Saudi University Students Views, Perceptions, and Future intentions towards E-books

Abstract

While observing the rapid growth in the field of e-learning, the present research aims to provide an experiential insight into the use of e-books, documenting its benefits, issues and future prospects. For this purpose, the researchers used their own eBook "Education Technology: Foundations and Applications" as the research instrument and evaluate the perceptions, feelings, and views of the education technology course students in Saudi University, in order to understand the importance of using eBooks for educational purposes. The eBook was designed as an interactive app which was provided to 27 students who purchased it using a gift voucher. They were asked to study from the provided eBook throughout the semester. At the end of their semester, a discussion group was held. The discussion group concludes that almost all of the students found the use of eBook for an educational purpose quite beneficial as they believe it is much cheaper, portable and easily accessible from any place and at any point in time. Some of the participants may have found issues with the usage such as no copy paste options, etc.; however, the majority of them intended to use eBooks in future if the characteristics and features of the eBooks are same as this book.