Even now, studies show most students still favor standard textbooks over e-books because they like the feeling of owning and working out of an actual book.

But for many students, budgets are tight and becoming increasingly tighter. The idea of free online books is looking more attractive to students who otherwise might not have considered them originally.

Clearly then, the e-book has one-up on the traditional textbook just based on price alone. But is that really enough to sway the majority of students to make the jump?

No. Not yet, anyway. The ultimate factor in determining whether or not e-books become the mainstream go-to for students is if they truly can provide a level of convenience and utility that is unmatched by the traditional textbook. Yes, it is possible, and already there are signs on the horizon.

Open-source e-books offer professors the ability to customize their textbooks in ways that fit, down to the very letter, their specific course.

The material also can be updated much more frequently than a traditional textbook, which is something that Paul Rubin, an MSU professor in management, sees as a big step forward for e-books.

“A conventional textbook is updated every three to five years,” Rubin said. “But it would be helpful in some of the areas that change minute by minute if they updated some of the cases in these books and put in new examples.”

The utility of e-books also will have to be markedly improved to better meet the growing needs of students. E-books will have to provide something more than stagnant words on a screen.

Students need to be able to interact with the material in a way that they never could with an actual textbook on paper.

Interactivity can come in the form of hyperlinks that lead students to other online sources for more information or clarification on a topic or concept.

It even can be in the form of active graphics or customized questions and exercises that provide students with instant feedback or explanations upon answering them.

The possibilities are almost endless and further improvements in interactivity, convenience and ease of use will be key in bringing e-books to the threshold of mainstream use.

Going forward, price alone will not offer e-books enough of a competitive edge over regular books.

Although e-books are a natural step in the right direction, they still have a ways to go before students will be willing to give up their traditional textbooks.

The good news is that the future of e-books doesn’t seem too far away.