Intern Blog

Soon, college students will have access to more electronic textbooks.

Internet2, a networking organization that provides its member universities and corporations to develop new Internet-related technologies, launched a pilot program that provides electronic textbooks in bulk to students at the University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; University of Minnesota; University of Virginia; and the University of Wisconsin.

Unlike the recently announced iBooks 2, the eText is software written in HTML5 that can be used on various platforms. eTexts are a cheaper alternative to hardcopy textbooks, while they also allow students to highlight sections of the text, make notes and send questions to their professors directly from the text.

Indiana University, who presented the idea to Internet2, was the first to adopt this program. According to Brad Wheeler, the vice-president of information technology and chief information officer at Indiana University, there are 130 classes and 5300 students at IU that are currently using the technology.

“At Indiana University, we did pilots and trials for two years starting in 2009,” said Wheeler, “We saw future grow increasingly digital, and so we could see that the hardware was coming. It was hard to believe that students were going to walk around with big fat backpacks.”

Internet2’s pilot program is working with Courseload, the eText creators, as well as McGraw-Hill for the pilot program.

“The pilot program offers a simple way for innovative colleges and universities to explore the best path to digital,” said Don Scifres, the senior vice president for operations at Courseload, “Courseload is delighted to partner with these five world class universities that share IU's interest in innovating to lower cost and improve educational outcomes.”

According to Wheeler, hardcopy textbook prices have been escalating because publishers do not make money from the growing reused textbooks market. These eTexts may be a cheaper alternative to printed textbooks.

During the trial, the participating universities subsidize the cost of the eText, and interested professors in each of the five universities can implement them as part of their curriculum. Students who prefer a hardcopy of the textbook can purchase the print-on-demand text for $28.

Shelton Waggener, the associate vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that the eTexts will help to achieve “lower textbook costs and better engagement with the content.”

“This limited pilot give exposure to these services, business models (costs) and impact on educational experience,” said Waggener, “We will be surveying students and faculty as part of these evaluation and will know more from the specific students who are participating in the program.”

According to Dr. Naomi Baron, a linguistics professor and the executive director of the Center for Teaching, Research and Learning at American University, price is the main factor for the growing interest in electronic textbooks. But she also argues that there are problems associated with them.  

“If you have electronics books, you are less likely to re-read, you are less likely to remember, and you are more likely to multi-task,” said Baron, “This does not lead to good learning.”

In a study she performed, Baron found that 90% of surveyed students said that they were likely to multitask while reading on an electronic screen, while 10% of them said they would most likely multitask while reading hardcopy print. Additionally, in another study, students said that they remembered more when reading from a hardcopy than from a screen.

Baron said that some electronic textbook programs do not give students the advantage to refer back to the books because they only allow students to access them for a certain period of time.

“There are certain kinds of reading you need to stop and think about,” Baron said, “I know that I go back to books because they’re part of who I am and how my mind works. We don’t have that with the eText initiative.”

Dr. Mark Warschauer, professor of education and informatics at the University of California, Irvine, also cited learners’ distraction in electronic texts. He also said that the printed textbook provides higher resolution for readers, who also have more experience navigating them, though he claims that there is no definitive answer as to which form of text is better.

“There are theoretical reasons, and some empirical research, to indicate that certain features of e-books should offer advantages for learning,” Warschauer said, “It will depend, in part, on the nature of the e-books, how good they are at incorporating desirable elements, [and] how they are made use of by instructors and students.”

Nevertheless, there seems to be a positive response to the eText program.

“Things are going stunningly well at Indiana University,” said Wheeler, “When things don’t go well you tend to hear about it, and it’s almost been eerily quiet.”

According to Todd Sedmak, the communications manager at Internet2, the pilot’s continuation and expansion will depend on the participating student and faculty feedback.