E-Book Online
Presentation IV
Joel D. Carter
Introduction
The electronic book is a portable
device that can hold several
thousand pages of text that it
displays on an LCD screen
 This technology could be applied to
the academic environment to
facilitate the exchange of information
in the classroom
 Group project web site

Overview

Conventional Textbooks
– Expensive (Average student spends about $800 per year)
– Cumbersome (Manual searching of information)
– Heavy (Compared to digital counterpart)

Electronic Textbooks
– Not bound by the same limitations
Background

Cost
– Standard books are an average of 30%
more expensive
– E-book device (NuvoMedia Rocket
Ebook) is currently $270
Background, cont.

Ease of Use
– Finding a particular piece of information
in a textbook can be difficult
– The search and hyperlink capabilities of
e-books aid in finding information
– A companion dictionary must be used
for finding the definition of unknown
words
Background, cont.

Ease of Use, cont.
– The built-in dictionary in e-books can be
used for quick definitions of any word
within a given text
– Notes in a textbook must be written to
and referenced from a separate book
– Notes in an e-book can be made by a
built-in annotation function and can be
accessed whenever the text is
Background, cont.

Ease of Use, cont.
– A companion dictionary must be used
for finding the definition of unknown
words
– The built-in dictionary in e-books can be
used for quick definitions of any word
within a given text
Background, cont.

Ease of Use, cont.
– Notes in a textbook must be written to
and referenced from a separate book
– Notes in an e-book can be made by a
built-in annotation function and can be
accessed whenever the text is
Background, cont.

Ergonomics
– Every textbook required means added
weight to carry
– There is no added weight associated
with added electronic texts
Project Goal

To provide a Computer Science class
with an e-book device, an electronic
textbook, and instructor-provided
notes within the next academic year
Functional Specifications

Group project web site
Schedule
Budget and Resources

See group web site
Profit Estimate

Conventional textbook cost and
consumption
– $50 (per book avg.) x 20 (approx. books
per year) = $800 to $1,000 (per student,
per year) * figures result of independent survey
– There are 11,000 students attending
ODU per semester or 22,000 per year *
source Campus Relations
Profit Estimate, cont.

Conventional textbook cost and
consumption, cont.
– This comes to an approximate figure of
$17,600,000 spent by students on
textbooks per year
– If the project tapped 15% of those sales,
that would be $2,640,000 in textbook
sales.
Profit Estimate, cont.

Electronic textbook cost and sales
forecast
– The student would automatically save
an average of 30% per title on the
corresponding electronic editions of
those books * source barnesandnobles.com
– The projected sales for electronic texts
would then be $1,848,000
Profit Estimate, cont.
Assuming a conservative resale
percentage earning of 10%, it would
mean $184,800 returned to the
project organization
 Subtract the long term expenditures
from the budget of $169,140 and this
means a small profit of $15,660

Summary
The electronic book is the learning
tool of the future
 Electronic books are free of many of
the restrictions inherent to
conventional textbooks
 There is an initial investment in
hardware associated with using
electronic books, but the savings
eventually return this start-up cost

Summary, cont.
The electronic book also has
features that can be exploited to
benefit education
 The use of electronic textbooks
reduces the weight a student must
carry
 Why would you want to continue
using conventional textbooks?

Major Risks with Solutions

All publishers may not adopt
electronic book technology
– As the popularity and standardization of
this format increases, publishers will
have to recognize this market
Major Risks with Solutions, cont.

Most publishers are worried about
digital rights management (DRM)
– Microsoft is leading the way in the Open
E-Book standard which covers
standardization of the format with
encryption to ensure protection of
publishers’ materials
Major Risks with Solutions, cont.

Students may choose not to use ebooks
– Familiarity with conventional textbooks
may discourage choosing a new
approach, but people evolve with
technology
– Initial cost may discourage someone
from using e-books, but as popularity
increases, the cost of the e-book device
and texts will decrease
Support Electronic Books
The potential in utilizing electronic
textbooks for education is evident
 This project needs your approval to
continue
 Thank You!
