The vast majority of students say they prefer print textbooks over electronic ones, and attitudes have not shifted markedly in the past year, according to the results of a survey by the National Association of College Stores.
The survey, set to be released tomorrow, found that 76 percent of students would pick a printed book over an e-textbook if the choice was left entirely up to them. That’s the exact same proportion as in the previous year’s survey.
The association surveyed 627 students at campuses across the United States this month. About 13 percent of the students said they had purchased an e-book in the past three months, and most of those said they did so because a digital edition was required by their professor.
“We’re still seeing a low penetration,” said Elizabeth Riddle, consumer-research manager for the association. “Some students are still uncomfortable with the technology and fear that they might lose something,” she said.
The survey found that only 8 percent of college students surveyed own an e-reader device such as a Kindle or Sony Reader. The most popular device listed for electronic reading was the iPhone.
The association still expects e-textbooks to take off in the near future, once more professors and students grow comfortable with the format. “We definitely are expecting an increase—of probably 10 to 15 percent by 2012,” said Ms. Riddle.
A few colleges are now arguing that colleges should push a switch to e-textbooks to save students money and help change the business model for textbooks.
30 Responses to Students Remain Reluctant to Try E-Textbooks, Survey Finds
manitoga - October 26, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Pushing to eTextbooks does not save money for the student considering that:
1. Students can sell their paper textbooks back to the bookstore at the end of the semester (they can’t do this with eBooks),
2. Students can sell their textbooks on half.com and make out better than the bookstore (again, can’t do this with eBooks)
3. Students can rent textbooks from the bookstore for about half the retail price AND write in them!
The way we interact with textbooks is different from the way we interact with novels, when people wake up and smell the ink of newly pressed books, they will realize that making an eTextbook 75% cheaper than the print counterpart is NOT a sufficient incentive when you think about the fact that you can’t sell these things off at the end of the semester when you’re done.
Even textbooks that I ended up not selling after the semester was over, I gave away 10 years down the road to people who would appreciate them. Why just lose an investment? give it to someone who will appreciate it :-)
~Dr. Pepper.
paievoli - October 27, 2010 at 7:54 am
I produced ny first eBook in 1996. Even the oldest faculty member at the time clearly stated “this is the only way to teach and learn art history”. The gentleman was in his 70′s. Students will only respond to what they are told is the better way to do something. Many state that students do not know how to properly use technology in class. Simply put this is because it is not being taught. Students do what is required of them and learn how to use what is required of them. If we do not require it they simply will not use it or do it.
BTW – if you are actually a student – you wouldn’t sell your books.
cmletamendi - October 27, 2010 at 8:42 am
I find myself guilty of not finding an easy transition to the eBook world… When I was doing my MBA in Finance, I loved havnig my textbooks handy to highlight and write notes in the books (yes, I did keep my books!). I started my PhD right away and purchased one eBook for my class, and the only thing that I really liked about it was being able to Ctrl+Find any keywords I needed, but I still found myself being tempted to have the pages tangibly in my hands. Needless to say, this was the book I read least. Despite being able to re-sell the book, I think to date, the apparent advantages of eBooks do not justify a full transition; at least not yet :)
C.M. Letamendi, MBA
Questions? Comments? letamend@nova.edu!
irving - October 27, 2010 at 8:50 am
As a part-time grad student who works in front of a computer all day, I do not want to read my textbooks electronically. I prefer to sit in a relaxing comfortable environment and hold my book. I also keep all textbooks that I think will be a resource for me in the future and I sell back the ones I don’t think I would use. I haven’t sold back any so far in grad school but I did during my undergraduate years. I have also given textbooks away. I’m also one of those students who makes notes and highlights in my book. Personally, I would not appreciate a professor that “required” me to purchase an online book. It’s not about technology, it’s about personal preferance. I like books!
dianecassidy - October 27, 2010 at 9:07 am
Food for thought:
1.) Many students don’t buy books in either format
2.) Students are not as tech savvy as we might believe
3.) Professors are not as tech savvy as they should be
4.) Students who do read books need the option to mark their books using highlighting etc.
5.) Some financial aid packages do not allow for purchase of eBooks
I teach 100% online and offer my students the option of purchasing a hard copy traditional text or an eBook. Both sales run about the same.
csgirl - October 27, 2010 at 9:09 am
I am a professor. I’ve tried to use the e-books on CourseSmart instead of lugging my desk copy into work when I plan to do some course preparation, but the interface is just awful – slow, and hard to find things. I’d rather lug the textbooks. I also use O’Reilly’s Safari service so I can get access to lots of technical books, but again, the interface is simply horrible.
wittseek7 - October 27, 2010 at 9:14 am
My hunch is that students will continue indefinitely to prefer books to e-readers, except in cases where their professors demand use of e-texts–or needed materials are available only in digital form. Although I greatly admire the technology in e-readers, especially as, with the iPad, they evolve into machines with broader and easier use, I believe that, for students, there will continue to be a fear factor concerning sudden loss of vital information. Probably, the best e-readers have an extremely low failure rate–a rate that is always dropping. However, this rate will never reach zero. If a student loses a vital print book, he or she can usually replace it rapidly and–relative to the purchase and re-loading of another e-reader–inexpensively. When I look back to my university days, I’m certain that I would have thrilled to an e-reader’s ability to show me reproductions pertaining to my History of Art courses, but I would have been uneasy trusting the machine to retain valuable texts, much less my class notes and my writing, were those storage features available.
Should professors require the use of e-books? Perhaps, when their price, relative to print books, comes way down–and, of course, a key factor in price is volume of sales. Maybe, increasing non-academic use of e-readers will be sufficient to lower prices. I don’t know. In the meantime, I sympathize with the students’ preference for print texts.
billhandy - October 27, 2010 at 9:54 am
I think the question/survey doesn’t reflect the true environment of e-books and how they can be accessed. I agree if you asked a student which they would prefer most would say book format simply because that is their comfort level. If you add in the factor of ebook with an iPad and then give them an iPad to try I suspect the response might be a bit different.
In fact, feedback and preliminary survey results from my students involved in an iPad pilot at Oklahoma State University negate the above results.
nathanjcox - October 27, 2010 at 10:11 am
Although cost/savings is a key point in this issue, there are many factors to consider, including convenience. Being able to carry an entire library around on an iphone in you pocket, or on an ipad or other e-reader, for example, is a pretty attractive idea.
The interactive capabilities of current and future e-texts is also impressive. One CAN make margin notes and highlight, (and look up embedded definitions, or expand diagrams for more detail and explanation, or look at three-dimensional models of objects, etc…)
The ability for other users within a class or study group to link their texts with one another, to be able to share their highlights and margin notes is also a potentially exciting and useful ability.
Also, we need to recognize that we are likely headed this way, whether we like traditional texts better or not. The reality is that this is/will likely be a more cost effective business model for publishers – and for consumers, so we as faculty had better participate with the text book evolution, instead of resisting the technology revolution.
paul_jenkins - October 27, 2010 at 10:16 am
A friend of mine uses the following quote by Henry Ford on his email: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
The same applies here. The basic problem, which is getting better, is interface. Storage isn’t an issue if your work is consistently backed up online which is a growing trend. That way your notes and materials are even safer than if you accidentally lose your backpack on campus. So, we’re back to interface. As iPads, Livescribe, and other devices make more transparent interfaces, and as today’s adolescents become tomorrow’s college students, ebooks will own the marketplace.
I know we’re not there yet, but a quick look at the evolution of technology over the past decade strongly points to this eventuality. Just this past year data finally overtook voice in the cellphone market. (Voice may be the wrong term, but I know data transmission overtook the previous king of the hill.) It took awhile, but it will only continue to increase. The same is true of the ebook market. I love picking up a good old fashioned book, but our students are already immersed in technology, and the only reason they aren’t running to ebooks like lemmings off a cliff is because 1) they’re smarter than lemmings and 2) the interface isn’t right… yet. Afterall, they’re consumers, not developers. No one thought the tablet market would take off until Apple nailed the iPad. It will happen, and staying out of the water until the temperature is right is a sure way to get left behind.
manitoga - October 27, 2010 at 11:18 am
@paievoli Students do sell their textbooks. There are many general-ed classes that undergrads have to take that don’t have much to do with their major. I ended up keeping all of my Major books, but very few of my non-major coursework books. What I didn’t keep, I gave away.
As a graduate student, same thing – I kept books of value, in general readers to me were not as valuable. I don’t need to keep a textbook to reference how basic TCP/IP works because I can find all that stuff on the internet. Could I have gone through the class without the textbook though? No, because there were assignment specific things I needed during the semester.
Book hoarding isn’t the mark of a student :-) It’s the mark of an uncritical student.
As far as interacting with books goes, I agree with other people here. As a grad student I did highlight, underline and write a ton in the margins of my books! As a professional working on a computer 8+ hours a day I don;t want to be forced to look at a monitor to do my readings, and not have the facility to interact with materials as I do on paper. It’s easier to write and mark up paper than use a mouse and keyboard to take notes.
My one eBook experience left me with an eBook that I could not use after the semester was over because my hard drive crashed and the DRM on the eBook had bonded itself to the hard drive serial number and the user ID that I was logged into when I purchased the book. That’s wasted money – luckily I ended up printing the whole eBook for class so I had a backup – but printing negates the “benefits” of an eBook.
I do agree that the prospect of having all the books that are relevant to my field of study in my iPad is a nice concept, BUT I need to be able to
1. Sell my book when I don’t need it (for a price that I specify)
2. Give the book away permanently or for a small period of time
3. Annotate as needed
None of this stuff can be done now :)
smichael55 - October 27, 2010 at 11:25 am
It is interesting that the study was conducted by a group who directly benefit from physical textbooks (booksellers) and are a large part of the expense of textbooks (mark-up over publisher price).
I am not sure whether to trust the objectivity of this study.
texasmusic - October 27, 2010 at 11:36 am
Some of comments in here have been rather enlightening. Okay, I’ll give you points for the fact that you can’t resell the book at the end of the semester. That’s why I avoided ebooks myself. However, after having to hold my business law book through a class and having to deal with the blinding glare from the glossy pages, I decided to rethink that decision. I am going to purchase a Nook for next semester.
I think one of the biggest problems with ebooks is that many people are under the impression it will leave you tethered to your computer. Not to mention the extra outlay for an ebook reader – and they aren’t dirt cheap and there’s no guarantee every textbook will be in the right format (or even in an ebook format of any sort). College students don’t have endless money to spend, as you know. As one commenter pointed out, many don’t even buy the books because they can’t afford them.
But they can be highlighted and annotated, or so I’m told by one of my student employees, who just so happens to be completely enamored of her new Nook.
I would also like to point out to another commenter that until ebook readers are completely accessible to the disabled, you cannot require their use. It’s amazing how we took something that was created for the blind and made changes so they can’t even use it properly.
But I know next semester, my eyes and my wrists are really going to thank me for going paperless. (Actually, I’d prefer to download ebooks into my mobile phone, for even more convenience, but alas, I have the mobile phone everybody hates, so things I need aren’t available.)
librarydirector - October 27, 2010 at 11:47 am
As one who deals with the transition from physical, paper-based texts to e-texts daily, I can attest that there is much more to the conversation than merely what is economical. Most students (not to mention professors and general readers) still do not wish to hassle with an e-book for any protracted length of time–say 20 or more pages at a sitting. The process of e-reading is unwieldy, uncomfortable, and requires more than just the perseverance to get through the pages. It requires a commitment to ergonomic effort on top of intellectual effort. And the ergonomic effort ends up reducing the amount of intellectual effort available to be put forth to interact with the text.
I am reminded of an early-adopter professor of mine in grad school in the early 80s, who required us to turn in part of our homework via email. At that time that required me, a commuter graduate student whose regular daily commute, work, class, and other travel day was 5:30 am to 7:30 pm five days per week, to leave my house before 5:00 am to get on campus by 7:30 am to use a teletype machine to turn in my assignment. Was this professor correct in gauging the future import of email? Of course she was. Did her insistence on my learning the current technology (teletype machines) do me any good in the long run? Absolutely not. Did her dogmatic pedagogy teach me anything? Only that her technological requirements were a huge and unnecessary inconvenience to me and that I still resent them a quarter of a century later.
E-books can be wonderful. But, to date, they are still clunky in comparison with old-fashioned paper books. Books can be read without batteries or electricity, on trains, in the bathtub. They can be shared–not electronically, but by a method known as conversation. They are, at least for my generation and the several generations following (including the current college-going crowd), an intuitive technology–they require no extra work to use. In the case of texts in non-major classes they are rentable, or can be purchased and resold.
The bottom line for me is that e-books will certainly attain a presence in the university world. But the way they will gain acceptance is through improved utility, not through improved market share or through enforced adoption.
hipczeck - October 27, 2010 at 11:56 am
I fully agree that when all of the benefits of the book form are combined with the benefits of digital form, you have an unbeatable combination.
I’ve been yearning for digital texts for years, but clunky interfaces have caused me to return to the paper version again and again.
The features I need:
* clean interface that doesn’t interfere with reading
* annotation/highlighting capabilities
* Searchable text AND annotations (handwritten)
* a price that reflects the reduced cost of production (new textbooks with e-version prices 15% higher than amazon.com prices for paper version?)
I personally prefer the TabletPC over the iPad form factor for its facility with searchable handwriting, but I have yet to see an e-text that takes advantage of this capability.
jmdeisler - October 27, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I’ve been looking into students having the option of buying either the print or the electronic version of the textbook for online classes. For productive discussions of the readings, however, we literally do need to be on the same page during discussions of the readings. There needs to be some way to give the location of the passage someone is looking at so that the rest of the class can easily find that same passage. For face-to-face classes this seems more of a problem than for online classes, although it would still be good if there were some consistent way to locate material under discussion.
Electronic readers like Kindle don’t easily allow that. (Too bad Amazon doesn’t put in a “view original page numbers” option.) Further, some textbooks come in different electronic version, each with a different format. For example, one textbook I’m looking at (in terms of print v. e-text) comes in html and Kindle versions as well as a print version. None looks like either of the other two versions.
Beyond that, I find a high level of distraction in students who use their laptops for note-taking in face-to-face classes, and so, with few exceptions, I only allow laptop use during collaborative writing exercises. I prefer students to have a print textbook in front of them, on their desks, so I can tell they’re actually looking at the textbook and not checking out Facebook (or the thousands of other things they might be looking at). It really makes a difference to the quality of class discussions.
Beyond that, as others have said, e-books aren’t re-sellable, and some are just rented for x number of months– meaning then students don’t have the option of keeping a particularly useful textbook. (Yes, they can go out and buy a new copy of it, but I suspect most of my students wouldn’t.)
In online classes (if pagination in the print version and e-text is equivalent) and perhaps in lecture classes, I see the possibility of switching to e-textbooks without diminishing the quality of the learning experience.
So… are e-textbooks the wave of the future? Probably, but maybe not completely. (By the way, when I can do so, I get copies of the books I’m using in my classes in both electronic and print form. This allows me easy access to the textbooks from wherever I am, anytime, while also allowing me the advantages of a print textbook in the classroom.)
dank48 - October 27, 2010 at 12:14 pm
It seems clear that at some future date, electronic books will be up to speed, so to speak, with the features noted above.
At the moment, however, we seem to be closer to the situation LibraryDirector describes: the damn things are required by some, not by others, for good reasons and for not so good reasons. The clunkiness isn’t deliberate, of course; the designers of these devices really are trying to get it right, but still . . . It’s a bit like the current setup for commenting on a CHE blog: if you end a paragraph with just one return, (like this)
there’s no space between paragraphs. If you use two returns, (like this)
you get a huge space. (This is going to be embarrassing if the problem has been fixed, obviously.)Nobody planned this; it’s just a mildly annoying feature that came about as a result of other factors.
And, painting with a broad analogical brush, at present it seems to me that
ebooks:books::internet porn:sexual relationships
There’s convenience of a sort, all right, but . . .
chandlermedlib - October 27, 2010 at 12:39 pm
But students CAN sell back their etextbooks (or rent them for varying periods of time). Consider a sites such as Collegebookrenter.com and others which permit students to resell their online textbooks. College bookstores may soon go the way of University presses and Blockbuster.
chrisbeks - October 27, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Interesting reading all the comments here. I’m an instructional designer, and I have found several e-textbook readers that address and eliminate most of the concerns here.
Barnes & Noble makes the Nook ereader, but also a ereader software program called NOOKstudy (Nookstudy.com) This software works on PC and Mac, with versions for iPad, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry coming soon.
The software allows for highlighting, annotating, searching, tagging, bookmarking, etc. like you would with a physical book. It allows imports of other documents, for example a syllabus or assignment, class notes and handouts. It helps organize all of it in courses or other folders if you’d like. It syncs across computers, so all books and materials are the same, and it keeps your place in the book that you were reading. It support “Full View” that makes the book show up in your entire screen, without tool bars or other distracting things. You can zoom in and out, view more than one page, or compare similar books next to each other.
Any book can be previewed for a week. Most of the textbooks can be rented for 50% or less of the purchase price. All pages match up with the paper version, and you can link directly to place in the book and email them or provide them in a web page.
The NOOKstudy software is excellent. Follett has a very similar software program called MyScribe, that does pretty much all of the functions I listed above.
The problem isn’t that we cannot do the same thing we can with paper books, in fact, we can do a lot more. The trouble is that as with so many other things in education, we’re the slow-last-minute-adopters, all of us. The publishers don’t want to, the teachers don’t care for it, the college bookstore doesn’t either, and the universities same thing.
But so far, all the students I’ve shown the software to, are excited and want to try it. It is the future of textbooks, and the best thing to do, really the only thing to do, is to jump on board.
Note: No, I don’t work for B&N or NOOKstudy or any other company I mentioned. I figured it would be fair to point out advantages of the software, since this study was backed by traditional, paper textbook publishers.
edwardjkennedy - October 27, 2010 at 2:29 pm
check out the new e-book device at http://www.kno.com
manitoga - October 27, 2010 at 3:19 pm
@chrisbeks but does the actual Nook (eReader) support this functionality or is it just on the desktop software?
As a side note, I do agree that glossy pages are the spawn of the devil when it comes to textbooks, but I would take a glossy page over an LCD display (especially since I spend my working day on a computer and by the end of the day I can feel the eye strain)
~ Dr. Pepper
drjeff - October 27, 2010 at 3:23 pm
billhandy: you might be correct, but it’s irrelevant. As long as a iPad costs as much as a semester of community college, and the eBooks themselves aren’t anywhere near free, the “if everyone had an iPad” discussion is purely theoretical. Today, given the state of the technology and the cost structure, it could be pretty stupid for a student to over-rely on eBooks. That’s why the comments here have run (very) roughly 3:1 in favor of paper.
It certainly does appear that eBooks will have the dominant market share at some point in the future, but history shows us it’s stupid to try to predict when that would be, or even to bet too much on it. In the 60′s, AT&T figured that by 2000, voice-only phones would certainly be obsolete, and that picture phones would replace them. Doubly wrong: replaced by texting and browsing, and more than 10 years later. I’m old enough to remember all the long-term technology predictions of the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s: approximately none of them played out the way it was “obvious” they would. Few commute to work these days in the flying cars that seemed only a little further “around the corner” in the 70′s than they do today.
The most accurate past predictor of future tech? Probably Star Trek, the TV series(es): the Motorola Star-Tac (the first folding) cell phone was basically a communicator from the original series, and the iPad is really close to what they used for most information access in The Next Generation. In both cases, the real tech followed its TV “use” by about 20 years, and the actors who had to make the props look believable got to actually buy and use the devices in real life.
brezenoff - October 27, 2010 at 8:32 pm
I would like to thank all the responders to this article. This is the first list of comments in I can’t remember how long in which the comments stayed on target and were thoughtful and non-confrontational. I have been using a Kindle for the past year – since my wife thought it would be a good special occasion present. I offer the following comments for your consideration. On the positive side, at least for the Kindle:
E-readers are great for travel, so you don’t have to cart a bunch of heavy books.
They do allow for annotating and underlining, and – at least with the Kindle – you purchase a license that allows you to share the book with up to five people.
They are great for practicing Spanish, since you can change the default dictionary to a Spanish-English dictionary.
It is easy to read, relatively, glare-free, and light weight.
BUT:
I agree with the commenter who wrote, I like the feel of a book. For a standard novel, I will download an electronic version. For something important, I want paper! I want to put it on my book shelf (something else that will be lost)
If you are reading a paper novel in the warmth of the sun and conk out, you only drop a book. Do the same with an e-reader and you may be out a bit of money.
I have been a computer person since the first IBM PC (1982?), but, although e-books likely are the wave of the future, I still prefer the feel and closeness of paper. I can’t get past the electronics to feel the same intimacy with the story as with a real book. Perhaps its my gray hair.
Henry
beeterada - October 28, 2010 at 8:44 am
For me, there is an easy distinction why students opt for hard copy books instead of electronic copies. E-books files can get corrupted, e-book readers can be broken or lose power after a period of time, and since these are new gadgets I’m sure they are worth a lot when stolen. Books on the other hand last longer, are plentiful, and are less likely to be stolen. The only leg up e-book readers have over books is portability and quantity.
Beatrice
texasmusic - October 28, 2010 at 11:54 am
The actual Nook does that. Or so my student employee tells me. I can’t wait to buy one for myself. My entire Christmas wish list consists of Barnes & Noble giftcards.
wvdirtboy - October 28, 2010 at 11:58 am
We tried an eBook for a course and it was a disaster. There were so many restrictions on how students could use it that students and faculty alike up a wall. You could only print pages once (ever), you were locked to a single machine, etc…
I told the book rep I would never use another one of their eBooks again until they adopted a more user-friendly use policy. I also switched away from the physical book just to make a point.
Maybe students have heard similar tales and are wisely wary!
texasmusic - October 28, 2010 at 6:55 pm
@ wvdirtboy – using a NetLibrary book for a course would be a disaster. I took a class in grad school that tried that and the same situation as you described happened. At first, nobody could even access the book because as soon as one user would open it, the rest of us were locked out.
Using an ebook you can download to an e-reader, on the other hand, isn’t the same and shouldn’t be regarded as such. You could choose a book that could be downloaded from Barnes & Noble or Amazon…or Borders, or any number of other vendors and end up with a much better experience. Perhaps not perfect, or the same as with a print book, but a book vendor whose model is selling to libraries (or institutional sales) is NOT the way to go for course texts. That kind of savings is not helpful at all to students.
theoldman - October 29, 2010 at 7:08 am
Students in our core business courses were given e-books this year as opposed to the traditional text. In the previous fall term, only 42 percent of surveyed students purchased texts for their class (this survey was untaken using a limited population). With the etexts, the student adoption rate is hovering around 90 percent. Based on informal communications, they have been largely very supportive of the shift. They are provided more options for reading material – pcs, smartphones,Kindles etc – and still have the capability of printing off specific chapters or sections of the text. After the term is completed, more detailed analysis will be undertaken, but from our current vantage, this project has been overwhelmingly adopted and accepted by our students.
jmdeisler - October 29, 2010 at 11:59 am
Last night, I asked my class (face to face) about their experience of e-textbooks. The comments were overwhelmingly negative, although most thought it would be useful to have both print and e-versions so they would have the ability to study on the go. One pointed out that even though annotation is possible on various readers, the annotation capability is quite limited. Another said e-books hurt her eyes. One mentioned the relatively high cost for e-textbooks, whether to rent or to own, and also mentioned they liked being able to decide at the end of a semester whether to keep or sell back a book. Finally, many agreed that down the line, when creators of e-books improved upon current difficulties, they might like them better.
marrr - November 4, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Aren’t businesses supposed to provide what the customer wants? Rather than the other way around? And what guarantee is there that an etextbook would cost less than a print textbook? I can’t think of any example of a publisher ever making less money from a new format. I don’t always mind working with ebooks–sometimes I even prefer them–but I do hate the idea of having to also shell out a significant amount of money to buy yet another piece of equipment for another everyday task.