Student Attitudes about E-Texts: Engagement, Reading Compliance, and Political Interest

In recent years, great enthusiasm has been expressed about the digital textbook, but do students actually like it? Student attitudes about e-textbooks have been the most-investigated aspects of the academic digital platform, but while many early studies suggested that most students actually preferred paper texts to electronic ones, later studies have produced mixed results. Since students’ feelings about the text may also have a significant impact on their engagement with a course’s subject matter, it is essential to examine not only what attitudes students hold about the digital text platform, but also the impact of those attitudes on their academic experience. Using data from a study of students in introductory political science courses, this research explores student attitudes toward the digital textbook and the impact of these attitudes on student engagement with the text, the likelihood that they will complete the assigned reading, and their interest in politics.