Student Perceptions and Use of Ebooks

Research questions

• How do U of G students use and experience ebooks for their academic work?
• Where do they find ebooks?
• What features do they value?
• What are their expectations and when do they prefer printed books or ebooks?

Methods

• Seventeen students completed a diary entry each time they interacted with an ebook over the Fall 2013 semester.

What did we learn?

• For the most part, students are reading academic ebooks on laptops and desktops, rather than dedicated ereaders.
• Both ebooks and print books have their place. Whether a student chooses to use an ebook or a print book at any given time depends on a variety of factors: personal comfort, availability, convenience, intended use, and cost.

Recommendations

• The ideal ebook is in PDF format and can be downloaded and stored on a device.
• Address technical issues with problems of off-campus authentication and limits on number of concurrent users.