School of Education Works

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Browsing School of Education Works by Author "Abaci, Serdar"

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    Effects of E‐textbook Instructor Annotations on Learner Performance
    (Springer, 2016-08) Dennis, Alan R.; Abaci, Serdar; Morrone, Anastasia S.; Plaskoff, Joshua; McNamara, Kelly O.; Department of Education, School of Education
    With additional features and increasing cost advantages, e-textbooks are becoming a viable alternative to paper textbooks. One important feature offered by enhanced e-textbooks (e-textbooks with interactive functionality) is the ability for instructors to annotate passages with additional insights. This paper describes a pilot study that examines the effects of instructor e-textbook annotations on student learning as measured by multiple-choice and open-ended test items. Fifty-two college students in a business course were randomly assigned either a paper or an electronic version of a textbook chapter. Results show that the e-textbook group outperformed the paper textbook group on the open-ended test item, while both groups performed equally on the multiple-choice subject test. These results suggest that the instructional affordances that an interactive e-textbook provides may lead to higher-level learning.
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    Indiana University’s Affordable E-text Model and Strategies to Increase Impact Beyond Savings – The Evolution of Affordable Content Efforts in the Higher Education Environment: Programs, Case Studies, and Examples
    (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2017) Abaci, Serdar; Morrone, Anastasia S; Goodner, Mark; School of Education
    Hyperinflation in overall college costs and in textbook prices in the last decade is no secret, as demonstrated by extensive coverage in several major news reports. High textbook prices are deterring students from buying required textbooks or taking courses that have high-priced textbooks. The cost of textbooks, in other words, gets in the way of learning, and derails students from degrees they want to pursue in college. Many universities and even state systems (Acker, 2011) are trying to lower the cost of textbooks for students. Indiana University (IU) started a pilot e-text program in 2009 to make publisher/commercial content more affordable. The program is based on an inclusive access model, addressed in more detail in the previous two chapters of this book. After a successful pilot phase, the IU eTexts Program moved into full production. As of March, 2018, it has served close to 200,000 students in over 9,000 course sections, and saved them more than $13 million in textbook costs. In this chapter, we explain the Indiana University eText model, the research efforts behind the program, support for faculty and students, and the factors behind the program’s success.