Book Trader
Feasibility Presentation
Orange Team
CS 410
July 26, 2016
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Outline
Introductions
 Problem Statement
 Research
 Solution Overview
 Goals/Objectives
 Solution Features
 Solution Feasibility
 Conclusion
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Organization
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Problem Statement

Due to the increasing cost of education and the
unproportional rise in textbooks costs students
are opting to make due without the textbook,
damaging their chances of succeeding in college.
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Cost of Education
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Virginia undergraduate students can expect to pay an
average 9.2% more in 2006-07 than they did the prior
year in tuition and all fees
Virginia is the 12th highest state in terms of college cost
Tuition and fees increased by 240% while textbook
prices nearly increased 300% from December 1986 to
December 2004 1
The average total cost for an in-state undergraduate
student living on campus next year is estimated to be
37.5% of per capita disposable income 2
1. State Council for Higher Education for Virginia
2. Government Accountability Report
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Overall Rise in Costs

Average undergraduate tuition, fees, and room and board rates charged
for full-time students in degree-granting institutions, by type and
control of institution: Selected years, 1984-85 to 2004-05
Year and control of
institution
All institutions
4-year institutions
2-year institutions
1984-85
$4,563
$5,160
$3,179
1994-95
8,306
9,728
4,633
2000-01
10,818
12,922
5,460
2001-02
11,380
13,639
5,718
2002-03
12,014
14,439
6,252
2003-04
12,955
15,504
6,716
2004-051
13,743
16,465
7,020
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Public Perception
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Cost factors prevent 48% of college qualified high
school graduates from attending a four-year institution
and 22% from attending any college at all 3
70% of parents of high school students think higher
education is being priced beyond the income of the
average family 4
Student access to higher education has declined and
students are taking more time completing their course
of study
3. Congressional Analysis of College Costs
4. California Student Public Interest Research Group
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Textbook Costs
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Yearly Textbook Costs
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College textbook prices have grown at twice the rate of
inflation
The average cost of textbooks and supplies for a fulltime student in 2003-04 was $898 per year at four-year
public institutions
At two-year public institutions, where low-income
students are more likely to pursue a degree program
and where tuition and fees are lower, the average
estimated cost of books and supplies per first-time fulltime student was $886 --almost three-quarters of the
cost of tuition and fees
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Annual Textbook Proportion
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Textbook Legislation
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Concerns over the growing cost of textbooks have reached
government concern 5
In April 2005, a Virginia bill that requires public colleges to
disclose the titles of required books as soon as the campus
bookstore receives the list was approved 5
Exempting textbook purchases from sales tax is another bill
proposed in Michigan 5
New York legislators are debating a bill to create academic
review board that would require publishers planning to introduce
a new edition of a textbook to justify its necessity 5
5. National Association of College Stores
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Student Retention
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Academic Success
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78% of students have chosen not to buy a book
for one or more of their classes 6
73% of students said their choice was cost
related 6
“It has been estimated that 85% of learning in
college involves text,” Jodi Patrick co-author of
College Success Strategies and Active Learning
6. Student Success and Textbook Survey
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Retention Factors
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75% of college students live off campus and
80% have paying jobs 7
73.8% of undergraduates in 2003-04 received
financial aid 7
An NCES study suggests that full-time work
and part-time attendance, in combination with
family responsibilities, are barriers to completing
a postsecondary credential, at least over a 6-year
time period 7
7. National Center for Education Statistics
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Solution Overview
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Website to facilitate the trading of textbooks
Determines feasible trades between students and
alerts them
Maintains user privacy
Enables students to meet other students who
have taken the same course
Saves on the overall cost of education
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Goals
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Decrease the price students pay for textbooks
per semester
Encourage the use of textbooks to increase
academic success
Improve student success and retention through
the increased availability of texts
Provide a way for students to meet others who
have taken the same course
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Objectives
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Design a website that allows students to trade
their used books for the ones they need
Automatically match students who have the
desired item with the students who need it
Provide a method of private communication
between users
Provide a method of browsing users and their
books
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Functional Diagram
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What Does it Solve?
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Provides one place for all students to swap
textbooks
An improved ability to swap books equates to
less of a need to buy new or used textbooks
Reduces a student’s school expenditures
Increases student success
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Fliers Vs. Website
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Flier Method
Create a flier, including
personal information
Print flier and walk around
campus posting it
Wait for responses
Haggle with respondents
over price or appropriate
trades
Eventually determine a
proper trade or sale
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Website Method
Sign up
Post the books you want to
trade, and the books you
need to have
Wait for the site to find
available trades
Contact the students listed
Set up a meeting and trade
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Pros

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Reduces yearly textbook and education costs
Easier than existing solutions
Student Privacy
No shipping / handling fees
Cheap and limited risk project
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Cons
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Needs users to succeed
Unreliable users
Requires similar book needs
Some existing solutions
Bookstore buy-back program
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What’s in the Box
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Web services
ISBN lookup
 Trade listing
 Email aliasing
 Trade matching
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Cost
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Free for students and universities
Advertisers starting at $2 per ad for every
thousand views
Initial Investment
Hosting - $200/month
 Coding – 740LOC
 Site Design - $750
 Domain Name Negotiation
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Resources

Hosting
Web Server
 Email Server
 Support Staff
 Database
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Development Environment
Development Team
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Tech Issues
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ISBN lookup
Required textbook lookup
Browser compatibility
Data storage
Load testing
Server uptime
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Management Issues
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A website is a real time demand
Production must be rapid enough to meet
demands of users
Project would need to be deployed at a peak
time for textbook swapping

If the window for this is missed then the project
must be delayed
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Scope
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Will Do
Link students for trading
Allow students to
contact each other
through aliased emails
Email students about
available trades
User ratings
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Won’t Do
Display personal
information
Guarantee trades
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Competition Matrix
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Customer Identification
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Universities to reach student populations
Students to use the website for trading their
books
Advertisers to provide revenue for the site
operation
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Student Support
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According to the CALPIRG, 86% of students
would buy and sell used textbooks through an
online book swap 4
60% of students surveyed stated traditional
trading was difficult 6
4. California Student Public Interest Research Group
6. Student Success and Textbook Survey
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Social Website Popularity
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Customer’s ROI

Students
Lower cost of education
 Put in contact with other students
 Increased chance of success
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Universities
Increased retention
 Increased rank
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Return on Investment
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Average ad: $1 - $10 per thousand views 8
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4,000 universities in the US
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20,000 views per day
vt.facebook.com
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Average of 4,000 students
odu.facebook.com
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2 ads at $5 (per thousand) and 2k views per day at 100
schools: $2k per day or $730k per year
65,000 views per day
Facebook $100 million per year
MySpace $2 per user per year
8. Web Developers Journal
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Risks
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1) No Student Support
2) No Feasible Trades
3) No University Support
4) Server Failure
5) Website Failure
6) Database Failure
7) Security/Privacy Issues
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Risk Descriptions
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Student support – users to trade books
Feasible trades – student ability to find the books
they need with the books they have
University support – assistance to reach students
Server failure – when the web host goes down
Website failure – scripting components fail/buggy
Database failure – data is lost of unavailable
Security/privacy issues – student information being
revealed inadvertently or maliciously
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Risk Justifications
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Without student support the website will not function at all, but
Without feasible trades students will find the website useless, but
The possibility of university support is not great, but students
can still be reached without it
The possibility of the server failing is low if the host chosen is
decent, but if it were to happen the website would be
inaccessible
With regular backups the database information will be secure
from loss, but if it were to happen all site information would be
lost
Since no sensitive student information is asked for there is no
chance of it being revealed inadvertently, and information that is
revealed will be harmless
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Ways To Mitigate Risk
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Marketing targeted towards students
Link trades between three or more people
Convince universities of textbook cost and
success correlation
Acquire reliable hosting
Regular database backups, reliable hosting
Ask for minimal student information at signup,
secure coding practices
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Conclusion
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“An educated and skilled citizen is essential to the economic and
social health of every nation.” To accomplish this end, it is
crucial to make college education affordable
The pricing of textbooks affects quality and affordability of
higher education
Increasing prices in college education, including textbooks, are
causing decline in retention rates and academic success
There is need to provide alternatives to reduce the overall
expenses of a college student
Students using a website to trade textbooks will reduce the
overall cost of education and thereby increase student success
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References
1.
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. 2006-07 Tuition and Fee Report.
2.
United States Government Accountability Office. College Textbook Report
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05806.pdf
Congressional Analysis of College Costs.
http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/issues/108th/education/highereducation/CollegeCost
CrisisReport.pdf
California Student Public Interest Research Group
http://calpirg.org/reports/textbookripoff.pdf
National Association of College Stores. www.NACS.org/news/statebills.asp
Student Success and Textbook Survey.
National Center for Education Statistics. Work First, Study Second. Postsecondary Education
Descriptive Analysis Reports. Table 316. Percentage of Undergraduates receiving aid
http://www.nacs.org/news/statebills2005.asp
Web Developer Journal.
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/banner_ads/banner_advertising_industry_sta
ts.html
Make textbooks Affordable.org
http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/Koch_ACSFA%20College%20Textbook%20Cost
%20Study%20Plan%20Proposal_9%207%2006.pdf
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/2006-07Tuition&FeesReport.pdf
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Appendix

Tuition and Fees
in Selected States
Public Colleges
and State
Universities by
Cost Rank
Estimated
2006-07
2005-06
States
Tuition
and
States
Tuition
and
Ranked
Mandatory
Fees
Ranked
Mandatory
Fees*
1. New Jersey
$8,653
1. New Jersey
$9,458
2. Ohio
$7,567
2. Ohio
$8,271
3. New Hampshire
$7,190
3. New Hampshire
$7,859
4. Illinois
$6,780
4. Illinois
$7,411
5. Maryland
$6,755
5. Maryland
$7,383
6. Vermont
$6,484
6. Vermont
$7,087
7. Michigan
$6,268
7. Michigan
$6,851
8. Pennsylvania
$6,263
8. Pennsylvania
$6,845
9. Indiana
$6,171
9. Indiana
$6,745
10. South Carolina
$5,984
10. Virginia
$6,426
11. Connecticut
$5,925
11. South Carolina
$6,409
12. Virginia
$5,906
12. Connecticut
$6,346
7. National Center for Education Statistics
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