Etextbooks: Students are not loving them

2/8/2012

     It's a funny thing about the use of new technologies in schools: it's not only seen as inevitable, it's often described as necessary because today's students are digital natives.
     But for at least some technologies, the evidence supporting that contention is weak.
     An article in Computers & Education by Woody, Daniel, & Baker (2010) replicated other studies in showing that college students preferred studying from traditional textbooks rather than etextbooks, and also reported no correlation between previous experience with ebooks and how much students liked etextbooks.
     Some technology boosters have suggested that previous findings of student indifference to etextbooks is due to their novelty--once students get used to them, the argument goes, they will like them. Woody et al. suggest that their finding casts doubt on this explanation.

Woody, W. D., Daniel, D. B. & Baker, C. A. (2010). E-books or textbooks: Students prefer textbooks. Computers & Education, 55, 945-948.

15 Comments

Michael F. SHaughnessy

02/08/2012 12:35pm

Of course students prefer textbooks- they can write in them, underline them, highlight them, and do all those good things that they learned to do years ago....

Daniel Willingham link

02/08/2012 12:49pm

Some etextbooks have that functionality, Mike. Students more often complain that they miss the feel of textbooks, and that there want to be able to more rapidly flip between different sections of texts, and to dog-ear pages. They really like search functions, which most have.

Priya Gopalakrishnan link

02/08/2012 1:17pm

Technology is gladly received in the field of education. However, some things can't be replaced. Traditional textbooks are always liked by many students. Highlighted lines in the textbooks can be kept for many years but the same can't be said for e textbooks. E textbooks can't replace the traditional textbooks. Nevertheless, both are good in its own world. Students should ponder pros and cons before choosing them.

Daniel Ethier

02/08/2012 1:26pm

I think one reason students prefer regular textbooks is the used textbook market. They can buy and sell them and reduce their expenses.

Paul Wilkinson link

02/08/2012 2:23pm

As with any learning technology (voice, paper, electrons, whatever), the much more important aspect relates to software rather than hardware. Whether the hardware is a dead-tree-format book or a PC or the latest and greatest high-speed tablet, does it do things like (to steal prodigiously from your book):

# treat material as answers after explaining questions to students?

# make an appropriate amount of factual knowledge available before skills practice?

# inspire thinking that creates long-term memory?

# base learning on prior knowledge (electronic learning, properly designed, could do a much better job here at supporting individual students -- has anyone seen software beyond Rosetta Stone that works in this respect?)?

# support practice that keeps student interested?

# adjust for differences in cognition and promotes deep understanding as training progresses?

# present content in ways that are most appropriate to the content (not "learning styles")?

# recognize effort (again, electronic media would seem better in terms of being able to be programmed to do so; exercises in print books might recognize effort, but one would think some sort of AI programming could be developed here -- cameras to measure time and activity of eyeballs on the subject matter; software to recognize common errors and personally explain to students how to avoid them?)

# facilitate better reporting to teachers to support personalized feedback -- both to students using the tools and to colleagues and supervisors evaluating teachers' choices about particular technology to use and how it's used?

It seems to be human nature to be distracted by shiny bright new gizmos at the expense of content and interface quality. Merely reproducing a dead-tree format book on a display screen has advantages and disadvantages. Merely using display screens to add more links and information could do more harm than good if it detracts from sound pedagogy. Much more interesting is effective learning software. Are there good studies and research in that area? Is there valid research on Rosetta Stone or on software to develop skills and knowledge beyond language skills?

(I read your book on Kindle, which I preferred because I'm out of space on my bookshelves!)

Gary

02/08/2012 7:26pm

I will have to read that study. I'm wondering if there's a difference between high school and college students regarding textbooks. The focus of Apple's new initiative for textbooks is secondary schools exclusively. OTOH, my students all tell me they want the physical product.

Janelle

02/08/2012 8:27pm

I'm wondering about the current elementary students and how will they feel... I love books and I love ebooks. eBooks are very easy for any reading that I do not want to necessarily own... more for simple enjoyment. My professional books... tend to still be tangible and 3 dimensional.

Lynn

02/09/2012 10:48am

I find that complex reading that requires concentration and focus, screens are not as good. There is a physicality involved in reading difficult material that isn't replicated in a screen. Actually highlighting with a marker seems to place it in my memory better than a digital block and highlight. And, in the paper book, the highlight never changes place and the pages are always identical - which helps trigger memory when you are reviewing later. I love ebooks for light, fun reading (especially while traveling), but paper is key for complex subject matter.

Daniel Willingham link

02/09/2012 11:50am

@Lynn: David Daniel (second author on the study) argues that the key difference. We enjoy reading from a Kindle or Nook because that reading is not taxing, and we're not reading to *study*. We read textbooks differently.

Trevor Morris

02/09/2012 4:32pm

@Daniel: Thanks for this interesting post. As an instructor, I give my students the option of getting the ebook instead of the the traditional textbook. From the feedback I have gotten, it seems a lot of students who use ebooks don't prefer them over traditional textbooks. I prefer highlighting on my Kindle because it is easy for me to find my highlights later on. Do you think using an ebook instead of traditional textbook would influence and learning in students? My state is working on providing textbooks online for subjects K-12.

Daniel Willingham link

02/09/2012 9:16pm

@paul--couldn't agree more. . .it's a tool. It's trite to say so, but it seems so often forgotten.
@trevor I think the data aren't in yet. Very few studies on this, which makes one question the motivation behind the rush.

Cheryl

02/10/2012 3:09pm

I agree. When reading to learn (as opposed to reading for enjoyment), I need to remember where in the book I read something so that I can easily return to it. Often, I have to read something purposefully several times over a period of days to really get it to "stick". In a regular textbook, I will remember what part of the page I read it, and where it was in the book. But on an ebook, all the pages look the same and it's hard to go back and find the information I am looking for.

Scott McLeod link

02/13/2012 8:59am

I find it much EASIER to find something in an ebook since I can quickly search for a phrase or term or highlight/annotation. That's better than leafing back and forth one page at a time wondering where something was. Are you searching rather than paging? If so, should be quicker/easier...

Scott McLeod link

02/13/2012 8:57am

Some of this is form factor:

http://www.minddump.org/ipad-users-prefer-digital-texts-laptop-users

And some of it is ability to resell (which is impaired by traditional publishers' attempt to prop up old revenue streams for as long as possible)...

Daniel Willingham link

02/13/2012 9:07am

@Scott definitely, being able to search is one of the main things that students say they like. An unexpected (for me) report was student frustration that they can't remember from etextbooks as well because they count on physical placement of text on the page as a cue to memory, and that is not as powerful (they say) in etextbooks.

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Etextbooks: Students are not loving them

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