Ease of use and usefulness as measures of student experience in a multi-platform e-textbook pilot

Abstract

As the use of electronic textbooks continues to expand and we approach the point where dominance of digital over print is becoming increasingly inevitable (Reynolds, 2011), research is needed to understand how students accept and use the technology. This is especially critical as we begin to explore the electronic format for required textbooks in higher education. The current study evaluates university students' experiences with electronic textbooks (e-textbooks) during a pilot project with two textbook publishers, Flat World Knowledge (FWK) and Nelson Education (Nelson). Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a framework, we examine the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the technology. While previous research suggests that students have a general preference for textbooks in print rather than electronic format (Allen, 2009;Parsons, 2014;Woody, et al., 2010), our study suggests that preference may not dictate the likelihood that students will seek out and use print options. Our study also indicated that student experience with the open/affordable textbook (FWK) was very comparable to that of the high cost commercial text (Nelson). Despite overall positive reviews for the etextbooks across both platforms, students experienced a drop in enthusiasm for e-textbooks from the beginning to the end of the pilot.

Analysis of the Factors for the Successful E-Learning Services Adoption from Education Providers’ and Students’ Perspectives: A case study of Private Universities in Northern Iraq

“…It has a direct effect on the intention to use those specific systems in the future (Davis et al, 1989). It should also be noted that behavioural intention is affected by perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (Johnston et al, 2015). Furthermore, examples of the external variables were given in the new model by Venkatesh and Davis (2000) as TAM2, such as "job relevance", "output quality" and the "results demonstrability" (Nyoro et al, 2015).…”

Factors affecting the use of social media in the learning process

“…There are about 82% increase of the cybercrimes between 2009 and 2012 (Tanzania Police Force 2012). With these statistics, it is possible to scare some potential users of online platforms, including social media (Johnston et al 2015;Jovanovic & Chiong 2012). …”

“…The literature cites the following factors to be important in enabling users to comfortably use social media in the learning process: the ability to install the platform, the accessibility of the platform, how easy is navigation in the platform and the readability of the content (Johnston et al 2015;Yun-Jo et al 2009). In this part of the study, we determined the perceived comfortability of using social media by learners in the learning process.…”

“…The effort expectance suggests the amount of effort required to learn a new programme (Attuquayefio & Addo 2014;Lubua 2014). Generally, the ease of use is likely to be possible if the technology is simple to understand (Byabato & Kisamo 2014;Johnston et al 2015).…”

A Sharing Mind Map-oriented Approach to Enhance Collaborative Mobile Learning With Digital Archiving Systems

“…The introduction of mobile devices and digital archive resources changes the learning tool being used and adds additional content, which is an easy-to-achieve objective from the perspective of using technology (Johnston, Berg, Pillon, & Williams, 2015). However, from the pedagogical perspective, what matters is whether this learning system can assist the learning process and improve the way learning takes place Hwang et al, 2011).…”