Exploring the Students and Faculty Members Attitudes and Awareness about the Use Of E-Textbooks At Qatar University

Abstract

Digitalization plays a big role in world and has an effect on the tools of learning. In 2013, e-Textbooks became commonly used in most science core curricula and some literary curricula at Qatar University. However, there has been no s no in-depth statistical research for exploring students’ and faculty members’ experience and attitudes toward using e-Textbooks. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fill out the gap of limited research, especially in Qatar, GCC and Middle East region in general. A quantitative research approach was used as the methodology. The participants were selected by two sampling techniques namely, stratified random sampling proportional to size for students and census for instructors where all of them use e-Textbooks in their courses and online surveys sent to their emails. The data were used to analyze and look at users’ experience and awareness about e-textbooks, examine factors that either encourage or prevent them from selecting e-Textbooks. This is in addition to exploring the most important features in e-Textbooks. Results of this study showed students and instructors started with adapting their habits about using e-Textbooks as tools of learning and teaching. This has been obvious since the percentage of recommending e Textbooks to other was high for both. However, they still prefer printed textbooks due to the high cost and difficulty of using e-Textbooks unless the e-Textbooks are free of charge. Comprehensive e-Textbooks allow interacting and learning more effectively than reading e-Textbooks and printed textbooks. In addition, teachers found it helpful in terms of increasing the students’ academic performance. However, chi-square test explained that no significant relationship between improving academic performance of students with GPA and educational level was found. Binary logistic regression concluded adding Gender, GPA and Students’ Classification to the model does not significantly affect recommending other students to use e-Textbooks. The most factors that encourage both of them to use e-Textbooks are the ability to print pages, keep them forever, seamless integration via Blackboard, lower cost, and the ability to access without an Internet connection. Moreover, the main features (such as reading navigation, study, instructors, and content preparing) are believed as important for both students and teachers. The recommendations that can improve the usage of e-Textbooks at Qatar University and guide further research in this area were discussed.