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E-Enabled Textbooks: Lower Cost, Higher Functionality
5/7/2002
Finally, Rovia has made strides in rivaling printed books' portability: Not only can users access their text from any Internet connection, but they can also "check out" chapters to read off-line. Downloading the day's assignment gives students the flexibility to read it at a convenient time and location, not necessarily when he or she is online in the crowded and noisy computer lab.Larson takes advantage of all the RovReader's functions. In class, his lectures are accompanied by large screen images of the text pages. Although he d'esn't lecture from the book, he d'es rely on the e-enabled version as support for his lectures. So, even though fewer than 50 percent of his students have opted to purchase the RovReader version of the text, they all benefit from it in the classroom. And because Rovia's Create Page Link tool allows Rovia-enabled textbooks to be integrated with any Web-based application, Larson can import the text material into Blackboard for his presentations.
Besides saving paper, reducing waste, and facilitating constant revision, e-books offer another benefit, Larson says. Auditory learners and students for whom English is their second language can use the spoken word function to have the book read aloud to them, replacing or reinforcing their own reading of the text.
Larson wishes more than half of his students would take advantage of the RovReader-enabled text option, but he is heartened to see more students each semester opting for e-books. "My students tease me because everything in my class is electronic. There's no paper," he says. "But I think they are beginning to see the benefits."
For more information, contact Randol Larson at randol.larson@emcmail.maricopa.edu.
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