Library and Information Science Commons^™

Undesirable Difficulties: Investigating Barriers To Students' Learning With Ebooks In A Semester-Length Course, Cindy Pierard, Vanessa Lynn Svihla, Susanne K. Clement, Bing-Shan Fazio

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Our ability to make informed decisions about ebooks is constrained by our limited understanding of how students perceive and use them. A team of librarians and a professor in learning sciences asked graduate students to serve as informants on student experience with ebooks. In two semester-long studies we analyzed student work, focusing on barriers and affordances they identified. In the first cohort, students who chose to explore ebooks uncovered affordances. In the second cohort, student comfort levels with PDF formats increased, while comfort with ebooks decreased. We discuss strategies for minimizing challenges and increasing desirable difficulties to support ebooks as …