During 2012 Patricia McKellar, Associate Director of the Undergraduate Laws Programme, initiated a project on the use of e-readers in distance learning education. The project involved giving 100 students on the University of London Laws programme an e-reader onto which they could download all the course materials for two subjects- Contract and Criminal law. Not only did this include the bespoke University resources but the core text book for each subjects was also provided as an e-book. Students in Singapore, Kenya, Germany and the UK were asked to complete a series of activities throughout the year and they then gave feedback on their experiences. The project found that the evaluation data fell into four areas: Device usability/functiaonlity; User Content; ePub and electronic content format: Impact on learning and teaching. Students valued the flexibility and mobility of the e-reader, especially when travelling, but found the lack of ability to easily move between two documents/books as being a restriction. The report of the project has been published in the European Journal of Law and Technology. The paper is titled “Developing an e-reader and e-publishing model for flexible and open learning on a distance learning LLB programme.” To read the article in full, please click here: http://ejlt.org//article/view/210
We are planning to commence Phase Two of the project to run during the 2013/14 session and results will be made available to students and the wider distance learning community.