Project Investigator(s): Catherine Rawn, Professor of Teaching, Department of Psychology; Stefan Bourrier, PhD student, Department of Psychology
Project Description
The intent of this project is to investigate whether cognitive, learning, and memory effects are different for students who use traditional paper textbooks versus comparable digital formats.
Research Questions
Do digital textbooks, compared to their paper counterparts, differentially influence student learning?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
Understanding the impact of the tools we prescribe to students allows us an educated approach in selecting required readings and materials. Specifically, we will use these findings to make concrete recommendations to our students (and colleagues) about which resources to purchase in our classes. An advantage for digital format (or no difference) would lead us to encourage students to use electronic textbooks due to their economy—and would make a digital option a prerequisite before assigning reading material. If results show an advantage for paper texts, we would encourage our students to buy or print. Any discrepancy between formats would lead to further research to help explain why that discrepancy occurs.
The findings of this particular research line will impact important decision making at different levels of education, both within and outside of higher learning. By adapting the materials (i.e., the survey) and method in this study, we can test whether our findings are generalizable to other textbooks in our own and other disciplines, therefore scaling up the impact on students. By communicating our results effectively, we can help students, educators, and textbook manufacturers make decisions about textbooks that are driven by learning.
Achieved Outcomes
“We collected a substantial amount of student data detailing digital and paper textbook usage habits, as well as qualitative responses regarding what they felt were the most important aspects of each medium. While we were able to collect students’ learning outcomes, there were not enough digital textbook users in our sample to adequately analyze learning differences between mediums.”