According to a recent survey of 500 college students conducted by Wakefield Research for VitalSource, 87 percent of students feel their grades would be better if they had access to interactive textbooks. While this study focused on higher ed, the conclusions likely also apply to K-12 students.
As part of their learning experience with digital textbooks, today’s students want to be able to:
* Take quizzes on information learned (63 percent)
* Keep track of information learned (57 percent)
* Take notes and highlight content in their digital textbooks (55 percent)
* Set study goals and track their progress (52 percent).
Students cite convenience, affordability, and interactivity as the primary benefits of digital textbooks over physical textbooks. Flexibility and multi-functionality are also important. Students feel any digital textbook adopted by their school must be able to be used in a multitude of ways to be truly useful. According to the survey, 29 percent of students read texts offline, 26 percent online, and 45 percent online and offline equally. Almost all students (87%) feel that digital textbooks aren’t worth the money if they can’t be viewed fully offline.
For more on this study go to www.techlearning.com/nov16
