E-Books to replace textbooks?

Tired of lugging around heavy and expensive textbooks?

The Mixed and Emerging Technology Integration Lab and Student Government Association are in the midst of providing the perfect solution: electronic textbooks.

At last Thursday's SGA Senate meeting, SGA agreed to partner with METIL in providing electronic textbooks to the student body as part of a larger educational program to be deployed in Fall 2011.

SGA will now be working with METIL in figuring out the logistics of making electronic textbooks possible for students.

Colin Forward, a senior computer science major and one of the METIL researchers behind this new software, believes METIL has found a way to turn textbooks from a static resource into a learning coach for students.

"We've been doing research on what the best way to retain knowledge is. We put together a learning management system in a digital textbook format and this is the product of that research," he said.

"METIL has done a wealth of research in cognitive behavioral science and we're applying that research on what works in education into what works with this software."

METIL, a division of the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training, has been working on this technology since 2006.

METIL hopes to have a pilot course for graduates and undergraduates in June and then potentially an initial course offering in the fall.

"We aren't going to start offering digital textbooks for every text at first," Forward said. "Initially it will be very targeted and then as awareness grows, we'll expand our course offering."

The test-run would be within the College of Medicine since subjects such as anatomy involve memorization.

The books will be available through formats familiar to students — mobile devices. A free application called UCF Digital Press will serve as a way for students to buy their textbooks and course material.

METIL lab students and SGA senator Thomas Hellinger, who introduced the resolution to senate, are hoping that accessing the e-textbook will be as simple as downloading UCF Digital Press and buying their textbook and course content through there.

Forward's speciality is in mobile education technology and his ultimate goal is to utilize electronic textbooks to make education accessible to everyone, including underdeveloped countries.

"Mobile education can help people all over the world. Technology is available, it's just a matter of giving them the resources to educate themselves," he said. "It makes sense to bring this research to the UCF curriculum, especially since it was developed by UCF students."

According to David Rogers, a doctorate METIL student and one of the software developers, the interactive experience these textbooks provide is what separates them from being solely something to read on a PDF format.

"When you learn something the first time you only remember it for so long unless you review it," he said. "The [electronic] textbook uses a spacing affect to fill that gap. We make the content interactive for both students and teachers."

Forward said the idea behind this is that when people immediately learn something, they have 100 percent retention rate but as time goes on details are forgotten. This software is designed to remind students to review that specific information at the peak of that forgetting curve.

The electronic textbooks will have hyperlinks, highlighting vocabulary that links to Wikipedia or a site with a better explanation. There will be an integration of homework and quizzes within the textbooks with reminders for students to go back and review material they need work on, along with countdowns to tests. Highlighting, notes and tagging are also part of the software.

"Not only will this be lighter on your back, but you're also getting a service," Forward said. "Imagine being a chem student and seeing a video within your textbook that shows a molecular cloud forming, instead of just reading it. It is much easier to understand certain complex subjects with rich media."

Creating the technology may prove to be easier than selling it, however.

Electronic textbooks are overall less costly than print textbooks since there are no shipping or printing costs, but METIL and SGA are investigating ways to direct profits from the sale of textbooks on campus to the student body through Student Controlled Fees.

When you buy a textbook the profit gets split up like this, according to Forward: 70 percent goes to the publisher and the remaining 30 percent is split between the book store and school.

Forward and Hellinger would like to see that 15 percent that goes to the bookstore refunded back to students.

"We want to see this happen. We're just not 100 percent sure of how," Hellinger said. "It's complicated territory, but we know there are a lot of people who want to see this as an option for students. Electronic textbooks are cheaper, more environmentally friendly, more portable, and more versatile than textbooks."