Focus Group Study
E-book Readers for the academic
Environment
Risa Teshigawara, Veronica Gomez
December 19th, 2012
Introduction
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*Pew Research Center for the People and Press
Many people use e-book
readers instead of
carrying paper books
around with them.
It is rare to see university
students using e-book
readers for class or to
study with.
e-book readers appear to
be used mainly leisure
reading
Objective of this Study
 To
discuss how e-book readers can be
improved in order to be used in
academic environments
 To gather useful information, such as
student and faculty opinions, suggestions,
and ideas for e-book readers
Research Questions
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What are the advantages and disadvantages
that the use of e-book readers may provide
to students?
Are there hardware and/or software
improvements that can be made to e-book
readers to make them better suited for
academic use?
What functionalities should e-book readers
offer to be most useful for students?
Setting
 Place:
Classroom PV-1 @ AUP
 Time: November 15th, 2012
 15:20
– 16:40
Participants
• A total of 6 participants
were comprised of students
and faculty.
• A Computer Science
professor was invited in
order to provide insight from
a faculty perspective
• 2 Librarians attended and
contributed their opinions
Comparison of the two Devices
SONY PRS-T2
Nexus 7
Storage
Capacity
2GB
8, 16, or 32GB
Display
E Ink display / backlit
E-ink
LCD capacitive touch
screen
Size
173 × 110 × 9.1 mm
198.5×120×10.56 mm
Weight
167g
340g
Screen Size
Screen size (90 ×
120mm)
180mm diagonal with
16:00 wide screen
Battery
Up to 2 months
Up to 9.5 hours
Touch
yes
yes
PROCEDURE
1 moderater and 1 note-taker
Participants were arranged to sit in a circular formation
Informed Consent Forms were distributed
Participants filled out pre-focus group questionnaire
20 minutes of testing time of the devices were allotted to participants
Discussion lasted for one hour
Pre-focus group questionnaire
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Name
E-mail Address
Gender
Age
Academic Year
Major/ Faculty Position
Which tools/resources do you use to complete
your class assignments?
Do you own an e-book reader? If so, which one?
If you do not have an e-book reader, which
device have you used to read?
Result of the questionnaire
Information resources and tools most
used by participants.
Results of Device Testing
Nexus 7
Pros
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Attractive screen display
Wi-Fi access
Page flipping animation
is clear
Fast
Able to change font
quickly
Easier to concentrate
when reading versus
Sony reader
Easy to bookmark a
page
Cons
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Feels heavy for the size of
the device
The text to speech option
was difficult to deactivate
Touch screen is intimidating
since a few errors were
made when attempting to
flip the page or use
another feature
Bright backlit screen is tiring
on the eyes
Clumsy highlighting buttons
Results of Device Testing
Sony PRS-T2
Pros
 Lightweight
compact
Cons
and
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Slow
Difficult to bookmark a
page
Difficult to tell when a
page has been flipped
and the flickering of the
screen, which indicated a
page flip gives the
impression that, the
battery of the device is
dying
Need for two hands when
using the device
Features requested by
participants for an improved
e-book reader
Hardware
1.
2.
3.
Large storage capacity
Resistance of the devices
Have two separate physical
screens just like paper books so
that two different applications
may be opened and viewed at
the same time
Software
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Internet access
Online dictionary resource
Translation of words
Citation
Easy annotations
Create notes and bookmarks
Ability to switch the device
interface language
Text to speech feature so that
you can listen to a book
hands-free
Would you buy an e-book
reader for academic use?
 Regardless
of the
improvements that
the participants had
themselves
suggested, a
majority felt that
they would still not
purchase an e-book
reader
Yes, 2,
33%
No, 4,
67%
Chart 3: Percentage of participants
who would buy an ideal e-book
reader satisfying all the requirements
they had expressed.
Discussion
 current
e-book readers do not meet the
needs and wants of the majority of the
academic community.
 Even if e-book readers were adapted to
include the list of desired features
expressed by participants, it would not
ensure that their old study/work habits
would be adaptable to a new electronic
portable version
Conclusion
 Most
of the participants would not use the
devices for academic use
 Students are more used to reading on the
paper books.
 There were only 6 participants, so a
research with more people involved
would have better results