It was quieter this past fall in Corey Angst’s project-management course at the University of Notre Dame, but it wasn’t because he and his students were talking less.
Every student was given an iPad to use during the seven-week course, which meant fewer of them brought laptops to class to take notes.
“There was no clicking,” said Mr. Angst, who is an assistant professor of management at the university. Even external keyboards that some students used for their iPads were silent.
Mr. Angst’s class was the first of several at the university to replace traditional textbooks with iPads as part of a yearlong study by the university’s e-publishing working group into the use of e-readers. Many colleges and universities are in the midst of similar experiments, but Notre Dame is one of the first to report results from its effort.
The professor said students were more connected in and out of the classroom because of their use of the tablet device.
Laptop screens can create barriers between professors and students during class, Mr. Angst said: “Students think they can hide behind a laptop.”
Students were surveyed several times throughout the course and said that the iPad made it easier to collaborate and manage group projects.
Mr. Angst said he asked students in the class to download the Dropbox app, which allows material to be saved and shared online, to post class assignments. Many students used it to share documents in their group projects, as well.
Mr. Angst said he often sends out additional videos or relevant articles just hours before class. And for the first time he could incorporate these last-minute additions into class discussions because students always had their iPads with them to access the materials.
There were some downsides to the iPad, though.
Students lamented not being able to write in the margins of their assigned readings, which Mr. Angst said he hopes will be improved in the future. And some had trouble taking notes without a keyboard.
And when it came time for their computer-based final exam, 39 of the 40 students in class put away their iPads in favor of a laptop.
Work is constantly saved within iPad’s writing programs, Mr. Angst said, but there’s no actual “save” button, which unnerved some students. “When they’re working on something important, it kind of freaks them out,” he said.
The group that conducted the experiment includes members of the business school, law school, college of arts and letters, and office of information technology, among others. It hopes to look at other tablet devices—particularly Android-based models—in the future.
20 Responses to U. of Notre Dame Reports on Experiment to Replace Textbooks With iPads
alechosterman - January 21, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Thanks for posting the follow up. This confirms some of the things I was thinking about using iPads in classrooms. One way to write on PDFs is to use iAnnotate. It’s a fairly good reader and writer.
garay - January 22, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Very interesting. I wonder how the experiment would have faired had all the students’ classes and everything in their classes would have been mobilized and carried out via a tablet/iPad and smartphone combo.
I mean everything mobilized :: all class materials, all class and student activities, all class and individual digital communication, all content authoring and student assignments, all assessments, learning management system interactions, all clicker activities, lecture capture on-demand playback, virtual office hours, everything. Having the interactive textbooks on tablets, like the iPad, is half the battle, however.
Quite understanding, on the other hand, that come crunch time, 39 of the 40 students put their iPads away and in favor of their laptops. Who wouldn’t use the best and most effective tool when time is of the essense. I do it all the time, and move away from my iPad+smartphone comfortable digital continuum and open my laptop when I’ve got to write, interact or multi-task substantively.
In any event, this all makes us wonder if the days of the (lightweight) college digital backpack are just around the corner…
sdnelson - January 23, 2011 at 12:57 am
So what’s wrong with a pen and notebook again?
digitaldan1 - January 23, 2011 at 5:54 pm
“So what’s wrong with a pen and notebook again?”
If all you had to carry was a pen and a notebook, it wouldn’t be a story, but that’s not the reality. It’s multiple notebooks, textbooks, research paper printouts and more. The pile gets awfully heavy.
You’re welcome to carry your analog library in your backpack, but I’m going to carry my digital library in mine. We’ll see who ends up with back problems.
bstrachan - January 24, 2011 at 1:14 am
Mr Angst? Really??
paievoli - January 24, 2011 at 7:49 am
Given the movement to digital and the need for funding how much longer before the two converge? Add to this the recent article about using Amazon to generate revenue and isn’t it time to see where this is all headed? Been trying to get someone to see this for years…
imtbone - January 24, 2011 at 9:36 am
As an aside to this conversation, check out this new effort by Apple to maintain complete control over all things Apple http://bit.ly/applesevilscrew
Seems Apple is replacing cover screws with a proprietary kind that will prevent anyone but Apple from servicing their product. Pretty much stinks if all you need is a screen replaced, don’t you think?
I personally LIKE the 9″ screen, which is why I am partial to the iPad. I wish other eReader/tablets would consider copying THAT aspect of the iPad.
dboyles - January 24, 2011 at 4:14 pm
“The professor said students were more connected in and out of the classroom because of their use of the tablet device.”
Who is trying to fool whom by use of plastic words such as “connected” which have multiple meanings, some of which apply and many of which don’t? No doubt students are indeed slaved to their devices and in that sense are connected to them–particularly since the devices have been mandated in order to even take the course in the first place). Whether prosthetic communication devices better “connect” people intellectually, communicatively, emotionally, subjectively, objectively, or by any other meaning of the word, however, lacks any quantifiable demonstration whatsoever. Wishy-washy words such as “connected” serve to address all kinds of unaddressed questions which aren’t even being asked. This is sheer deception and but a form of confirmational bias.
doctorthomas - January 24, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Do the e-textbooks have a screen reader for blind, low-vision, or dyslexic students? Arizona State University was sued for using Kindles because of their inaccessibility.
11276026 - January 25, 2011 at 4:02 pm
At the University of New Mexico we have been advised by University Counsel that we may not require the use of e-book readers for classes because of the present inaccesibility of them to visually impaired students. There is a joint letter from the Department of Justice and the Department of Education pointing out that requiring inaccessible technology (including i-clickers) is in violation of Title II and Title III of the ADA.
sages - January 26, 2011 at 9:44 am
If the project was to replace printed textbooks with electronic forms on accessible on _any_ computer I could applaud that. To _require_ ipads just stokes the fires in the evil locked-content empire Apple is trying to impose in HE. Beware…
kyushumntsphil - February 29, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Why does Paul Hanstedt so believe in the liberal arts openness of his American peers?
The liberal arts might indeed help more in Hong Kong, or across Asia, for young professionals to fit their careers into the perspectives of wider communities, and the environment. But what if the so-called American liberal arts mostly themselves inhabited “departments” that turn a blind eye on each other? — that don’t invite the literacy and the humanity of wider perspectives?
Nice going, Paul — thou doth so sweetly flatter thyself and thy peers.
hanstedt - February 29, 2012 at 6:53 pm
kyushumntsphil: sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience. if so, feel free to contact me at Roanoke College, my home institution. I’d be curious to hear more.
drewsmith_hk - March 1, 2012 at 12:44 am
As an expatriate Canadian who has worked in Hong Kong for over 7 years, I think you’ve really hit the nail on the head, Paul, when you talked about both the concepts of the need in Asia for real structure, (hence we have ‘policies related to policies with associated guidelines, etc’) as well as the acquiescence of Asian academic staff to go along with whatever the next ‘new thing’ (they grumble amongst trusted colleagues but would seldom voice a negative opinion publicly). As a middle manager, as I once was here, these concepts made the job of managing staff very challenging, particularly if you tended to take things at face value (as one would tend to do especially early on in the job). One might take silence for agreement and support only to find out later that staff were just going along, waiting for a change in leadership that they hoped would represent a return to the possibly outdated status quo.
Bonalibro - March 1, 2012 at 9:54 am
I teach in Japan, where the problems are similar to those encountered in the U.S. The vast majority of students don’t know what they are doing in school and are not motivated to study. The colleges are constantly trying to adapt with cosmetic changes in curriculum, with glamorous sounding majors, by relaxing standards, by raising standards, to the point they seem not to know what they are doing any better than the students do… all it amounts to is marketing, and none of it works. It is futile, mostly I believe, because the students are too comfortable in their personal lives, too tired of studying to get into school, too tired of BEING in school, and too distracted by everything else they would rather be doing.
We seem to forget that people are biologically adult after puberty, yet we spend several more years in school practicing for roles we might play in our much delayed adulthood. Most of us, by that time, want to test ourselves by performing in adult roles. A few years of worldly experience, gaining an understanding of self and the skills that are really needed, before entering university, would solve a lot of students’ problems, and those of the universities, as well.
iangoski - March 1, 2012 at 3:08 pm
i appreciate particularly the word “support” in the article’s antepenultimate paragraph: administrators exist to support. Often, both they and those “under” them lose the support concept, mistaking for it a sense of arbitration or rank arbitrariness that forgets what their most serious function is: to facilitate smooth coordination of highly intelligent processes not always fully attuned to one another. I wonder if we don’t also have a basic difference among faculties in western vs. eastern universities: the former were mostly educated under some sort of “distributional requirement” system, providing at least the most basic experience with the benefits of broad-scoped learning.
Certainly the kind of administrative managing that proactively provides room in faculty workloads for any committee assignemnts makes sense; however, any administration that refuses schedule space for such efforts tacitly undermines them. We can slso imangine policies on campuses that exclude some of the remarkable minds that have shaped the conversation about liberal arts–but such exclusions deny the seriousness of the pursuit. We may have entered an era when the administrator who holds a position through the respect or even reverence for high scholarship and understanding of broad academic principles has past. If so, that is our collective loss. Without those figures on campuses, we have to hope that administrators understand the principle of support; rather than arbitration. “Goldilocks” may offer a comfortable concept, but the “perfect” degree of administtrative interference in academic process still lies in providing support rather than in choosing direction.
Shaun Thomas - May 9, 2012 at 4:27 pm
I am in favor of scientific studies. As a young college student I loved working with Biology. We grew cultures, had air tight hoods,attended large lectures, it was so interesting. The findings of scientific studies will help all human kind. Shaun Thomas
duppy_conqueror - May 16, 2012 at 4:30 pm
the much overused word “amazing” should be reserved for stories like this!
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Katherine - May 17, 2012 at 11:23 am
my neighbor’s step-aunt makes $67 an hour on the laptop. She has been laid off for ten months but last month her payment was $14365 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Here’s the site to read more CashLazy.com