Apple iPad in Higher Education in Universities – Adoption to rise

Apple designed iPad primarily as audio-video media device that is best suited for content such as movies, music, games, apps, books, periodicals and web content. Universities in United States had adopted iPad as an e-reader and provided the device to the faculty and students on a trial basis despite the fact that iPad did not have textbooks in electronic format in its iBooks application. But there were thousands of education related apps that increased the iPad adoption in universities and Apple in January 2012 announced the up gradation of its iBooks Application, a new iPad textbook experience and iBooks authoring tool which will enhance the adoption of technology in classrooms. Apple focus, it seems more towards the school education system and its initial textbooks offering are school textbooks by Pearson and McGraw-Hill that focus on basic algebra, biology, chemistry, geometry and environmental science and sell them for not more than US$15. Apple launched a new version of iTunes U which was initially launched in 2007 to manage, distribute, and control access to educational content (Audio & Video) and PDF files for students within a college or university as well as the Internet. Another application called iBooks Author was launched that allows faculty and students to create and distribute their own digital text books. This application will help Apple overcome its biggest handicap which is non availability of digital content like textbooks, reference books, fiction and non fiction books from various publishers on its bookstore as the application allows students and teachers create their own content easily and distribute it. Universities, Students, Governments and other stakeholders are looking to increase the adoption of e-readers like iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc as this will improve the teaching and learning and also reduce the education costs for them as they see significant savings in using the e-readers and replace them with textbooks on which billions of dollars are spent.

Apple exclusive Education Event in January 2012 was a serious effort by the company to strengthen its presence in the education particularly in schools segment and announced that there are close to two million iPads already being used in education in schools and universities across United States. Apple is looking at education sector to drive volumes along with the business segment and its focus on education is strengthened by a Pearson Foundation survey according to which close to 50% of college students believe that tablets will take the place of paper textbooks by 2016 and the US Government recently suggested school systems nationwide to replace textbooks with e-readers, like iPads, Kindles and Nooks. Apple iPads initially had the reputation of being a convenient mobile platform for communication, productivity, and gaming and was not considered a good reading device for the students to use in the classroom environment, but application developers have created applications that attracted the students and faculty to use the device in the classrooms. The fact is that teachers and students together made iPad as an e-reader device useful in the classrooms and forced Apple to develop further apps and tie up with textbook publishers and other book publishers to increase the availability of more books on their bookstore. Other prominent e-readers like Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook have significant digital content like textbooks and other reference books, fiction and non fiction from various publishers available on their respective stores.         

Some of the Universities like Pepperdine University, Reed College, University of Notre Dame, etc in United States had been experimenting with iPads in the classrooms for the past two years on trial basis where faculty and students are provided with the device and encourage their usage in the classrooms and studied their usage. Results from such studies highlight the fact that iPad is a good device for both students and faculty to prepare for the class, search and refer to various sources of information easily and the audio video capability helps in recording and playing course content in the classroom and enhance the learning experience in the classrooms. Both faculty and students felt that iPad is not only good e-reader but also a good device to search for information, collate and share it with others easily and the device is easy to carry easily. The availability of thousands of Applications that are both free and paid have also enhanced the usage of iPad in the classrooms as the applications allow note taking, sharing notes, checking references and make charts, graphs and diagrams easily. The ability to use more audio and videos in the classrooms have helped the students learn easily and teachers teach easily as proven by earlier studies and iPad is the best device for creating, storing and distributing podcasts (Audio & Video). Most of the studies at various universities also highlighted a crucial fact that both students and teachers preferred usage of iPad and felt it as the best device when compared to laptops.

University Professors and students are skeptical about iPad in the classrooms as there are many constraints like the lack of availability of digital textbooks in the electronic format available on Apple Bookstore, majority of publishers predominantly textbook and other book publishers are not on board and Apple is still in talks with them, the availability of properly formatted books best suitable for the device as most of the electronic versions of the books are just PDFs, Apple’s tight control of its ecosystem as interaction between devices other than iPad is not possible, lack of access to other big books stores like Barnes & Noble and Amazon and the cost of iPad is very high when compared to other e-readers available in the market like Kindle and Nook. Apple tight control and pricing of the device and content had always been an issue. Students and faculty need to share and collaborate with one another in the classroom as part of the learning process and in order to that using iPad, all of them must only use only Apple iPad and it cannot be integrated with other e-readers. So everybody must buy iPad despite it being a costly device and some of the students may not be able to buy the device which will increase the digital divide. Students too are generally excited about iPad as a communication and entertainment device but are not completely convinced about its utility in the classrooms as a reading device. They want functionality that allows them to take notes, refer to other sources, annotate and highlight the important points and share the notes with other students and teachers.

Professors are also facing problems in adopting iPads as the device needs to be integrated with their teaching style and they should believe that the device increases their teaching efficiency and helps students to understand the topic. They have to be provided the necessary training in regards to the device and about the various applications that help them in teaching. Since there are thousands of applications available on the App store both the professors and students should together decide on the applications that are needed. The availability of the digital content in terms of the course materials, textbooks on the bookstore and the accessibility and pricing of such content is another area of concern as professors in the universities decide the course content and what books are to be read as part of the course curriculum. There is significant amount of functionality in the iPad and professors and students should be both convenient and be able to use the device in the classroom environment. There was an initial apprehension about the utility of iPad in the classrooms as nobody knew what will be the impact unlike the laptops that carried a reputation of remarkable productivity tools even before they entered classrooms. In iPad context faculty and students tried to give the device a utility and context with the learning and teaching environment and provide the necessary feedback to Apple so that they can overcome the shortcomings and make iPad a compulsory device in the classrooms. There is also significant amount investment to be made in terms of buying iPads, upgrading the library infrastructure and upgrading the technology infrastructure so that the devices can be best used and the cost is still higher for many universities and schools to adopt despite seeing significant benefits from such adoption.

Apple has improved iPad design and functionality for its usage in the education and the various initiatives like the improved iBooks, iTunes U, iBooks Author, more textbooks in bookstore and education related applications in the store. The focus towards the education by Apple is definitely invited by the students, teachers, governments and other stakeholders in the textbooks market and it is actively negotiating with publishers to increase the digital content in its store. Apple is already having backing from the best universities in the world like Harvard, Stanford, etc as is evident by the availability of various courses from these universities in iTunes U even prior to the app launch on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. According to a 2011 Pearson Foundation survey, 70% of college students and college-bound high school seniors are interested in buying a tablet device, and 20% expect to purchase a tablet within the next few months. The drop in price of the older model of iPad after the launch of the newer version will also drive the sales of iPads and students will be definitely attracted to buy despite the fact that the iPad is still costlier compared to other e-readers in the market. Apple has to increase the digital content particularly the textbooks and other reference books availability in the bookstore at affordable prices, more functionality to the device that makes its usage easy, more applications that allow the note taking, sharing and communicating between the devices easy and the reading experience on iPad close to the normal printed textbooks. Governments, Universities and Schools need affordability in purchasing of iPad, applications and content and they should be able to easily distribute them to the students and then only textbooks can be replaced with tablets.

2010-2015 Tablet Market Share and iPad Market Share Projections

Source: TrendForce, WitsView
Total tablets projected include all tablets and color e-readers.

E-Readers in Higher Education in Universities – Various studies using Kindle DX

Higher Education institutions and Universities have always been forefront in adoption of technology particularly digital technologies like the personal computers, internet, open source technologies, software applications, etc in teaching, libraries and knowledge management. One such adoption in the past few years has been the adoption of e-readers like Amazon Kindle (No Color & Touch), Barnes & Noble Nook (Color & Touch) and Apple iPad (Color & Touch). E-Readers from Amazon (Kindle) launched in November 2007 & Barnes & Noble (Nook) launched in October 2009 have revolutionized the e-reader market as they provided users with unique reading experience supported by the availability of digital content like e books in various subjects like fiction and non fiction including textbooks. The availability of eBooks through Amazon Store and Barnes & Noble Store at fairly lower prices, easy to buy and download fueled the sales of e-readers and millions of devices were sold. Most of the devices initially sold for leisure reading for entertainment and knowledge but slowly these devices found their way into academics for students and faculties. Students and faculties have to read other books along with textbooks as part of curriculums like management graduates have to read business management related books which helped drive e-reader usage.

Many universities particularly in US had adopted the e readers like Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook on an experimental basis and have studied various implications of them on the students, faculties and their performance. Kindle & Nook had significant amount digital content available due to the Amazon store & Barnes & Noble store access respectively for the devices but Kindle did not have text books in digital format available on the store and Nook had significant amount of e-textbooks available and had significant revenue from e-text book sales. Despite the lack of e-textbooks on Amazon store other related books other than textbooks that were part of curriculum were available which fueled the use of kindle in academic circles. Students liked reading books on both the devices due to the E Ink pearl technology that allows the reader read comfortable in day light too, easy to carry with very less weight, etc but also had problems like the lack of colors and the difficulties in navigation, browsing, bookmarking and taking notes. Students felt the device needed more advanced technology features like touch screen, more educational applications that allow taking notes, interactive sharing, visual enhancement of charts and diagrams, ease of use, powerful browsers, input problems like typing and search capabilities, etc on the e readers.

Princeton University conducted a pilot program using electronic readers (e-readers) in a classroom setting in 2009 that involved 3 faculty members and 51 students and the e-reader used was the Amazon Kindle DX. Findings of the study were class room experience for both the faculties and students was some what worse initially as e-readers were a complete change from the traditional ways of reading, learning and lifetime habits have to be altered for adopting to the new device, less paper was used as printing was some what reduced, but the users have adopted to the device and liked reading on the Kindle DX but with a serious drawback in terms of “writing” tools like annotation tools, pagination, content organization which ultimately fell short of more paper like or book like user experience. Students also find it difficult to use in the classroom discussions as they were not able to share and collate with each other, navigation within the books was slow and troublesome, lack of functionality like touch and color screen and particularly note taking capability which is essential was difficult. But students liked reading on the Kindle DX as it was easy to carry and its non reflective screen and ink technology provided comfortable reading for long hours.

Kindle DX was distributed to a group of students at seven universities in United States in a classroom pilot program for the electronic reader. The seven universities included two business schools Foster and Darden Business School, University of Washington, Arizona State University, Case Western University, Pace University, Reed College. The results of the findings included students felt that Kindle was not a proper replacement to textbooks, totally suitable to the classroom environments, and device had functional issues in terms of slow browser, navigation problems within the books and device, storage folders and file management system, sharing & communication problems. Students’ major complaint was problems in note taking, unable to view properly graphs, images, lack of color and touch screens, etc on the device which forced them to either abandon the device totally or use papers and laptops for making the notes and references. Students actively participate in group and focus group discussions in the classrooms on daily basis and e-readers were not helpful in these discussions as they were not able to share, compare and collate each others views and notes using these devices. E-Readers lack of ability in terms of communication with one another between the students and between students and faculties or teachers is one of the major concerns for e-readers.

There is a difference between the reading for leisure and entertainment purpose and reading by students and faculties in academics. Even the way one reads a particular type of literature varies as reading a fiction novel leisurely where the text generally advances linearly and is different from reading a textbook studies and research purposes involves a lot of browsing, glancing, seeking and re-reading. One does not take notes, highlight sentences, check references when reading fiction novels but all these are regularly done while reading textbooks by students and faculties. E-readers should provide the functionality on the devices or else as evident in the studies students and faculties will abandon the devices. Internet Browsing, email checking, videos watching and other such functionalities should be there on the device as per user choice but the device makers should focus more on improving the reader experience, ability to download more digital content at affordable prices, easy to use, low cost and ability to learn more easily with the device. Teachers in schools and faculties in universities are looking for applications that will help them design their own courses, make the learning more interactive, visually appealing to students, easy to share and instantly test the students understanding by evaluating their feedback.

Along with the higher education institutes like universities and schools, e-readers makers also found support from the governments. US government has recently announced that school systems nationwide to replace textbooks with e-readers, like iPads, Kindles and Nooks and intends to but more e-readers and expects that every American student will have an e-reader by 2017. Governments see significant cost savings in terms of printed textbooks costs and believe that e-readers are more cost effective means for both universities and schools. Government is also encouraging the textbook publishers and University presses to publish more eBooks in formats that are accessible for students using any type of device like iPad, kindle, nooks or any e-readers. Most of the publishers and university presses are seeing significant part of the revenues coming from the sales of eBooks and digital content and are seeing fall in sales of hard covers and printed textbooks. E-textbook sales highlight the fact that students are also adapting to the eBooks and are comfortable in reading them. Since the usage of the e-readers are being encouraged  in the schools for the children the future generations will be well versed with the e-reader usage and by the time they reach the universities they wish to have most of the curriculum available on the e-readers.

E-Readers vendors like Amazon took more than a year to launch the new Kindle Fire in September 2011 which is a tablet with multi touch display and runs on Google Android Operating system and the device included access to Amazon App store that has applications for note takings, pdf readers, office applications, etc that drastically increases the device functionality. The latest version of e-readers have added most of the functionality that students and faculties wished to have on their e-readers for them use it effectively in their academic learning. Kindle Fire has been well received as evident in sales of millions of units during the holiday season in 2011 and the continued good sales in the first quarter in 2012. Even Apple launched its updated version of iBooks2, iTunes U and other education related apps like iBooks Author and tied up with educational text book publishers in January 2012. Apple has strongly placed its iPad 2 tablet as a strong player in the e-reader segment and is planning to push it into the education sector into schools and Universities. Apple also was running its iPad pilot programs in various schools and universities in US and with positive response has launched more education applications. But one of the major concerns is that the e-readers are tied totally to the device maker’s stores and access and distribution of the content is tightly controlled and users cannot share eBooks freely between them. Purchasing programs are also not user friendly as students and governments have tighter budgets and they need specific discounts and pricing particularly for the textbooks.

Both Students and faculties in universities and teachers in schools should be comfortable with the e-reader and have complete understanding of the functionality of the e-reader so that the device can be effectively used in the classroom environment. Faculties and teachers should be able to develop the course content and presentation materials for the classroom easily without any hassles and students should be able to access all the course materials easily, buy the necessary books easily at fair prices and use them effectively in their learning. The E-readers definitely have the capability to address the above said needs but the device makers should provide the device at a reasonable cost, provide the necessary digital content again at affordable prices and work closely with the users to further improve the device in terms of reader’s experience. There will be tough competition from tablet computers but the market for e-readers will be there in near future as the universities, schools and education sector will try to adopt the device due to its core functionality of ease in reading and learning. The fact is e-readers should not try to replace the laptops/desktops which are more productivity devices but make e-readers as good learning devices with excellent output for the users.