As 27 colleges and universities get set to launch a
second round of e-textbook pilot programs, Internet2, the high-speed networking
group partnering with Educause on its program, has released a study of five universities that conducted similar
e-text pilots last spring.
Students
liked saving money with the e-text alternatives, but were not as impressed by reading
on electronic devices, found the e-book platforms hard to navigate, and on a
whole, preferred to stay with print books. In addition, professors in the
survey did not use the collaborative features built into the platforms, such as
the ability to share notes or create links, according to a report in
the Chronicle for Higher Education.
That
report found that cost and portability were deciding factors for students to
buy an e-text. However, they proved to be difficult to read and, because
faculty didn’t use the enhanced features available with the platform, the
e-books failed to help students interact with classmates or the instructor.
“With
technology, many things change with repeated use,” said Bradley Wheeler, vice
president for information technology, University of Indiana, Bloomington.
“People have lots of early first impressions as they experience new things, and
then over time you start to see things become more mainstream as technology
improves and skills and even attitudes toward use improve.”
Wheeler
developed the program at Indiana, in which the university negotiated with
publishers to buy e-textbooks in bulk to get a better per-book price and then
charged students a mandatory fee to cover the cost. Cornell and the
Universities of Minnesota, Virginia, and Wisconsin at Madison participated with
Indiana in the pilot program and survey.
The
research also had recommendations for schools considering this e-text approach,
including making sure e-texts are available in a variety of formats and
training instructors to use the features built into digital course materials.
