This study explored levels of student awareness of and experiences with e-textbooks at a private ICT-driven university in Ghana. The purpose of the study was to gain insight into the e-textbook deployment in sub-Saharan higher education, and establish a baseline of perceptions and use that can be used to measure changes in behaviors and practices. The study did not rely on any standard theoretical framework, "because e-books are a fairly novel (and rapidly evolving) phenomenon in the developing world" (p. 41). While e-textbooks are a novelty in sub-Saharan Africa in general, because of the type of university used as a participant pool, survey participants were 99% familiar with what an e-textbook was. The researcher used a survey questionnaire that focused on usage and attitude towards e-textbooks to gather data, including both qualitative and quantitative measures.
Few students in the study were aware of multimedia and/or interactive features of e-textbooks. The researcher speculated that this might be due to Ghana's limited high bandwidth access, and the high cost of internet access outside of the university environs. In addition, the vast majority of students who used e-textbooks accessed them through a computer, with very few students indicating that they used dedicated readers or handheld devices. Most students indicated that they preferred print textbooks because of their convenience and accessibility.
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And yet in their 2013 study, Dwyer & Davidson found that many university students did NOT like using e-textbooks. Many complained about eye strain and lighting, or inability to highlight text or add notes. The researchers conclude that "e-textbooks are not at the place where students are embracing them" (p. 120).
These articles, combined with my own experience, underscore the role of culture and environment in tool adoption. There are some base underlying conditions that allow any culture to evolve. The invention of irrigation allowed for surplus which allowed for development of leisure pursuits such as the arts. Access to bandwidth and devices allow for implementation of digital texts which allow for the development of a comfort with this type of interaction. Students in Ghana, having little access to e-textbooks because of infrastructure limitations, find the use of digital textbooks to be awkward. In US universities, students have significantly better access, but also find the use to be awkward, albeit for different reasons and to a lesser degree. It might just be that we are in the transition, and the trend we see of increased access, increasing use of e-books, and improved interactivity features will continue to facilitate the growth of e-textbook use.
In my own experience using e-texts, there is a comfort curve. Before I read my first digital text, I was firmly convinced that it would be a niche use for me, not my normal reading habit. Over time, however, reading everything from the newspaper to leisure reading to textbooks on my iPad has become my norm. I still love going to a bookstore to browse, but I"m getting better at browsing e-book stores in a way that helps me select what to read next. My nieces and nephews are comfortable reading on a digital reader, including highlighting and note-taking. In my district, students at middle and high school prefer the e-reader to textbooks. To be fair, that's probably about weight, and they are no more likely to look at the textbook on their device than they were when it was in print!
Asunka, S. (2013). The viability of e-textbooks in developing countries: Ghanaian university students’ perceptions. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e- Learning, 28(1), 36-50, DOI: 10.1080/02680513.2013.796285
Dwyer, K. K. & Davidson, M. M. (2013). General education oral communication assessment and student preferences for learning: E-textbook versus paper textbook. Communication Teacher, 27(2), 111-125, DOI: 10.1080/17404622.2012.752514
Minzesheimer, B. (2011, August 11). E-books jet to top 10 of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list. USA Today. Retrieved from http://books.usatoday.com/bookbuzz/post/2011/08/e-books-jet-to-top-10-of-usa-todays-best-selling-books-list/414589/1
Molly- interesting that you note that digital textbooks are the new norm where you live. They really haven't caught on at my Minnesota institution yet. Like the Ghanian students referenced in your study, our students also seem to prefer hard copy textbooks even though most have access to multiple computers and/or mobile devices as well as high-speed internet. I think this may be related to the quality of many e-textbooks currently available. Too many do not involve interactive multimedia elements and are simply text presented digitally. I have recently created two iBooks for my chiropractic students. These books include images, videos, and interactive quizzes. Even though we were novice publishers and quality could certainly be improved, student satisfaction has been quite high with these e-texts and students have requested that we create more of these books.
ReplyDeleteHi Molly, your review made me wonder how widespread digital textbook use is in California. Does it stretch all the way down to basal readers at the early elementary level? We use a few different reading programs for beginner readers at my school; however, in my opinion there's no replacement for a good old fashioned bound book. There's something about learning to read where having a book with real pages seems more beneficial than a digital text. This includes students being able to use 1:1 correspondence when decoding, learning that we open books in a specific direction and that we go from left to right, and from up to down. Granted, some of this can be done with an e-reader...just wondering how it is where you live.
ReplyDelete@Sarah, digital textbooks in my district become common at middle school, though they exist starting in Grade 3. In K-2, we use mostly big books, but we've got decodable individual readers, along with digital support materials that teachers use to engage students or students use for remediation or independent practice.
DeleteInteresting to me is that state Standards include statements about students understanding the structure of a book, including title page, author, illustrator, index, table of contents, glossary, etc. but also mention things like "spine". If they had Standards during medieval times I wonder if the required vocabulary included vellum, letter plate, spindle, and scroll...
Hi Molly,
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed your review and your perspective. My school has not gone to digital textbooks and e-readers are rare in my building (many teachers do not allow them). I have concerns regarding the use of etexts with low level or special eduacation students. There are some students who probably learn better being able to physically interact with the book. As nice as embedded video is, it could potentially be a distractor for the student. I find it a bit alarming (more than a bit, actually) that educational systems are changing so rapidly despite the fact that there is inconclusive research. Like you, it is taking me quite a while to transfer my reading skills to an ereader. I still like marking up paper, but I am getting better at conducting those types of activities on the ipad. Still in all---these are very interesting times for us!
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ReplyDeleteReading some comments, I have to wonder if our purported love of reading is really very tied up in our cultural love of the physical book! Much of the research out there shows NSD between ebook and printed textbook use in terms of student achievement, but there is some research showing that some features that e-texts offer, such as interactive glossaries, improve comprehension particularly for Academic English Learners. Glori notes the lack of high-quality textbooks - I personally think that's less of an issue in K-12. There are some pretty amazing digital textbooks out there now which include self-check questions, embedded informational and instructional videos, etc. To see the possibilities that digital textbooks offer, consider exploring HMH Fuse, Our Choice, and Virtual History: Roma. I think that once content is consistently more rich, more complex, and more connected in a digital text, our love affair with printed books for more learning tasks (and some literature tasks) will wane.
ReplyDeleteMolly, as I sit at my computer working tonight another thought related to e-texts comes to mind, eye strain. By the end of the day I literally have trouble seeing. Concerns have been expressed regarding iPods and hearing loss, what about eReaders and eye strain? A brief search suggests that the issue may be because the eyes blink 1/3 as often when using a computer or eReader with the resulting dry eyes the cause of any eye strain. Thoughts about the effects on young readers?
ReplyDeleteI may be revealing my age through my post, but I still prefer the hard copy books. I have yet to rely on a e-textbook, but have read a few novels on my Kindle Fire. Most of the articles we read for class I print a copy. I like to underline key content and write my comments in the margin. I know this can be done on e-readers, but my perception is the physical writing increases my comprehension.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I agree with Glori on her comments about eye strain cause by "screen time." I have started wearing reading glasses to reduce the strain on my eyes, and also try to remember to close my eyes for 5 seconds or so ever so often.