate- they have a responsive team of experts that help in every way possible. Some companies you don't think there is even a person behind the technology, but with RedShelf you get both excellent customer service and outstanding technology
Always innovating and always responding to the needs of the customers and students
Manage the inclusive access program with instructors, publishers, bookstores and students. Not an easy task.
A key tool in the toolkit to provide affordable learning solutions for higher education
Cons
Waiting for a course management tool to streamline the process. It's in the works and a tall order since all clients approach the process differently.
A little bit of a stumble with a recent software rollout for day one access roll out, but at least it was intuitive to work through
Likelihood to Recommend
<ul><li>Great for eText delivery!</li><li>Great for managing day one digital access programs!</li><li>Excellent billing tool as well. </li></ul>
