首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Technology, Costs, Lack of Appeal Slow E-Textbook Adoption [A]Textbooks are often a luxury for college senior Vatell Martin. The
Technology, Costs, Lack of Appeal Slow E-Textbook Adoption [A]Textbooks are often a luxury for college senior Vatell Martin. The
admin
2015-11-16
10
问题
Technology, Costs, Lack of Appeal Slow E-Textbook Adoption
[A]Textbooks are often a luxury for college senior Vatell Martin. The accounting major at Virginia State University got by in several courses with study groups and professors’ lectures. "It’s not that I didn’t want to buy," he says. " Sometimes, I just didn’t have the money for a $ 200 book. " VSU knows Martin isn’t the only one. More than half of its students routinely skip buying textbooks. For a solution, the school is turning to e-textbooks.
[B]VSU partnered with Flat World Knowledge, a start-up publisher that produces exclusively written e-books with " open" content that can be modified by professors. In a trial with 14 business courses, students would be required to pay $ 20 and receive a Flat World e-book and digital learning supplements. The university and a local grant have been covering the cost, so far. "That’s nothing. It’s what I put in my gas tank," says Martin, who participated in the trial. "If I was walking into a discussion on a topic, I can just download and take out the book and read it on my phone. "
[C]With their promise of ubiquity(无处不在), convenience and perhaps affordability, e-textbooks have arrived in fits and starts throughout college campuses. And publishers and book resellers are spending millions attracting students to their online stores and e-reader platforms as mobile technology improves the readability of the material on devices such as tablet computers. Silicon Valley start-ups, such as Inkling and Kno, are also aggressively reinventing textbooks with interactive graphics, videos and social-media features.
[D]Despite emerging attempts at innovation, the industry has been slowed by clumsy technology, the lasting appeal of print books, skeptical students who search online for cheaper alternatives, and customer confusion stemming from too many me-too e-textbook platforms that have failed to stand out.
[E]The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, believed textbooks to be an $ 8 billion market ripe for " digital destruction," biographer Walter Issacson writes in Steve Jobs. Apple is expected to make an announcement Thursday about its new education products. The market is small but growing. Sales for e-textbooks in the U. S. higher education market grew 44. 3% to $267.3 million in 2011, according to Simba Information, a publishing industry research firm.
Print still rules
[F]So far, students have been less than impressed and more likely to choose print books. About 11% of college students have bought e-textbooks, according to market research firm Student Monitor. Availability isn’t the chief problem. Most popular textbooks have a digital version, and they’re available online. But students have largely stayed away because the most readily available technology today—PDF(portable document format)or other document reader versions of the print book—is clumsy and eye-straining to read.
[G]When Andrea Soto, a freshman biology major at the University of Maryland, bought Principles of Biology, the $192 price tag came with a free online version. She prefers the touchable presence of a thick book on her lap. " You can’t highlight or underline things in the e-book. I find it more of a trouble," she says. However, digital books aren’t necessarily cheaper, either. While priced lower than new print books, they’re often more expensive than buying or renting used books online, says Kathy Mickey, an analyst at Simba.
[H]A federally funded pilot study at Daytona State College in Florida found that some students who rented an e-textbook paid only a dollar less than students who bought a print edition. And e-textbook users couldn’t sell the book back after the class ended. Despite e-textbooks’ shortcomings, most agree that the print market is ripe for a technological overhaul(彻底改革). Prices of new books are rising sharply. Authors complain about used book sales that don’t generate royalties. Professors and students are annoyed at new editions that seemingly add little in content VS the previous one.
[I]"This is an industry that’s failing everyone—parents, authors, professors, and students," says Brad Wheeler, chief information officer at Indiana University, which is running a program that distributes cheaper e-textbooks but requires all students in the class to buy. Publishers are eager for a quicker transition to the format because e-textbooks cost less to publish and would generate income from every student who buys one. Digital books can’t be resold, at least, not legally.
"We’d prefer that all of it to go digital," says Vineet Madan, senior vice President of new ventures at McGraw-Hill Education. " There isn’t a secondary market for e-books. "
Seeking market niche(商机)
[J]If current e-textbooks are mostly unappealing, what’s next? Like online music in its infancy, the textbook industry’s key players—publishers, resellers, bookstores, tech companies, even some universities—are all scrambling to offer their digital solutions, an effort that has only intensified with the arrival of tablet computers and app stores. "Everybody and their brothers are coming out with an e-book platform," says Iam Williams, director of strategic learning solutions at Wiley, a textbook publisher.
[K]They all agree on one thing: The quality of e-textbooks must improve dramatically. More value-added, interactive features will keep students interested and spur sales, they say. Tablet computers are a key stimulus in this endeavor. At Kno, tablets have allowed the Santa Clara, Calif. -based company to embed interactive tools onto an existing e-textbook in a more intuitive way, for example, the ability to write directly on the book with a finger stroke or tap on a keyword for notes. " Tablet was a needed development, " says Kno’s founder Osman Rashid. Despite threats to their print book sales, university bookstores are also coming around to embracing e-books. Follett, which runs 930 university bookstores in North America, launched Follett CafeScribe last year, a cloud-based digital textbook platform.
Publishers not on sidelines
[L]Textbook publishers are partnering with universities for exclusive trials, buying stakes in start-ups and developing their own technologies. Last year, publisher Cengage launched MindTap, an e-book/digital learning website that is now being tried by about 50 professors, says Bill Rieders, Cengage’s executive vice President of global new media. Instead of tables of content, MindTap provides " a learning path" that students can access for text, multimedia, self-assessment tools, quizzes and note sharing.
[M]Pearson has introduced a completing product, OpenClass. The cloud-based website means students can access information wherever there’s an online connection— features social networking, and works with Google Apps for Education. Reed College in Portland, Ore. , is one of several universities that will test OpenClass this fall.
[N]The CourseLoad trial has been in place since 2009 on a limited basis, with students receiving free books. It has been expanded to 130 courses this spring semester. Students now pay a discounted price for access to CourseLoad books and learning kits, typically "60% to 70%" cheaper than new print books, Wheeler says. In exchange, students must pay a fee to enroll. Despite the lack of flexibility, school officials and students have embraced the low-cost approach, he says.
OpenClass allows students to get information wherever they can get connected to the Internet.
选项
答案
M
解析
[M]段主要介绍了OpenClass这个基于云的网站,只要在任何能联网的地方,学生都可以获取信息。题干中的get connected to the Internet对应原文中的online connection,故选[M]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/viQ7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
A、Asingingtest.B、Asportstest.C、Amemorytest.D、Adrivingtest.D男士问女士这次考试没有通过的原因;女士说考官认为她不能平行停车,经常忘记打灯示意,开得太快而且与前面的车没有保持安
ABritishstudyhasfoundthatBvitaminscanreducebrainshrinkageinolderpeoplewithmildmemoryloss.It【B1】______thatBv
A、Shethinksthemanshouldtakeupmorechallenges.B、Shethinksthemanshouldfollowhisfriends’advice.C、Shethinksthema
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteanessaycommentingontheremark"Humanfelicityisproducednotsomuchby
A)Reduce,reuse,andrecycle.RecyclinghasbecomeapartofAmericanlife.Italsoisanimportantpartofthewaste-processing
A)Reduce,reuse,andrecycle.RecyclinghasbecomeapartofAmericanlife.Italsoisanimportantpartofthewaste-processing
PrisonStudiesA)Manywhotodayhearmesomewhereinperson,orontelevision,orthosewhoreadsomethingI’vesaid,willthink
CollegeStudents’Booklist1.这是一所大学里学生所购书籍的变化2.你对于学生选择书籍类别变化的评论3.哪类书籍买得比较多?说明原因
Fertilizerusehasexploded,overloadingplantsworldwide,likelyalteringecosystemsfordecadestocenturies,scientistsrepor
A、Itwillgoup.B、Itwillcomedown.C、Itwillgoupanddown.D、Itwillstaythesame.A短文提到,专家们说在接下来的这些年里gas的价格会增至三倍(triple)之
随机试题
给脊柱损伤的患者翻身时,下列哪几项是正确的()。
被狂犬咬伤后,对伤口的处理错误的是
男性,20岁,以头外伤2小时入院。入院查体:刺痛时可以睁眼,刺痛肢体回缩,言语不清。该患者GCS为
A.发热,盗汗,心前区疼痛少见,易转变为缩窄性心包炎B.心前区剧烈疼痛,有病毒感染史,能自愈C.血性心包积液,渗液抽出后又迅速产生D.高热,脓性心包积液E.心脏术后2周出现发热,胸痛,关节痛化脓性心包炎
用化肝煎加减治疗失笑散合丹参饮可治疗
在0.1mol/L的下列溶液中,说法正确的是()。
如托运人与承运人之间事先无货运协议或类似性质的任何协议,提单就是双方之间订立的运输合同。当托运人将提单通过背书方式转让给第三者时,提单就是承运人与第三者之间的合同。()
(2009年考试真题)W股份有限公司2008年有关资料如下:(1)1月1日部分总账及其所属明细账余额如表2—1—1所示:注:①该公未单独设置“预付账款”会计科目。②表中长期借款为2007年10月1日从银行借入,借款期限2年,年利率5%,每年付息一次。
下列博物馆中,与其类型一一对应正确的是()。
王国维(1877—1927)是我国近代著名的学者。他在《人间词话》中说:“古今之成大事业、大学问者,必经过三种之境界:‘昨夜西风凋碧树。独上高楼,望尽天涯路’。此第一境也;‘衣带渐宽终不悔,为伊消得人憔悴。’此第二境也;‘众里寻他千百度,蓦然回首,那人却在
最新回复
(
0
)