Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource 4+

Who thought of this this?

I absolutely hate 90% of the user feature of this. Why are we reading a scroll? Why can’t we turn the page? Scrolls went out for a reason! The reader never feels like they get to the end of the page. Some of our chapters are 60 pages long. It shouldn’t feel like a page of reading codes and never finding the problem. Also can we write on the page for the price we pay for our “books”? The in text notes are nice. Where’s the interactive feature? Can we please turn the page? Why all my books not in te same place?

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much for your feedback. We are always looking to improve the usability and performance of the app and user feedback is where it starts. If you would like to share additional feedback, please contact us on our support hub https://service.elsevier.com/app/home/supporthub/uselsevierhealth/.

Elsevier is horrible!

Updated to add… Use bookshelf app instead! At least it will let you log in.

The whole concept of Elsevier is basically robbing students. How can they charge so much for a book that we can only access for a few years for starters? Why do they make it so complicated to copy and paste things? Why is the read aloud feature so horrible? For the amount of money that is spent, we should be able to copy and paste easily. We should be able to select an option where we do not have page numbers read to us or whatever else. The way the words are pronounced is so far off sometimes that it is hard to follow. Why is it that when you are reading a chapter, some pages you can scroll for a long time and it will advance you a few pages, and then you have to hit the “next” arrow where you will read 1 and a half pages, hit “next,” and then get several pages that you can scroll and then hit “next.” I think it would be much easier to just scroll and entire chapter and hit “next” to go to the next chapter. It would be nice if you could also click on a vocabulary word, be routed to the glossary to see the definition and then hit a button that takes you back to the same place you were before you tried to define the vocabulary word. It is frustrating to go look at the definition and then spend forever trying to find where you were reading from beforehand.

Poor editing and writing of content review questions

The app is ok. But some of the editing and writing on content review questions could really be improved (at least in the pre-nursing and. nursing disciplines).

A key problem is a lack of crowdsourcing for solutions. What I mean is there is also no easy way for a user or instructor to easily flag errors in content, or writing (especially in questions and rationales). It take multiple emails, go through multiple levels of customer service representatives, where they want screenshots of their incorrect data and screen shots or references the correct data.

And then, after all of that, they will eventually send a note to the content team where it can be flagged so it might possibly be corrected for a later revision.

They could simply have a button or an email to send content questions and concerns to and faculty and students would likely report errors. The could be quickly assessed to see if they are applicable and the information flagged for editions by a revision author.

Considering the cost of Elsevier’s resources is roughly a thousand dollars a semester, these resources should be AMAZING, but honestly it feels like their approach to education is antiquated and clumsy. It feels like bloated bureaucracy.

The customer service is pretty good but beyond the people who answer the phones and emails, I am completely underwhelmed.