Are Textbooks Relevant in the Digital Learning Age?

A key question for designers of professional certificationmaterials is, “Are textbooks relevant today?”

Dylan Fedy recentlyinterviewed learning designer Atena Bishka about the evolution of learningmaterials. Atena and Dylan work for CSI, the Canadian Securities Institute. CSI,a part of Moody’s Analytics LearningSolutions, is a provider of financial services credentials and learningprograms. The CSI courses cover a range of financial content areas fromsecurities and portfolio management to financial planning and high-net-worthwealth management. Courses are offered in a variety of formats, leveragingdigital technology and pedagogical tools to enable anytime, anywhere learningaccess and meet the changing needs of learners and their organizations.

Dylan and Atena explore where we are in the evolution oflearning materials and come to some interesting conclusions.

Learning materials—getting and holding attention

Dylan Fedy: Atena, as an instructional designer, you areinvolved with the design of courses for financial services professionals. It’s2018, and in spite of the rapid advances in EdTech and eLearning, we continueto offer textbooks as learning tools. How would you describe what has changedand what has stayed the same with how people read and work through learningmaterials?

Atena Bishka: Reading certainly is different now and ismedium-dependent. In the technology-dominated world, the act of reading byflipping a book’s pages, gazing undistractedly from left to right, top tobottom, patiently going down paragraph-by-paragraph, sentence-by-sentence, getsreplaced. Instead, while reading a page increasingly becomes viewing a screen,learners are now scrolling, scanning, switching tabs, looking for keywords, skipping,and skimming around. Back in the days when books were only available in print,reading was a solitary activity, which required linearity, logic, and payingattention. A reader learning from the printed text would ask themselves “Doeswhat I just read make sense? Does this follow?”

Thetraditional-media monopoly on the delivery of information and learning nolonger exists. Today no technology can claim monopoly on attention. Quite theopposite. The designers of phones and apps are masters at seizing our attention.In the digital space there are endless temptations and notifications staging averitable feast of clickbaits and neural “blings”—all fighting for our attention,which is a limited and fragile mental resource. As a consequence, either aslearners or learning designers, we rarely pause to ask “Does this follow?” Instead,we tend to worry far more about “Doesthis grab you?” There is a difference between these two questions. Readingcontent that “follows” implies looking at the information critically for coherenceand consistency in concepts and ideas. By contrast, content that “grabs you” elicitsemotional appeal; it responds to learner needs and preferences, is usuallysuccinct in design, and is conveyed in concrete and simple language. Well awareof such distinctions, the challenge for practitioners and learning specialists isto create learning content that answers both questions with “yes.”

Is the future all digital?

Dylan: So EdTech, and digital tools in general, doa fine job of snatching our attention … and maybe a less good job of holdingit. Keeping that in mind, as you do your course design work, surely there are manyplaces where technology enhances learning. After all, you can’t expect anyoneto learn anything if you haven’t first gotten their attention, can you?

Atena: Of course, there are plenty of digitallearning tools we use, and these capture a great deal of interest from learningand development leaders. I’ve been involved with hosting learning conferencesand symposiums, and when we ask participants what future topics they would liketo see covered, participants often respond “learning technology and digitaltools.” Indeed, financial services organizations are investing in EdTech. Andso they should be. They are well aware of the power, growing influence, andappeal of technology, and are keen to strengthening employee engagement. As learningprofessionals, we are always on the lookout for innovative and cost-effectivetechnology solutions that promise to create engaging learning experiences thatcould close knowledge gaps faster. And everyone seems to agree that the futurebelongs to technology; that the future is digital. But, having said this, in spite ofthe appeal of learning technology and the relative lack of excitement for printedtextbooks, theynevertheless still earn their important and enduring place in the modernlearning toolbox.

Are textbooks an endangered species?

Dylan: Despite the “printed book isdead” prophecy, it seems you’re saying that rumors of the demise of thetextbook have been greatly exaggerated. When given a choice, though, dostudents choose to buy textbooks?

Atena: Far from being dead, printedbooks in general is a growing business. In 2016, US print book sales grew threepercent. Textbooks are still the most popular choice of students. The StudentWatch report Attitudes and Behaviortoward Course Materials 2016-2017 showed that 74 percent of students boughtnew textbooks compared to only 23 percent who bought digital course materials (Figure1).

StudentWatch is conducted online with more than 41,000 students across the US and Canadaparticipating.

Figure 1: In 2017,74 percent of students in North America bought textbooks

Thisis no different from what we have learned at the Canadian Securities Institute.It is commonplace to hear how the generation of digital natives prefers learningwith electronic devices, videos, and interactive electronic platforms. However,our data indicates that among CSI students in pursuit of financial designationand certification, the preference to learn from financial textbooks remainsstrong and steady.

This isn’t something that we merely infer or say lightly. Itis what our learners tell us, too. At CSI, with a course enrollment, studentsget access to a digital textbook. Our data indicates that about 60 percent oflearners choose to buy a printed textbook as well. But there is more. To measureand improve the extent to which our courses measure up to the learning needs offinancial services professionals, CSI conducts learning effectiveness surveys. The 2016 and 2017 survey results indicate that textbooks(printed or online PDF formats) represent the top preferred learning choice fora whopping majority of more than 85 percent of survey respondents, followed byin-class instruction and webcasts, which ranked as their second or thirdpreferred learning choice.

Counterintuitively, in spite of the efforts to accommodatelearner and customer preferences, such as training delivery format styles,technology styles, and teaching styles, it looks like the bulky textbooks, asinformation and knowledge acquiring tools, are here to stay.

Textbooks on screen vs. printed textbooks

Dylan: It’s easy to see the appeal of digital textbooks;the material is available everywhere I carry my phone, I can copy and paste andhighlight text, I can search the material for keywords. What do you thinkexplains the enduring appeal of printed textbooks?

Atena: I can tell you one use of the digital PDFsthat we know some students appreciate is being able to print sections of thebook to use conveniently without having to carry around the full book.Moreover, a textbook is pretty reliable, will never need login and password, isfree from any glitches and web page malfunctioning, has high-resolution, andwill never run out of battery. More importantly, striving to absorb abstract andcomplex financial content requires setting aside blocks of hours of reading forcomprehension in an undistracted way. It requires patience, capacity forreflection, persistence to figure out complexity, and, above all, attention andwillingness to suspend distractions. Remember, digitaldevices are remarkable at getting attention, less so at holding it.

To engage with complex information and internalize abstractknowledge—which is crucial to successfully pass CSI licensing and designationcourse exams—is to engage primarily with written words, which means following linesof thoughts, one at a time. This requires efforts to classify, to makeinferences, and to reason. It also means detecting possible contradictions,weighing and assessing ideas, comparing and contrasting assertions, connectinggeneralizations characterized by a coherent, orderly arrangement of facts andideas. Feedback from our learners suggests that it is the textbook thatprovides such necessary context that enables knowledge acquisition and optimallearning experience.

Most preferred learning format vs. most effective

Dylan: Whatdo we know about the effectiveness of learning from textbooks?

Atena: It is probably not news to say thatmost students, educators, [and] policymakers feel that students’ strongattachment and familiarity with technology means that technology (the newer andmore advanced the better) leads to better learning results. However, researchshows that preferences for technology, just like other preferences, such aslearning styles, do not necessarily translate into better learning. Alexander andSinger Trakhman [see References] reviewed the research conducted from 1992 until now—sothat’s almost 25 years’ worth of data. They report that the research indicates“that students were able to better comprehend information in print for textsthat were more than a page in length” compared to digital formats. Theresearchers also conducted three studies to further explore their findings and discoveredthat comprehension, including correct answering for specific questions, wasbetter for print compared to digital reading.

This is not to say that information and knowledge offered in printformat is always better. That’s justnot true. From an instructional design perspective, the format will always dependon several factors including:

• Thepurpose of training. Is the purpose to provide a generaland short overview or is the training more involved and leading to licensing, acertification, or a designation?
• The typeof content. Is the content complex and highly abstract, or is it essentiallyconcrete and practical?
• Thetask analysis. Is the learner required to become aware of and familiar with anidea, or is a deeper engagement necessary, perhaps to pass a regulatory exam?Are the expected knowledge and skills of low or high stakes

Are textbooks relevant in today’s world? From a learning designperspective, there is, of course, no“one size fits all” solution. Creating effective learningexperiences requires a well-thought-out combination of learning strategies andformats. The time-tested printed textbook doeshave an important role to play. This will come as no surprise to the CSIlearners who, in their high-stakes financial services courses, have been clearwith us about their preferences.

References

Alexander, Patricia A, and Lauren M. Singer Trakhman. “EvidenceShows Students Still Learn More Effectively From Print Textbooks Than Screens.”The Conversation. 3 October 2017.