A printed book or an e-book? Student Preferences & Reasons
الخلاصة
New devices and integrated tools have played a significant role in improving the choices offered for reading. Many students in universities own laptops, and an increasing number are purchasing tablets, smartphones, and other handheld devices. Interesting enough, students carry their electronic devices everywhere they go, even at a university. Students perhaps use these devices when doing their assignments and reading course materials, to increase their reading comprehension, or to download all the course materials to their devices to use them occasionally. Therefore, this study used the quantitative approach to find out whether Elmergib University students preferred using printed books or electronic books (e-books) for reading their course materials. The sampling group for the study is 120 students attending the Elmergib University Faculty of Science. According to the student’s answers to the questions, over half of the students don’t read e-books. Based on the responses from students; the “I like to hold the book in my hands” is the most marked reason with 43.3%. The reason “To protect my eye health” is another reason, the more chosen. The paper begins with a definition of e-books and their features, followed by a review of the literature on previous research done on students’ e-book use and perception, and then a description of the methodology used. The results of the survey on the use of e-books by Elmergib University students are presented and discussed. Finally, recommendations and future research are suggested to conclude the paper.