Comparing the choice of Ebooks Vs Textbooks among dental students- A Questionnaire based study

 

Geethika. B¹, Dr. K Karpagam²

¹I BDS, Saveetha Dental College, Chennai- 600077

²Senior Lecturer, Department of Anatomy, Saveetha Dental College, Chennai- 600077

 

ABSTRACT:

Aim: To access the efficiency of e-books compared to conventional textbooks among the students of Saveetha Dental College.  

Objective : To analyse the advantages and disadvantages of both textbooks and e-books.

Textbooks have been guiding students ever since.  With the evolution in digital media, even textbooks are digitalised. Study on this aspect is to analyse whether the change is in the favour of students or not.

The topic was chosen to contribute to the ongoing debate as to whether e-books or textbooks are better.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Textbooks have been man’s guide ever since. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word text book did not have its modern meaning until the end of the eighteenth century, when such books were commonly in the hands of students as well as teachers. The digitalisation of textbooks leads to the evolution of e-books. With the development of handheld reading devices such as the Kindle, iPad, Tablets, etc the use of ebooks have increased, even though they have been in use since 1970s (1,2). The transition from conventional books to electronic books (e-books) have caused large, upscale bookstores to lose millions of dollars and even being forced to shut their doors and has lead for bankruptcy(1,3) Both text books and ebooks have their own advantage and disadvantage. Though textbooks are handy ebooks are cost efficient and easy to assess.

 

 

A few studies that compare perceptions of e-textbooks to traditional hardcopy textbooks have reported negligible differences in the effect on course grades(4,5). The objective of this study is to assess the students preference of mode of study- the conventional textbooks or e-books.

 

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

A questionnaire based study was conducted in Saveetha dental college. The questionnaire consisted of ten questions evaluating the preference of either textbooks or e-books by the students. The sample size of this study is 50 which includes 50 Undergraduate students of first year, BDS. The students use textbooks as well as ebooks as a part of their curriculum, hence they would be the ideal subjects. The data was collected and the results were obtained. The following questions were asked in the questionnaire:

 

1)Which aids in better content apprehension?

2)Students are more engaged/ involved with?

3)Which helps in better remembrance?

4)Which of the following is easily accessible?

5)Which is more cost effective ?

6)Comfort level with print books?

7)Comfort level with e-books?

8) Advantages and disadvantages of print books?

9) Advantages and disadvantages of e-books?

10) Personally, which would you choose?

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The 50 students pursuing first year dental education in Saveetha dental college were given a questionnaire and the following were evaluated. The results show that 64% of students prefer textbooks for better content apprehension. 62% of the students feel more involved/ engaged with E-books. 74% of students believe that textbooks help in better remembrance of the content. 68% of the students feel that e-books are easily accessible and more cost effective.

 

 

 

The level of comfort was also accessed and 38% of students find textbooks very comfortable, 46% find textbooks comfortable and 4% find textbooks uncomfortable. 4% find e-books very comfortable, 62% find e-books comfortable and 20% find e-books uncomfortable.

 

The students were also asked about the advantages and disadvantages with textbooks and print books.

 

The advantages of textbooks given by the students are that the textbooks are handy, easier to make notes and they do not require electricity or internet connection to be accessed. But the disadvantages faced with textbooks are that they can’t be carried everywhere, prone to damage and storage. Another main disadvantage is that the usage of enormous number of papers for the publication of a single book has it’s hazardous contribution towards environmental issues.

 

The advantage of e-books are that they're easy to store and manage, interesting to study and portable. The disadvantages include the use of electricity and internet to access the e-book, there are more chances of getting distracted while using an e-book. A few students find it a strain to the eye.

 

 

CONCLUSION:

Technology forces us to drift towards digitalisation of everything possible. E-books have surely gained attention in the recent days. However technology tries to rule us over, humans surely will take time to shift from what they've always grown up with. A final question was asked as to which would their preference, either textbooks or e-books, 72% of the students picked textbooks as their choice of preference, 28% prefer e-books.

 

REFERENCES:

1.       Barnes and Noble swings to a loss after legal costs. BBC News Business, August 24, 2010.

2.       Harrison BL. E-books and the future of reading. IEEE Computer Graphics Applications 2000; 20(3):32–9.

3.       Ovida S. Is Borders closing a store near you? Here’s the full list. Wall Street Journal, February 16, 2011.

4.       Young JR. A university that reveres tradition experiments with e-books. Chronicle of Higher Education, May 18, 2001.

5.      Shepperd JA, Grace JL, Koch EJ. Evaluating the electronic textbook: is it time to dispense with the paper text? Teach Psychol 2008; 35(1):2–5.

 

 

 

 

 

Accepted on 04.06.2016        © RJPT All right reserved

Research J. Pharm. and Tech 2016; 9(8):1077-1078.