The digital book: a tool to help university students succeed?

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the effects of two modalities of use of digital books by university students: discovery of the digital book before the course vs. discovery of it after the course. During the experiment, we recorded the traces of the students’ activity in the digital book. Our study revolves around 4 research questions (Q1, Q2, Q3 & Q4). If students make significant progress during the pedagogical sequence (Q1), it highlights that moment of use e-book does not have an effect on the students’ performances (Q2). However, some student behaviours in the eBook vary depending on when the eBook is used (Q3). A regression analysis between these behaviours (process) and learning gains (performance) shows that consulting additional info/glossary, expansion slideshows and verification of responses would be success factors (Q4).