Surveys Show Digital Migration on the Rise

The latest information released from the Book Industry Study Group’s Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education survey shows that students’ textbook rentals and online purchases are up, while the college store share of course material sales slipped.

The study reported that 11% of students in the survey were renting textbooks, a three-point rise from 2011. The number purchasing new textbooks slipped from 59% to 55%. At the same time, the Amazon share rose from 25% to 31%.

In addition, almost 48% of students said integrated learning systems help more with studying, compared to 45% using printed textbooks and 37% using e-textbooks.

“Our research shows that students are looking for greater value from their textbook-purchasing dollar,” said Angela Bole, deputy executive director of BISG. “How they define ‘value’ is rapidly evolving as they’re exposed to new services and products.”

CourseSmart also released information on students’ reliance on technology. The company’s survey showed that of the more than 500 college students responding, 98% use their electronic device for school and 67% can’t go for more than an hour without using digital technology.

The CourseSmart survey found that students are more likely to bring a laptop to class than a printed book by a 51% to 39% margin. It also showed that 58% of the students in the survey have taken an online course, 79% have submitted assignments online, and 71% have taken a test or quiz online.

“The survey underscores the undeniable influence technology has on today’s college experience,” said Sean Devine, CEO of CourseSmart. “As technology continues to evolve and digital devices become integral to the evolution of higher education, it’s encouraging to see the positive impact on learning outcomes as students utilize advanced devices and digital course materials to streamline and improve their learning environment.”

The OnCampus Research study, Student Watch 2012: Student Attitudes and Perceptions found that just 17% of students surveyed currently own an e-reading device and that 62% of those who own the gadget bought it for leisure reading, compared to just 39% using it for school. Additionally, just seven percent of the students who currently do not own an e-reader have plans to buy one in the near future.

Is Google Getting into the Tablet Business?

While some may question why, rumors are heating up that Google is set to launch its own tablet computer soon. Reports claim Google is working with Samsung on source code for the device, which will use the Nexus operating system.

Questions about the Google initiative revolve around the fact that Android devices are not doing well in the market. The Amazon Kindle Fire sold briskly during the holidays, but sales have fallen off from that point. In the meantime, the Apple iPad continues to dominate with no end of sales growth in sight.

Another problem facing Google is a lack of Android applications for users to download. And it remains to be seen whether Google can fight off Amazon, or Verizon for that matter, for those Android app customers in the first place.

Debating the Right Price for E-Books

There’s clearly a cost associated with producing an e-book, but does anyone, other than publishers, really care?

Author Chuck Wendig makes that case on his blog, terribleminds, while Matthew Ingram said e-book costs don’t matter in GigaOm and Mike Masnick wrote that nobody cares about the “fixed costs of books, movies, whatever” in his TechDirt blog. It’s not hard to see their point, considering Amazon’s aggressive e-book pricing policies, coupled with the assumption many consumers have that publishers have cut their manufacturing and distribution costs yet are still trying to keep e-book prices near that of a printed book.

But there are real costs of publishing that can’t be brushed aside so easily, according to Ryan Chittum, deputy editor of the business section in the Columbia Journalism Review. It’s a balancing act between paying expenses and offering a price consumers are willing to pay.

“In reality, as in theory, the market for books is only so big—we only have so much time—so a 99-cent price point might move a lot of units, but not enough to justify the cost of production,” Chittum wrote. “Obviously, a $50 price point would crush sales and also bring in much less revenue overall.”

The thing is, e-book pricing really isn’t different from any other pricing strategy. Consumers always look for the best price and a good value. It’s up to the publishing industry to find a way to deliver that value and make money at the same time.

Leadership in Technology

This video, entitled Educational Leadership & Technology Integration: An Investigation into Preparation, Experiences, and Roles takes a brief look at current educational training in technology and finds it lacking.

It also provides information from a survey of administrators and teacher leaders that suggest states should demand administrators have a better understanding of the uses of technology. The video is quick (just two minutes) and very quiet.



Have a wonderful and safe Memorial weekend.

True Cost of iPad Textbooks Considered

A couple of months ago, an infographic from the San Jose Mercury Newsdetailed the cost of switching students from traditional textbooks in four core secondary school courses to two digital books through Apple’s iBooks. The graphic showed how using the iPad textbook program would cost an estimated $36,000 over four years, more than three times the amount spent for print books over a six-year stretch.

About the same time, Lee Wilson, president and CEO of PCI Education, used a graph in one of his blogs that showed the annual cost of a printed textbook per student per class was $14.26, while the iText would cost a school $71.55 per student. It’s not that Wilson was against using the technology in the classroom. He was just pointing out how unrealistic it is to think schools have the funds to implement such a program.

In a later post, Wilson noted that the actual difference in cost may actually be even higher. One reader pointed out that the lifespan of an iPad is closer to two years than four, while another questioned Wilson’s initial assumption that five books would be used by a student during a school year, saying seven or eight is much more likely.

Wilson says he would like to make the case for digital in the classroom as a powerful learning tool that is worth the cost. But he’s quick to point out that objective data on improved outcomes is only just becoming available.

Ruling Handed Down in GSU Copyright Case

A ruling in the copyright infringement suit against Georgia State University was announced May 11, with the judge rejecting 95% of the specific readings challenged by the publishers that took GSU to court.

The judge also outlined the ways institutions can continue to cite the “fair use” doctrine when making electronic copies of material for use in classes and rejected publishers’ contentions about how to regulate e-reserves. However, she also imposed strict limits about how much of a book may be covered by fair use and that a publisher may have claims against university e-reserves if that publisher offers reasonably priced systems for getting permission to use book excerpts online.

Examinations of the decision started almost immediately. Kevin Smith, the scholarly communications officer at Duke University, blogged about the decision mere hours after it was released. Posts also appeared on the Inside Higher Education web site from editor Scott Jaschick and Barbara Fister, a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College, before the sun was up on Mother’s Day morning. The Chronicle of Higher Education also chimed in.

Appeals appear to be certain, but in the meantime, neither side goes away completely happy with the decision.

Bad E-Book News or Just a Quiet News Day?

News from the e-book industry hasn’t been all that rosy of late. Profits are down at Harlequin, the Association of American Publishers announced numbers for e-book growth in February that were less than expected, Simon & Schuster digital sales continue to decline, and even sales of the Kindle Fire from mighty Amazon fell off in the first quarter of 2012.

Is this a harbinger of things to come, or just evidence of a slow news period in the digital market?

“I’m not hearing alarm bells from publishers yet, so I can’t say whether there is an overall softening or just unevenness in the data or just that each of these things is potentially explainable as due to circumstances specific to the players involved,” said James McQuivey, principal analyst at Forrester who covers the book industry, in this article from Digital Book World.

In the first place, those huge increases the e-book market was seeing could not last forever, said Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publishing services at Bowker Market Research. He also opined that the new group of e-book consumers may not be as devoted to e-reading as early adopters.

“The early-adopter, heavy book buyers who make up over 60% of volume of all e-book sales have continued to slow in their migration to digital,” said Gallagher. “Without the ongoing influx of these key buyers, the market is more reliant on a greater increase of casual to moderate buyers to move the needle.”

In addition, a recent study by the Book Industry Study Group suggests consumers are buying more tablets than e-readers, but are not buying e-books at the same pace as those who read on dedicated e-readers. Over the last six months, consumer preference for e-readers has slipped from 72% to 58%.

“Tablets will adversely affect the e-book business in that the tablet is a multifunction device and will therefore draw the reader into nonbook activities and therefore cause them to consume books slower and therefore buy fewer books vs. a single-function e-reading device,” said Gallagher.