Journal of Student Research 2017

Benefits and Limitations of E-textbook Use effect requiring an Internet connection to access content; therefore, an Internet connection is a necessity when reading e-textbooks that are not downloadable. As shown by Table 1, page navigation had a balanced ranking throughout the scale. This suggests that some subjects struggle with page navigation while others do not see page navigation as a problem. Lastly, difficult notetaking and long-page load times were the least problematic for subjects. The results suggest that students do not struggle with finding alternatives to notetaking or worry about page loading. The least problematic, page loading, suggests that the subject’s Internet connection speed is sufficient to support the content. Audiences of this research paper should consider the five problematic features surveyed in this research when they choose course textbook materials. According to Grajek (2013), three main factors that concern students or faculty most about e-textbooks are cost, availability, and portability. The findings from this research survey illustrate that accessibility and portability are two important features that influence e-textbook usage. Ease of reading ranked as fourth most beneficial. One should be aware that “ease of reading” does not necessarily correlate or relate to headache/eyestrain in this study, but exemplifies the ease of reading the size of the text on an electronic video display. Although concerns related to page navigation and printability were less significant when compared to the other three features, the ability to easily navigate and print materials for notetaking may also be important for other circumstances, such as students who want to scan from page(s) to page(s) or students who prefer to read a printed text over an e-text. Approximately 46% of subjects stated that printability was not a problem that they encounter regularly. These five chosen features are factors that may influence students’ interest in e-textbooks. Figure 2 illustrates GPAs self-reported by the subjects as related to e-textbook use. As shown by Figure 2, there is no apparent correlation between e-textbook use and negative academic performance. Over half the respondents reported a GPA between 3.1 and 4.0 on a scale of 1.0-4.0. This may imply that students do relatively well while using e-textbooks. The survey question asked for the subjects’ “estimated average GPA,” the survey results may be skewed or miscalculated by the respondents. Nonetheless, as shown by the figure, subjects appear to perform well academically when they use e-textbooks. There are certainly other factors not addressed by this study that may influence grade outcomes and the use of e-textbooks.

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