The future of electronic textbooks from a user perspective

Abstract

Electronic textbooks have been a popular research topic for decades. Yet, research on student perspectives in this area has been conducted in hindsight and focused on the existing technology. Still, future features are decided by publishers, universities, and academics with limited input from the actual students who would use them. This article identifies the components that university students feel facilitate their studies without linking them to a specific form of hardware and presents a general overview of the perception of textbook components. An online survey was designed to collect students’ opinion on each component outside of the constraints of technology. The survey found that university students believe that future electronic textbooks should include text, highlighting tools, bookmarks, supplemental multimedia content, language translation capabilities, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. By including the input of students in the design of the textbooks, a better educational tool could be designed.