8/14/2019 An interview with Course Content Librarian Carrie Nelson

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Pilot programs indicate difculties with eTexts

The University of Wiscon-sin-Madison completed a series

of pilot programs, researching the

effectiveness of eTexts in response

to the rising cost of textbooks, ac-

cording to Course Content Librarian

Carrie Nelson.

Nelson, a specialist in copyright law

and eTexts at College Library, aided

in the coordination of the pilots

along with a multitude of groups on

campus including the Ofce of the

Registrar, the McBurney Disability

Resource Center and the Ofce of

the Chief Information Ofcer.

The thing we did different fromother schools is that we got a pretty

big group of people to talk about it,

Nelson said.

The pilot programs began two years

ago in December when the academ-

ic research community Internet2

contacted universities to see if there

was interest in organizing an eText

pilot for the upcoming semester,

according to Nelson.

We had to have it in place for the

classes in January. It was crazy fast,

and only four or ve schools decid-

ed to try, Nelson said.

The rst and second pilot programs

explored the eText reader Course-

load. Courseload supports shared

note taking and allows faculty to

place footnotes directly into the

text. All content provided was from

publisher McGraw-Hill.

Campus basically bought access

to four or ve books for different

classes, and everyone in the class

had to be a part of the pilot, Nelson

said.

Indication of low student satisfac-

tion was the most inuential piece

of data taken from the rst pilot.

Students were lukewarm. More

students preferred print over the

ebook, but said that it wasnt so bad

that they wouldnt use it [an eText-

book] if it were cheap, Nelson said.

The second pilot focused on Course-

loads note sharing application.

Nelson instructed faculty members

to use and promote the various

interactive capabilities within their

classes.

The students were not really inter-

ested in what the other students in

the class were saying. They did like

being able to hear from the faculty

member, but that was really it,

Nelson said.

The third pilot used an alternate

reader, Course Smart, which fo-

cused on individual students buying

eTexts for all of their classes, rather

than buying for specic classes as a

whole.

Course Smart, in addition to being

a delivery system, is also a store,

which Course Load is not. We were

wondering how they [students]

would feel if they could get all their

books in the same place, Nelson

said.

Course Smart ended up falling far

short of expectations.

When you look at the cost per

book of that interface, it was disap-

pointing, Nelson said.

A university-wide implementation

of eTextbooks doesnt seem likely

in the near future.

Were keeping the conversation

open, but it doesnt seem to be

going anywhere quickly, Nelson

said.

Students were

lukewarm.

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Course Content Librarian Carrie Nelsonphoto by Abigail Fisher

Helen C. White Libraryphoto by Abigail Fisher

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