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eTextbook Scheme

Information for Academic staff

The Library is providing all first year undergraduate students with access to their own personal digital copy of two key eTextbooks per module. The programme runs from September through to August, so please make your request by the end of July.

In order to ensure the right titles are chosen for your students the Library needs your support to select the titles you believe are the key reading. The best candidates are the titles that are referenced repeatedly throughout the duration of the course.

Please watch the short video below for a quick introduction to the eTextbook programme and what it can offer you.

Selecting your titles

To nominate the two key titles for each of the first year modules you teach, please fill in this form.

Once you have nominated the titles, the Library will work with the eTextbook provider to make these titles available in your Resource Lists and within the 'eTextbook' tab of Course Resources.

If you would like a demo of the platform or the analytics dashboard please tick the box on the form and we will contact you with joining details of an upcoming training session.

If you have any questions about nominating your titles, please contact us at resource-lists@derby.ac.uk for more information and support.

 

 

eTextbooks are a digital version of the key textbooks that students are required to read and reference throughout their course. They are the central texts that will provide the foundation of student learning for the module.

What is the difference is between an eBook and an eTextbook? This is determined by the publisher, as they tend to regard eTextbooks as high value reading materials and often don't provide access to Academic Libraries through our usual aggregators, or if they do, can often be too expensive for the Library to purchase.

Thanks to the eTextbook scheme however, these high value titles are now available to us through the eTextbook platform. This platform also offers enhanced learning and accessibility tools for students, and access to learning analytics for teaching staff.

 

 

There are many benefits to this scheme:

 

  • This service provides free access to a students most important texts in a digital format. This means no student is disadvantaged or disappointed because they can't afford a text or a print copy is unavailable in the Library.
  • These texts are made available in an accessible format to support students with visual or learning disabilities. The platform also offers enhanced learning tools such as note taking, highlighting, dynamic page layouts and customisable fonts and backgrounds.
  • Each student is provided with their own personal copy for the duration of the pilot and can be accessed online or downloaded and read offline. Each title the student accesses is added to their personal bookshelf so they can dip in and out of their texts across multiple modules.
  • These texts will be integrated into your Resource List and Course Resources pages to allow easy and direct access to their titles, or they can be accessed via the app. These texts can also be incorporated within MS Teams to allow academics to use the texts in live demonstrations and make annotations within a virtual session
  • The analytics dashboard provides access to a detailed understanding of the student learning journey. You will be able to see which students are engaging with their set reading, see common search patterns and ascertain if a student is struggling to engage with material. All of this can be used to intervene and provide extra support to students who may be struggling or falling behind. Check out the video below to learn more

 

 

 

Watch the video below to learn more about the platform