Possible Impacts of the New Popularity of e-Books on Higher Education

e-Books is a generic term that refers to a device for reading content—including books—in electronic formats as well as the material that users read on those devices (which include books, journals, magazines, and newspapers). The 2010 Horizon Report listed e-books as one of the technologies most likely to affect higher education in the next two to three years On the one hand, publishers of educational information have been providing texts in formats other than print for several decades On the other hand, until 2008, the impact of electronic publication was not felt extensively in the textbook publishing industry. e-Book readers and electronic books have started to emerge in the mainstream, and the impact of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 on school budgets might play a significant role in the emergence of ebooks as the dominant means of distributing books. Anticipated impacts of e-books include (1) Books will not die. Instead, experts predict trends similar to those that arose with the rise of digital music. (2) When buying texts online, customers might purchase micro-content such as individual chapters of books and articles from periodicals, and create customized reading materials. (3) The reading experience will change, partly because of the need to adjust to the format of the screen and partly to take advantage of the unique and beneficial features of the e-book devices. (4) Book designs will adjust to the capabilities of e-book readers, eventually providing reading experiences that integrate multimedia, linking, and customization. (5) Electronic publishing will affect scholarship, with material increasingly published in an online format, and journals exploring alternate peer review models and publication schedules that provide for more efficiency. e-Books will impact teaching through pressure for their adoption by students and by requiring instructors to address skills related to using and communicating through e-books in their courses. e-Books will impact theory and research by providing oppportunities to study reading patterns online as well as changing adoption