William Paterson University’s Cheng Library, Instruction and Research Technology department, Office of the Provost, and Technology Across the Curriculum Committee, hosted this forum to clarify e-books for faculty by providing an explanation of the landscape of e-books, profiling e-book delivery systems and evincing their pedagogical uses. Marketing and Management Professor Dr. Bela Florenthal examines the pros and cons of using e-textbooks in an academic course.
2. Outline
The e-textbook market
E-textbook options
CourseSmart
Strengths and Weaknesses
Demonstration
Inkling
Strengths and Weaknesses
Demonstration
McGraw-Hill Connect
Strengths and Weaknesses
Demonstration
3. The E-Textbook Market
Sources: USA TODAY (8/3/11), Pearson Foundation
$4.5 billion worth of textbooks were sold in 2010
Predicted growth of e-textbooks:
3% of sales in 2011
30% 25%
44% of sales by 2017 25%
20%
15%
College
students 10% 7% 2011
5% 2012
who own tablets: 0%
Quadruple growth in 2012 College Students
Owning a Tablet
4. CourseSmart:
A Rent Model
Strengths Weaknesses
Above 7,000 titles are Rent is available for 180
available days, non transferable
Price: No option to read
about 50% of the printed offline
version Does not scale well for
Free iPhone and iPad iPad landscape
apps Search option is limited
iPad app: iPhone app
Can highlight content Can’t take notes
Can add notes Can’t double click to
Ruler for easier read zoom
5. Inkling:
A Purchase Model
Strengths Weaknesses
Can buy a chapter at a No rent option is
time; $2.99 per chapter available
User friendly search Can be slow to
Social options: download
Share notes with other Only iPad app
students Very limited selection
Connect through Facebook about 100 titles
Free iPad apps A start-up company
iPad app:
Can highlight content
Can add notes
Can take quizzes
6. McGraw-Hill E-Textbook
A Rental Model
Strengths Weaknesses
Text is interactive Web based
Can copy to a word Can’t use offline
document
Can’t use through an
Bundled with Connect app
interface
Not very scalable
Pages can be printed
Connect + costs about
Interactive search
$80
Word based
Can’t resell to recoup
Definitions of concepts by the cost
hovering over them