The future of etextbooks: teacher, student and publishing perspectives

Expanding higher education dependent on the printed text is quickly changing to a digital world. A publishing industry response has been to replace traditional textbooks with digital books or etextbooks. It is not clear, however, that the textbook model in the e-format has a place in an environment flooded with content and a range of delivery platforms, not the least of which is the institutional Learning Management Systems (LMS). This paper examines the future make up and role of the etextbooks from the publisher, teacher and student perspectives. Traditional publishers and more disruptive new entrants are developing a range of fragmented products and services, looking relentlessly for business models that will sustain these new solutions. Being digitally savvy, higher education students have been quick to realise the benefits of convenience and cost savings offered by etextbooks. Students, however, remain to be guided by teaching staff who prescribe textbooks because of their wide applicability, history of quality assurance as pedagogically based resources. While teachers often view textbooks as essential to imparting discipline knowledge and facilitate learning, they are less digitally savvy than students and are less likely to embrace etextbooks than students. One of the key questions is thus what resources do staff look for from their etextbooks, given the transfer, sometimes mandated, of traditional textbook content and functionality to other platforms, including the LMS, and the enhanced capability of etextbooks over textbooks. Answering these questions will assist publishers and institutions build solutions to support the effective uptake of etextbooks but require a synthesized view of all stakeholders – publishers, students and teachers. This paper is an attempt to provide that synthesized view.