Another survey of college students reported a significant
number prefer using print textbooks over electronic versions. In fact, 72% of
more than 500 current college students said they would rather use traditional
textbooks in a poll conducted by Direct Textbook, a textbook price-comparison search engine.
Printed textbooks were easier to read and the fact that
students normally ended up printing e-book pages anyway were among the reasons given
for preferring traditional content. Students also cited the ability to
highlight passages, their own lack of focus and concentration when studying
with digital content, and classroom bans on tablets and laptops as reasons for wanting
traditional textbooks.
The weight of e-textbooks and the fact they didn’t have
to be returned were among the reasons 27% of the respondents preferred
electronic textbooks. Those students also liked that e-books are more
environmentally friendly, searchable, and can convert text to audio, but some
of the students indicated they preferred e-books for recreational reading and rather than for learning.
The report noted that Student Monitor research has
found that 87% of the textbooks purchased or rented in 2014 were print
editions, while e-textbooks made up just 9% of the market. One surprising
outcome of the Direct Textbook poll was that both students who preferred print
books and those who wanted e-books cited lower costs as a reason for their
format preference.
“Given the ubiquity of e-book-reading devices on
college campuses, it’s interesting that students prefer print textbooks over
e-books, and that purchasing behavior supports that sentiment,” said Morgan
MacArthur, chief technology officer of Direct Textbook. “What’s even more
interesting are the differences in perception: Both students who preferred
textbooks and those who preferred e-books cited lower prices as a reason.”
