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.