Student Engagement with E-Texts: What the Data Tell Us

• This case study of Indiana University’s e-text initiative reports on students’ actual use of and engagement with digital textbooks.
• In a typical semester, students read more in the first four weeks and less in later weeks except during major assessment times; in a typical week, most reading occurs between 5:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. from Monday to Thursday, indicating that students use e-texts mainly as a self-study resource.
• Highlighting was the markup feature most used by students, whereas use of the other interactive markup features (shared notes, questions, and answers) was minimal, perhaps because of students’ lack of awareness of these features.
• Research found that higher engagement with e-texts (reading and highlighting) correlated with higher course grades.

EDUCAUSE Review