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E-Enabled Textbooks: Lower Cost, Higher Functionality
5/7/2002
As digital rights management matures as an
industry, delivering secure electronic content is becoming more than a virtual
reality for intellectual property owners. Publishers, who for years were
reluctant to venture into online content distribution for fear of losing control
of their assets, are beginning to partner with content delivery vendors to sell
course materials online.
Such companies secure content by using
encryption keys or some other means of control. They then package the text
content with a variety of value-added features, such as hypertext functions that
appeal to students used to finding information on the World Wide Web.
Publishers offering these e-enabled texts are beginning to promote them to
potential adopters. Professors who have tried e-enabled textbooks point to
several unique advantages. For one, e-books can be updated continuously,
ensuring that content is current. A printed textbook, on the other hand, must go
through a long publishing cycle—writing, producing, printing, and
distribution—before reaching student hands. So by their very nature, printed
books are a year old before they leave the warehouse.
In disciplines where
new information becomes available all the time, e-books have a decided
advantage. Likewise, because publishers can update e-books at any time, mistakes
can also be corrected soon after publication, rather than lingering until the
book is revised three to five years later.
For Randol Larson, who
teaches computer networking courses at Estrella Mountain Community College near
Ph'enix, up-to-date content was absolutely critical. "In my opinion, technology
textbooks are a waste of natural resources," he says. "They're out of date the
moment they're published. Because of their short shelf life, students don't even
want to hold on to them."
Larson uses Course Technology textbooks and
recommends that students buy a version produced by Rovia Inc., which offers a
secure, Web-based application—the RovReader—that enables users to view documents
while complying with copyright law. Students and professors download the
RovReader for free, then open the e-enabled textbook within it. Larson likes the
fact that RovReader textbooks are updated often, so students get timely content
without having to rely on a publisher's Web site for corrections and
additions.
Rovia's customers include such major publishers as Houghton
Mifflin Co., Thomson Learning, and Pearson Education. Course books are available
in 23 disciplines. Typically, a RovReader-enabled electronic textbook costs
about 30 percent less than a printed textbook. What it may lack in tactile
satisfaction and, ultimately, portability it attempts to make up for with added
functions.
First of all, e-textbooks look the same as the printed
books in terms of layout, design, and pagination. With the electronic pages,
however, students can click on links to visit related Web sites, or see test
banks, flash cards, audio, video, and other multimedia tools referenced in the
text. Both students and professors can highlight sections of the text, take
notes, and bookmark pages. Users can also search the entire text by keyword.
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