eBooks in Higher Education

Reading Between the Lines

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Naomi Baron: nbaron@american.edu

Laura March: march@american.edu

Google Presentation:

http://bit.ly/ebooksnoontime

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• Brief History and Introduction

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• Creating an eBook

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• Pros and Cons of eReading

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Google Presentation:

http://bit.ly/ebooksnoontime

History and Introduction

1971

1998

2007

$400

$600

2010

May 2013

2011

eBook sales rose 117% over those in 2010

January 2011

Kindle sales moved ahead of paperbacks

2012

eBook sales almost 23% of American publishers’ revenues (in 2008, accounted for only 1%)

Baron (2014)

Pew Internet 2014: E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps

Creating an eBook

1. Locally

Save in easy-to-find folder on your computer

2. Hard Backup

Save in external hard drive or USB

3. Cloud

Save to Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, ect.

http://bit.ly/ibookebook

http://bit.ly/kindleebookhowto

Using Papyrus for Class

www.papyruseditor.com

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Codes

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#Heading 1 (Biggest)

##Heading 2 (Medium)

###Heading 3 (Smallest)

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"Break" (extra line space code): <br /><br />

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This is a sentence with <b>BOLD</b> code.

This is a sentence with <u>UNDERLINED</u> code.

This is a sentence with <i>ITALICIZED</i> code.

This is a sentence with a <a href="www.google.com">Link to Google</a> code.

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• Log into system anytime

www.papyruseditor.com

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• Versions are not saved. Another author can completely rewrite or delete your work
• Tip: Save another personal copy of your work

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Pros and Cons of eReading

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Point …

“Babies born today will probably never read anything in print.”

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Ben Horowitz

(co-founder of

Andreessen Horowitz Venture Capital)

October 2012

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… Counterpoint

“It’s not a book. It doesn’t have a smell, you don’t touch it …, you’re plugged into the internet, you can’t concentrate, it hurts your eyes, and you lose the beauty of the words behind the screen. Life itself is in hard copy[.] Not this treacherous digitalism which has permeated our lives and our reality.”

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Undergraduate Student

Today’s Issues

• What different types of reading are there?
• What are some advantages of reading onscreen?
• What are some challenges of reading onscreen?
• What do young adult readers say about reading onscreen?

Types of Reading

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• Continuous reading vs. reading on the prowl

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• Deep reading vs. hyper reading

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Continuous Reading vs. �Reading on the Prowl

• Continuous
• Intensive vs. extensive
• On the Prowl
• Skimming
• Onscreen: how we read web pages

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• Scanning
• Onscreen: FIND function (snippet literacy); “power browsing” (University College London)

Deep Reading vs.

Hyper Reading

• Deep reading
• Maryanne Wolf (reading expert)
• “sophisticated processes that propel comprehension and that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight”
• cf. close reading
• Hyper reading
• Katherine Hayles (literature professor)
• “a strategic response to an information-intensive environment, aiming to conserve attention by quickly identifying relevant information, so that only relatively few portions of a given text are actually read”
• cf. hyper attention

Inherent Features of Hardware/Software

• Search
• On the web, within a document (“FIND”)
• Rapid switch between web pages
• Rapid switch between functions
• On computers: multiple screens available, enabling onscreen multitasking
• Access to reference functions (e.g., dictionaries)
• Adjust screen, font size

Advantages of Reading Onscreen

Functional Issues

• Convenience
• Democratization of access
• Individual: opportunities for self-publishing
• Social: free circulation of information/culture
• Cost?
• eBook vs. used book
• Ownership (you don’t own eBooks)
• Environment?
• digital devices have serious costs
• Depletion of rare earth minerals, health hazards in production and recycling, power to run the cloud

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Advantages of Reading Onscreen

• Digital screens invite a different style of reading than does print
• Power browsing, not continuous reading
• Hyper reading, not deep reading
• Short, not long, texts
• Distraction, multitasking
• One-off reading (not rereading)
• Little annotation, little personalization of text
• Social, not individual, engagement with text
• Writing loses physical attributes

Challenges of Reading Onscreen

Reader Attitudes�University Students

• My studies on university student attitudes towards reading onscreen versus in hardcopy
• Online questionnaires with choice and open-ended answers (4 Qs: “like most”/ “like least” about reading onscreen and on hardcopy; other comments)
• US surveys (2010, 2011, 2013)
• Japanese and German versions of 2013 study
• NOTE: Choice questions have been analyzed (now working on coding open-ended questions)

Convenience

• US data
• 48% said the one thing they liked most about reading onscreen involved convenience, e.g.,
• “it’s easy to take with me”
• “it’s a hassle to carry around a lot of books”
• Note Goodreads study
• Survey of 1500 members
• 72% read eBooks on mobile phones while commuting or waiting in line

Environmentally-Friendly?

• US data
• “Like most” about digital devices
• 21% said something about the environment

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• BUT: additional comments show conflict
• “I like that digital screens save paper but it is hard to concentrate when reading on them”

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Cost?

• 2013: Many surveys
• What students liked most about eTexts: cost
• However
• Baron data: if cost of eBook and print were same
• US: 89% prefer hardcopy for school work
• Japan: 77% prefer hardcopy for school work
• Germany: 94% prefer hardcopy for school work

University Student Reading Practices�Responses

• Preferred hardcopy for academic reading and pleasure reading (all three countries)
• Ownership, annotation, and rereading (US)
• 61% typically sold textbooks at end of term
• 48% “occasionally” or “never” annotated texts
• More rereading in hardcopy than onscreen
• Text length (all three countries)
• For long texts, c. 92% preferred to read in hardcopy
• For short texts, even split between hardcopy and onscreen

University Student Reading Practices�Responses (Cont.)

• Memory (US)
• 51% said remembered more when read in hardcopy
• (remainder: platform made no difference)
• Multitasking: “very often” (US)
• When reading in hardcopy: 4%
• When reading onscreen: 64%
• Distraction/Concentration
• Easiest to concentrate when reading in hardcopy
• US: 92%
• Japan: 92%
• Germany: 98%

University Student Reading Practices�Responses (Cont.)

• Like most about reading onscreen
• “easy to look up additional information”
• “I can multitask when I read”
• Like least about reading onscreen
• “I get distracted”
• “I don’t absorb as much”
• Like most about reading in print
• “I can write on the pages and remember the

material easier”

• Like least about reading in print
• “Ctrl+F [FIND] doesn’t work for hard copies!”
• “It takes me longer because I read more carefully”

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Challenge of eBooks to Notion of What It Means to Read

• Reading is increasing done on networked digital devices that were designed for
• search
• one-off reading
• multitasking
• Use of these devices will probably rise
• We must figure out how to retain the goals of serious reading in this new literacy space

Thank you

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Laura March: march@american.edu

(202) 885-6225 • Hurst Hall 204A

Available 9am-5pm, M-F

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Naomi S. Baron: nbaron@american.edu

Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World

(2014, Oxford University Press)

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http://bit.ly/ebooksnoontime

Extra Resources