Elearning is growing by leaps and bounds, especially within educational institutions.  To some degree, the education arena has been where a lot of the elearning innovation has come from – it’s a safe environment to try new things and implement new tools.  As such, I have always wondered why there is still such a heavy reliance on physical textbooks.

If it were up to my old college bookstore, they would outlaw any type of digital book given the prices they used to charge us! Ouch!  But I was in college before the idea of digital textbooks really took off – and one thing is for sure: times have changed.

For the student, engaging in elearning through digital textbooks is easy on the wallet.  Heck, 48% of students choose digital textbooks because of the lower price.  And in a world where everything needs to be accessible in an instant, an online textbook comes out on top! No more lugging around 30 pounds of books on your back either.  As we all know, you can carry an entire library of elearning modules in your pocket with a mobile devise.

However, what is most beneficial from this type of elearning is that traditional instructional design principles can be applied to the ebooks themselves.   Incorporating interactive “end of chapter” quizzes, videos, games, and so forth are a great way to supplement the learning process.  A lot more interactive than reading words on a page, that’s for sure.

The infographic below by eCampus provides interesting facts about elearning in the form of digital textbooks.  I think this is one area that is WIDE-open for an innovative company to make a whole lot of money.  Establish credibility with higher education and you have officially found your retirement fund. 🙂