I'm taking online classes and I'm wondering why I have to buy my books for my online classes from their bookstore and not a cheaper place like half.com or Amazon? Are they trying to rip me off?

are they forcing you to? how will they know?anyway it's probably because answers could be written in the textbooks and there's really no way for the school to control your cheating if that happens

No one can make you buy your books from there, unless they are the only place you can get them from. Shop around... just be aware it sometimes takes time to ship a book. Knew a friend who did this and her books arrived about 3/4 of the way through the semester.