JISC

JISC has funded an ‘e-books for Further Education (FE)’ project to make over 3000 e-books freely available to every college and sixth form in the UK.

Over the next five years, the project, which also received funding from the Learning Skills Council (LSC), will enable all students in FE in the UK to access online course texts to support their studies. 

E-books will be made available from the start of the next academic year via the ebrary e-books platform E-books will be made available from the start of the next academic year via the ebrary e-books platform. Subjects will range from Fashion Design to Software Engineering, Health and Social Care to Automobile Electronics, and Beauty Therapy to Practical Lambing.  Access will be available whether students are studying in the college, at home or in an internet café.
 
Colleges will also have the opportunity to buy additional e-books at specially discounted prices to add to the collection.  This will enable each college to build a digital library of e-books tailored to meet the needs of all its students.

A recent study (PDF) carried out by JISC Collections, as part of its national e-book observatory project, indicated that e-books are popular with students because they are ‘more accessible than print books, meaning that users can get at them wherever they are and at whatever time they like’.

JISC Collections’ national e-book observatory project is one of the largest studies of its kind in the UK. It observed the behaviours of students at 127 UK universities; how they accessed, used and downloaded e-books, and received more than 40,000 responses.

Its results suggest that e-books, rather than detracting from the use of traditional textbooks, actually support their use, providing access to information in the student’s own time, enabling further reading on those subjects printed in the core text and potentially improving the way students learn by broadening their analytical and evaluation skills. 

Lorraine Estelle, CEO of JISC Collections commented, “This is not the end of the printed text.  Rather than replacing printed material, e-books will support students’ studies providing a broader range of reading materials, knowledge and opinions.  In this way this project will do more than just provide free course material, it will add a greater value to that already provided by the FE institution.”

The e-books on offer via the project were chosen by ballot system by colleges across the country, with more than 80,000 votes casted.  Nicola Scott, Learning Resources Manager at Hackney Community College, on behalf of The Council for Learning Resources in Colleges (CoLRiC) committee, said, “We were pleased to be invited to participate in this project, as it will make a sound contribution to the quality of services.

“The enthusiastic response to the request to evaluate the resources offered, confirmed our belief that our members would be quick to identify the value of the project to the FE sector. We know that they are responsive to the opportunities presented by new technologies, and the promotion of e-books is a means of transforming learning.”

Visit the JISC Collections website for more detail on how to subscribe.

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