Using an iPad as a Textbook

Laura Goode

For some classes at the University of Notre Dame, iPads are replacing textbooks -- at least temporarily.

The school is studying the use of the Apple Inc. tablet among students to see how it affects learning, and after a test this fall found that students students thought the device made their class more interesting.

"Moments before the start of class, I could place a video into students' dropboxes, and the majority of them would arrive having already watched it and able to discuss it. Those sorts of things made the class more interesting and dynamic and could never have happened in the past," said Assistant Professor Corey Angst, the professor behind the project. Half of the students ultimately said they strongly agreed that the iPad made their project management course more interesting.

The study, called the eReader Project, looked at undergraduates in a project-management course at Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business this past fall. The sampling of students was small: 40 students in the course used Wi-Fi iPads for seven weeks of the semester; a second wave of 38 students received in the second half of the semester.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 23, 2011 2:40 AM
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