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Are e-Textbooks Ready for Center Stage?

By XanEdu, on March 1st, 2011 - 10 comments
As part of our extensive class testing this fall involving several hundred students across over 10 universities, we’ve been gathering feedback from students, professors and administrators on electronic textbooks.
Providers such as CourseSmart, Inkling and others offer electronic editions of textbooks. Over the past year, the availability of titles has expanded dramatically, making digital textbooks an option for most higher ed classes.
In this exclusive report, we share the strengths and weaknesses of this new learning tool.

The Good

Electronic textbooks have many things going for them.  They lighten the briefcase or backpack of students; they can contain interactive elements such as quizzes or animation; and some platforms offer coordination between devices.  For example, with a CourseSmart textbook, users can take notes on their iPad and have them appear in their online CourseSmart account accessed via their laptop or desktop computer.
The largest benefit of digital textbooks is the price. Electronic titles typically cost anywhere between 30% to 50% less than a new print copy of the materials.  For example, a popular accounting textbook costs $140 new; the e-version of the book costs $75.

The Bad

In XanEdu’s class testing of several e-book platforms, several concerns were raised by students, professors and administrators:
  • Access requirements.  Some popular e-textbook platforms, such as CourseSmart, require internet access in order to read the textbook on a laptop or iPad.  Despite wide-spread availability of wifi and built-in 3G access into some versions of the iPad, students expressed strong reservations about requiring internet access in order to do reading for class.  While connectivity is widespread, it is also not yet 100% reliable.  As one program director said, “I can imagine if a student’s wifi goes out at home, my choice of an electronic textbook will cause him to have to go to Starbucks in his pajamas in order to prepare for class.  There’s no way I can put a student in that position.”
  • A short-term lease.  As mentioned above, e-textbooks can represent meaningful cost savings.  The quid pro quo, however, is that access to most electronic textbooks ends after a short subscription period of 6 months, after which the student can’t access the book.  While that model may work for a non-major undergraduate class, it is a challenge in a grad program where the student will likely need to refer to a textbook beyond the six-month rental window.  This business model makes e-textbooks unworkable for many students and programs.

What the Future Holds

While XanEdu class testers expressed reservations about adopting digital textbooks in their current form due to their limitations, there will likely be refinements to the products and business models in the near future.  Promising new entrants such as Inkling provide interesting new features, and allow the e-textbook to be downloaded to an iPad, removing the need for a constant internet connection.  CourseSmart has indicated a willingness to consider longer access periods for students, and Barnes&Noble is experimenting with ‘rent to own’ business models that would allow the student to own the textbook title for an additional fee above the initial rental price.

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