students test e-books
Two Classes Use
Innovative Curriculum, Fostered By Etext Center And Using Microsoft
23, 2001-- This past semester, students and professors
in two University of Virginia classes -- one in English, the other
religious studies -- tested the effectiveness of electronic books
in an educational environment. The students used compact, handheld
personal computers to read most of their assigned reading materials
U.Va. Library's Electronic Text Center (Etext), which operates one
of the world's largest and busiest public e-book libraries, worked
with Microsoft Corp. and electronic course material publisher Xanedu
to provide the students the tools they needed to read their materials
as interactive e-books using Microsoft Reader software.
project sought to gather feedback from the students and professors
on how well the e-books integrated into their curriculum. This included
the students reactions to having most of the course materials
on one device. They also wanted to understand whether such technology
changes teaching and learning, and if so, how.
experiment may prove a useful first step in determining what role
e-books should play in education's future," said David Seaman, Etext
the project, each student received a Pocket PC, donated by Microsoft
Research, which came preloaded with the Microsoft Reader software
and other Microsoft programs that gave the small computer more powerful
mobile uses. The Pocket PC has a 32-megabyte memory that can store
80 to 90 e-books. The Microsoft Reader software provides a book-like
reading interface, annotations, dictionary features, and Microsoft's
ClearType display technology. The Etext Center staff loaded each
Pocket PC with the required e-books for the semester and trained
the students and professors to use the device and its software.
Etext Center recruited classes that already had most of their assigned
reading materials in electronic form. It wanted to work with professors
interested in using the technology, but who did not have much experience
using e-books, thus eliminating any biases. The center selected
Benjamin Ray, a religious studies professor, who used his class
in "Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature" for the project,
and English professor Cynthia Wall and her graduate-level seminar
on the depiction of space in 18th- and 19th-century
Etext Center and Microsoft are evaluating how effective the e-books
were and will use their findings for future planning. Seaman says
that while they have not fully analyzed the test results, some advantages
of e-books were apparent at the outset.
of the assigned reading material for both classes included older,
out-of-print or unpublished writings. This situation previously
had forced professors to use reviews or secondary sources, which
could contain biases.
the original writings as e-books, however, allowed the students
instant, direct access to the primary sources, so they could form
their own opinions about the work. Another e-book advantage is that
one easy-to-carry, handheld device contained most of the course
material, giving students the freedom and convenience of accessing
their readings whenever and wherever they please.
says, "E-books are an evolving technology. We want to gauge how
we fit into this technology and where we should go as a supplier
of electronic texts."
U.Va. Library Electronic Text Center, founded in 1992, was the first
of its kind. It provides Internet access to humanities-related texts,
and in eight months, it delivered 2.5 million e-book files to users
in 100 countries. For more information, see its Web site at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu.
Melissa Norris, (804) 924-4254