Matthew Lukens (sophomore-electrical engineering) expected to purchase the usual required textbooks when he printed out his list of courses at the Penn State Bookstore earlier this semester. Lukens was in for a surprise.

"I was almost tempted when I was up there at the cash register to say, 'I don't want this,' " he said.

What Lukens didn't want was a Web workbook required for his Speech Communications 100 A (Effective Speech) course.

Along with the required textbook, Lukens bought the Web workbook for $15.

"It's not even a book. It's a piece of paper," he said. "I can't imagine it costs $15 to print."

Students describe the workbook as a small paper with a username and password necessary to access a Web site for the course on Penn State's server.

Michael Hecht, head of the Department of Speech Communication, says the money is used to fund the creation and maintenance of the Web site. He says it is not a typical Penn State course Web site.

"This is more than that," he said. "It has information, it tells you what a topic (for a speech) is for example - helps you judge good and bad topics."

Hecht says the site has resources for selecting topics for speeches, helps students with homework assignments and teaches them about the course.

"These online resources are the wave of the future," he said, "and we have to be there first to provide students with the best quality education and that's what our goal is."

Brian Edwards (sophomore-engineering science) is also enrolled in the course.

"I was just admiring my roommate who has an online textbook that came as a CD. It looks really informative," he said.

Edwards says he is not questioning Penn State's efforts to integrate technology into the classroom, but was unhappy with the additional cost.

Lukens, Edwards and Edwards's roommate David Enright (sophomore-electrical engineering) are enrolled in Physics 213 (Fluids and Thermal Physics) and Physics 214 (Wave Motion and Quantum Physics), which require a similar workbook at a cost of $14.

The workbook contains labs as well as a username and password for a Web site, but Enright says the labs can be accessed online for free through the physics department Web site.

"When I asked the professor and the TA, I said, 'I have the resources to print them out.' And he said, 'No, you have to buy the manual to get the password,' " Enright said.

"I get screwed twice this semester," Lukens said.

The physics workbook allows students to access a site to receive homework grades through Penn State's partnership with WebAssign, an online company.

Nitin Samarth, associate professor of physics, says careful thought was put into the Physics department's decision to use WebAssign, a company used by several other major universities including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I can understand that students are puzzled that the same lab manual material is also currently available freely on the Web," Samarth said in an e-mail. "The only reason for this is that our labs are still under development, and instructors sometimes need to make last minute changes."

Edwards said he felt he had no choice but to purchase the workbook or his grade would be in jeopardy.

"My main argument was if they are going to charge us they should tell us. I feel like they slipped us into the back door," Enright said.

Luken said he also appreciates technology in the classroom and has had free access to many of his professors' Web sites, which contain items such as the syllabus, homework assignments and notes.

"I'm definitely supportive of it," he said, "but I would think that the cost of my tuition payment would cover that sort of thing."

Samarth said students should realize the physics department is not making any money off the sale of the Web workbook and that this would be against the department's policy.

"The only profit goes to the bookstore and the publisher," Samarth added.

Though Edwards doesn't believe students should have to pay, he is hesitant to fight the issue.

"I don't want to make waves. It's not like this course is over," he said.

Samarth says he plans to conduct a Web-based survey to assess students' concerns about the new workbook.