Journal of Education and Human Development
June 2014, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 243-258
ISSN: 2334-296X (Print), 2334-2978 (Online)
Copyright © The Author(s). 2014. All Rights Reserved.
Published by American Research Institute for Policy Development
Text Books: ebook Vs. Print
Adeel Khalid1
Abstract
Electronic books or Ebooks are becoming more and more common in colleges.In
this research, the student book buying patterns are studied at a public engineering
institution. Ebooks are becoming more and more common. Based on a research
survey, we analyze whether students prefer ebooks or print editions. Comparisons
are done across disciplines, level of the student (freshman to graduate), whether the
student owns a laptop / desktop / tablet, student work commitments, financial
needs, and age; among other factors. Some professors give the option of using the
ebooks, while others do not. Students may or may not know about the availability of
ebooks for their courses and this may impact their decision to choose either option.
Students may make decisions to purchase ebooks or print edition based on cost,
readability, availability, and ability to take notes, impact on the environment, ease of
use, logistics and the level of the usage of the book in a given course. Students also
take into account the resale value of the book at the end of the semester. These and
other factors that lead to the student choice are studied. The goal of this study is to
understand student book buying behaviors. Authors hope that both students and
faculty members can be made aware of the various text book options available so
they can make the best choices given the individual circumstances.
Introduction and Background
The study on Text Books: ebooksvs. print is conducted bythe Research
Learning Community (RLC) - a component of the Center for Teaching Excellence at
Southern Polytechnic State University.
Members are faculty and staff involved with instruction from diverse
disciplines ranging from engineering to arts, law, and sciences among others.
1 Southern Polytechnic State University, USA. Email: [email protected]
244 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Members are interested and involved with the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL). RLC meetings are held on a monthly basis where topics of interest
and discussions regarding ongoing research projects occur.
The topic of ebooks evolved during meetings of the RLC. For the purpose of
this study terminology clarification of an ebook is “An electronic book (variations: e-
book, eBook, e-Book, ebook, digital book, or evene-edition) is a book-length
publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on computers
or other electronic devices”(Gardiner & Musto., 2010). As part of this study, various
textbookoptions were explored that were available and student book buying patterns
were studied.Ebooks emerged as a relatively new aspect of course support material
that brought new opportunities, concerns and questions regarding their use. As
discussions continued,ebook was deemed a viable topic that could have specific data
collected and a formal study conductedto analyze whether students prefer ebooks or
print editions. A subcommittee was established for this project.
The topic of ebooks vs. print stems in part from concerns over the costs
associated with higher education including administrative mandates requesting reviews
of retention, academic achievement and expenses associated with courses. Everyone
agrees textbooks are a major investment for college students. Maintaining affordable,
current and portable textbooks is a challenge. Technological advances occur rapidly
and accessibility to the most current and relevant textbooks is desired. The emergence
of ebooks, allows updates along with other aspects such as ease of use, interaction and
accessibility; and options regarding fees and associated costs. Types of electronic
devices, preferences of instructors and students are also considerations and rationales
for use. A survey via an academic research/study provides a framework for evaluation
and a way to look at the big picture as well as small details that together provide data
regarding the pattern of preference and use of ebooks at the university.
Just as the RLC group had varying opinions regarding ebooks vs. print, it was
deemed essential to gather opinions from the ones who use ebooks… the students.
Their perspectives and rationale for selecting ebooks over print are essential and so
the question to begin the research project was: Do students consider ebooks a viable
option?
Adeel Khalid 245
The subcommittee took the lead to devise an online survey to gather data. By
using a survey tool in Google, students could respond directly and the data could be
tabulated automatically. A survey was created then presented at a monthly meeting for
review. Several changes were suggested and then the questions were put online for
additional comments from RLC members. Initially deciding on a format was key and
selecting a survey format similar to previous surveys conducted by the RLC proved to
be effective. The main challenge was the intent of the questions. Some were open to
interpretation and were not clear. Subcommittee members responded to several
versions of the questions and format via email. Phrasing was adjusted and reviewed
and finally a format and set of questions was ready to post. Once the questionnaire
was formalized and placed in Google Docs the link was shared with all RLC members
who solicited participation from their students. Every RLC member was charged to
get the word out to their classes so a wide range of students from varying disciplines
could participate. In some classes it became a required assignment, others
incorporated the survey into in-class activity since students had access to internet via
cell phones and computers. In other courses professor incentives encouraged student
participation in the brief and easy to access survey.
Review of Literature
More students use portable electronic devices to take lecture notes in class
rather than hand write. As Buckley and Johnson (Buckley & Johnson, 2013) mention,
“more students and faculty [are] using portable electronic devices, and ebook
databases now provide more downloading capabilities.” However, students still prefer
print versions of textbooks although ebooks are usually cheaper to purchase.
Kolowich(Kolowich, Pumping the e-brakes, 2011)states, “e-textbooks show signs of
finally gaining traction, although they still account for a smaller share of all textbook
purchases than any method of acquiring a print textbook.” Most e-textbook
purchases by students are because of professor mandates. Advantages of e-textbooks
are the digital enhancements and interactive weblinks provided by publishers within
the e-textbook. Publishers include practice quizzes, flashcards, find options, table of
content links, and other resources for content reinforcement whereas the common
textbook is not interactive. Rebora(Rebora, 2013)suggests that “e-book publishers are
increasingly trying to make their products look and function more like printed books,
even as efforts to add cutting-edge interactive enhancements to digital books have
seemingly foundered.”
246 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Another advantage for e-textbooks is that a large number of books can fit into
a single Portable Electronic Device (PED). A student only needs to carry the PED to
classes and not twenty pounds of different textbooks. An advantage for a professor is
that the e-textbook can also be shown from the computer and overhead projector to
the entire class helping with in-class discussion and student engagement.
Some universities are piloting studies with e-books and are negotiating
discounts with publishing companies. Thisaides in keeping costs down for students
and guarantees sales for publishers. There are always the disadvantages of e-
textbooks: expiring codes that disallow students to access the e-textbook in the future
whereas once a printed version is purchased, one perpetually owns it; and the
technological issues that arise with navigating the e-text. “Though some students
easily navigated e-text interfaces and fully utilized digital tools, others struggled with
basic e-text functionality like creating a user account, entering access codes, locating
readings, creating bookmarks, using highlighting tools, and writing notes”(Kolowich,
Pumping the e-brakes, 2011). Now professors must teach and guide their students
through technology-supported systems and e-textbooks issues.Many technology savvy
students adopt ebooks without any involvement of the instructor.
Several searches were conducted by RLC members during the process. Some
looked at online surveys in general, others for specific data available on the topic.
Journal articles, abstracts and conference proceedings, were studied.
Survey
An anonymous survey, mentioned above,was given to the students in all
disciplines from freshmen all the way to graduate students. The intent was to analyze
and compare the book buying behaviors of students across a variety of backgrounds.
The hope was that the analysis of the survey and recommendations made based on
the analysis would help better serve the faculty and students. Institutional Review
Board (IRB) approval was obtained for this study to ensure that no student is
identified by this analysis, no personal information is revealed and the publications of
the results does not harm any individual. Students are instructed to take the survey
with a particular course in mind. Instructors are asked to give the surveys in class. A
student could potentially take the same survey multiple times for different courses.
To gather the book buying behaviors, following questions wereasked in the survey.
Adeel Khalid 247
Q1: Is a textbook available in this course?
Q2: Are you using the most current edition of the textbook?
Q3: How did you acquire a textbook for this course?
Q4: What form of textbook did you acquire?
Q5: Do you prefer an eBook or printed textbook?
In addition to these questions, a few opinion based questions were asked.
Students were given several choices to pick from and also given the option to create
their own answers. These questions and the available responses were as follows:
Q6: Why do you prefer printed textbook (if applicable)? (Top 3 reasons)
❏ Cost
❏ Readability
❏ Availability
❏ Ability to take notes
❏ Impact on the environment
❏ Ease of use (highlighting, finding a particular section)
❏ How much of the book is actually needed (only a few chapters vs. the entire
book)
❏ Logistics (easy to carry / logistics)
❏ Others
Q7: Why do you prefer eBook (if applicable)? (Top 3 reasons)
❏ Cost
❏ Readability
❏ Availability
❏ Ability to take notes
❏ Impact on the environment
❏ Ease of use (highlighting, finding a particular section)
❏ How much of the book is actually needed (only a few chapters vs. the entire
book)
❏ Logistics (easy to carry / logistics)
❏ Others
248 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Q8: Which of the following devices do you own?
❏ Laptop / desktop
❏ Tablet (iPad, Android, Windows)
❏ eReader (Nook, Kindle etc.)
❏ Others
Question 8 was designed to understand whether the choice a student
madeinfluenced by the electronic devices they owned. In addition to these questions,
several demographic type questions were asked to analyze the difference in book
buying behaviors across various backgrounds of students. These questions included
those related to their year in college, major, gender, level of course they are taking,
whether they received financial aid, whether they worked and how many hours they
worked per week, their student status (full or part time) and their age. The survey was
made available to all students at the Southern Polytechnic State University. A total 443
unique responses were received for the survey in the spring of 2013. 15%, 20%, 29%,
32% and 5% of the responses received were from freshmen, sophomore, juniors,
seniors and graduate students respectively. Additionally, 9%, 18%, 5%, and 68% of
the responses received were from the schools of architecture, arts and sciences,
computing and engineering and technology respectively. This apparent skew is, in
part, due to the relative size of the respective schools.78% of the students reported
receiving some sort of financial aid whereas 22% students reported receiving no
financial aid. In terms of the number of hours that the students work, responses
received are listed in Table 1:
Table 1: Number of hours of work
Work Hours Per Week % of Students
<10 hrs 48 (11%)
11-20 hrs 77 (18%)
21-30 hrs 55 (13%)
31-40 hrs 43 (10%)
>40 hrs 53 (12%)
Do not work 150 (35%)
In terms of the age, just over 2/3 of the students were between the ages of 18
and 24 but there were older / non-traditional students enrolled in classes who took
the survey. The complete breakdown is shown in Figure 1.
Adeel Khalid 249
Figure 1: Ages of Students Taking the Survey
The age breakdown of survey respondents was a fair representation of the
student population at Southern Polytechnic State University. Additionally, 86% of the
students reportedhaving full time studentstatus and 14% reported being part time
students. It is important to note that several of the full time students also work part
time or full time. Out of those who took the survey, 19%, 27%, 26%, 23%, and 5% of
the students reported taking 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and graduate courses respectively.
These numbers werealso representative of the student population distribution at
Southern Polytechnic State University. The detailed results of the survey and the
corresponding discussions are given in the following section.
Results and Discussions
The survey results concerning what form of book students acquired, how they
acquired it, what form they would prefer to use, and what electronic devices they
ownedare analyzed to look for variations according to level in school and by major.
From results obtained in survey it is clear that print books werestill the predominant
form of text. Readability, ease of use, and portability were the top reasons for the
students’ preference of printed text books.
250 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Figure 2. Form of Book Actually Acquired, by Level
Analysis of results for the form of text book acquired by students displays an
interesting trend as a student progresses through the years. Although students
overwhelmingly acquire the print version of their textbooks, in the freshman year the
percentage of students acquiring an ebook is less than 5%. This is much lower than
the percentage of students acquiring an ebook in any other year. The acquisition of an
ebook version of the text picks up right after freshman year, dipping down again in
the graduate level.One explanation of this behavior is that in the freshman year,
students are not aware that ebook versions of their textbooks are available. This
would also depend upon the high school the student came from and if they were
exposed to ebooks. A lot of high schools are moving towards ebooks however that
may not be an overall phenomenon. The other possibility is that the types of classes a
freshman takes may favor the use of a print book. Entry level math and science
classes may favor the use of a print text for ease of use. This trend may change as
more and more publishers are making their ebooks very usable with added features
that mimic the use of a print text book. Also, advertising the availability of ebooks for
different subjects and showcasing their features to faculty and students may
contribute to more students choosing ebooks in the future.
The decrease seen in acquisition of an ebook by a graduate student may be
due to the types of classes being taken by a graduate student, and the fact that print
text books are easier to use and it could also reflect the availability of graduate level
texts as ebooks.
Adeel Khalid 251
As return on investment by the publishers in ebook heavily depends on
volume sales, graduate level sales of textbooks cannot match those at undergraduate
levels thus limiting incentives.
The survey results can be used to observe differences between students by
major. The groupings of majors are by schools at SPSU, with the exception that
Construction Management is in the same school as Architecture at SPSU, but is
grouped with Engineering Technology and Management for the purposes of this
analysis. Figure 3 shows howthe type of book acquired varies with major (without
regard to what form of book).
Figure 3: Form of Book Acquired by Major
It can be seen from Figure 3that printed books are the most often used, by
far, for students of all majors, but Engineering students are most likely and
Architecture students least likely to use ebooks. The next trend to investigate was
how students acquired their books, without regard to the form of book to see how
that varies with level in school. Figure 4shows those results. Clearly the large
majority of students at all levels still purchase their books.
Graduate students are most likely to buy the book, possibly because graduate
level books are more likely to be kept for future reference. It is also interesting that
both sharing and borrowing seem to increase as students advance through the
undergraduate years. This may be because as students advance, they accumulate
friends among their classmates in their major.
252 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Figure 4: How Books were Acquired
The study also looked at whether the means of acquiring the book varies
according to a student’s major. Figure 5 shows that there does not seem to be a large
difference in the ways students in different majors acquire their books except that
none of the Arts and Science students who responded to the survey rented the book
for the course about which they were responding.
Figure 5: How Books were Acquired by Major
Next, the study considered the relationship between the type of book and
how it is acquired. Figure 6 shows the distribution of acquisition channels for printed
textbooks and Figure 7 shows that distribution for ebooks.
Adeel Khalid 253
Figure 6: How Printed Books were Acquired
Figure 7: How ebooks were Acquired
The survey showed that while 72% of printed books were purchased and
most of the rest (20%) were rented, the acquisition of ebooks was much more evenly
distributed between methods.
It was pointed out above that none of the Arts & Science students responding
to the survey rented their textbook. This is consistent with only six percent of A&S
students using eBooks.
254 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
We also investigated students stated preferences for printed books or ebooks
in contrast to what they acquired. Figure 8 shows the variation in students’ stated
preference by level of student and Figure 9 for students by major.
Figure 8: Preference of form of Text Book, by Level
As evident from the graph above, a printed book seems to be the form of text
book that is most popular among students all through the years. The results also
indicate some level of uncertainty amongst students on whether they prefer e-books
or printed texts. This could be due to lack of adequate exposure to e-books and their
capabilities and features. The usage of an e-book may also be related to the type of
course, some courses being more e-book compatible than others.
Figure 9: Preference, by Major
Adeel Khalid 255
The fact that there were no “no preference” responses among Architecture
students probably is not significant, as there were only 21 responses from architecture
students. The noticeable difference between Engineering and Engineering
Technology & Management (ETM) students, with latter group showing a much
higher preference for printed books, is surprising. Both groups have enough
responses (199 Engineering and 109 ETM) that such a difference is probably
significant but the courses that the two groups of students take at SPSU are so similar
in both content and teaching methods that this may reflect some anomaly relating to
which courses the different groups of students were responding about.
Comparing the graphs of form of textbook students prefer (Figures 8 and 9)
with the ones showing form of textbook actually acquired (Figures 2 and 3) it was
evident that for all levels of students, preference for ebooks is higher than actual use.
The percentage of those preferring eBooks seems to be consistent between all levels
of students although levels of use are lower among freshmen and graduate students.
Of students who prefer printed books, 72% selected Readability as one of the reasons
and of those who prefer ebooks, 79% selected Cost as one of the reasons.
Since the devices—notebook or laptop computer, tablet, e-reader, or other—
that students own may influence their preferences and acquisitions and may also
reflect their level of technological sophistication or interest, we looked at device
ownership overall and by level and major.
Figures 10, 11 and 12 show, respectively, total ownership of each type of
device for all students combined, combinations of devices owned by level, and
combinations of devices owned by major.
Figure 10: Electronic Devices Owned by all Students
256 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
Figure 11: Devices Owned, by Level
Figure 12: Devices Owned, by Major
All of the graphs (figures 10, 11 and 12) show that almost all students of any
level and any major own a laptop or desktop computer. Ownership of eReaders in
addition appears to increase as students’ progress, but at all levels and in all majors,
tablets are much more commonly owned than eReaders,with graduate students having
both a laptop/desktop and a tablet or an E-reader such as Nook, Kindles etc.
Adeel Khalid 257
This is not surprising since eReaders, although cheaper, are limited in their
features and capabilities when compared to a tablet.
Conclusions
The advent of electronic or ebooks in colleges was studied.The results indicate
that a large number of students and faculty members are not aware of the ebook
option available for their courses. However this trend seems to be changing rapidly.
In this case study, it was also observed that a majority of the students’ still preferred
printed version of the book. The top reasons for their preference included availability
and ease of use in terms of taking notes, highlighting, and finding particular sections.
Those who preferred eBooks were so inclined because of their low cost; how much
the book was actually needed for a given course; and logistics in terms of portability
and ease of access.
It is observed that representatives of publishers that frequent the campus
often do not advertise ebooks very enthusiastically. They mention it only when asked.
Faculty are not nearly aware of ebooks and among older faculty there is some
hesitation in taking on anything that is technology driven. Learning the nuances of an
ebook and what it can do maybe time consuming. Older students are generally more
resistant because they are more used to the traditional print text. Course specific
differences as well as publisher specific differences do exist. Some ebooks are a lot
more capable and have features that may not be found in other ebooks. Hence an
instructor may recommend an ebook for one particular course but may find that the
print version is better for some other course.So there is a lack of consistency in
ebooks themselves and that may influence a student and/or faculty’s decision for
recommending an ebook for their course.
258 Journal of Education and Human Development, Vol. 3(2), June 2014
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