The PDF courseware is only a little bit less expensive than the printed manual. If I recall correctly, the training center gets something like a 5% discount when buying the pdf instead of ordering the printed manual. The training centers might choose
the electronic version for convenience, since it can be delivered immediately while the printed manuals have to be ordered well in advance from the date of the course. Ideally, they should print out the pdf for the students, or perhaps provide a dual-monitor
setup in the computers. In my experience, they rarely do so.
The price of the courseware is expensive because it is not just the price of the book, as people tend to think. Instead, most of that money pays for the license for the training, which includes the usage of a virtual machine that contains thousands
of dollars worth of installed software, as well as the development of the powerpoints, demonstrations, labs, and other materials used during the course.
