15 Benefits of Digital Textbooks in Schools

Traditional printed textbooks have been the mainstay of the education sector for decades. The 2019 pandemic changed that and forced the education sector to go digital. So, are these digital textbooks really better than their ancestors?

This blog will tell you everything you need to know about digital textbook benefits and dispel any doubts you may have about them. So, let us dive right in. 

Table of Contents

I. The Top 15 Digital Textbook Benefits

1. Digital Textbook Benefits for Students
2. Digital Textbook Benefits for Educators
3. Digital Textbook Benefits for Schools

II. Summing It Up

K12 education is by far the most important phase of a child’s life, and as educators, you are duty-bound to ensure that you impart knowledge with the very best tools at your disposal.

Digital textbook benefits can revolutionize how education is imparted in schools, and to better understand them, let’s look at these benefits from the perspective of the students, the educators, and the schools.

Students have the most to gain from transitioning to a digital curriculum, and here it is now. 

1. It is a medium they are already familiar with: The current generation of students has grown up with smart devices. Digital textbooks will be a lot easier for them to adapt to as this mode of consuming content for them is ‘normal.’ 
2. Technology has its advantages: Digital textbooks offer features such as highlighting portions of text to revisit later and book-marking, adding notes or comments wherever required, and the ability to search for specific information. While you could argue that you can highlight sections and take notes on a printed textbook, once you do, it cannot be erased.
3. They can be multimedia-rich and interactive: Digital textbooks can be infused with engaging multimedia content that can keep students engaged longer but also aid in explaining concepts better. A simple animation can explain a concept a lot better than 500 words or a few pictures.
4. They weigh nothing: When you think of a school-going child, the first picture that comes to mind is one in uniform lugging around a heavy backpack. Over time, they can affect a student’s posture and lead to serious back injuries. With digital textbooks and smart devices that are required to view them no heavier than a pound or two, students can carry a library’s worth of books in them.
5. They are cost-effective: While in the literal sense, this point speaks more towards the parents, it is beneficial, nonetheless. Digital books are more economical than traditional textbooks, and as a result, parents can afford to give their children all the educational material they need without breaking the bank.

A transition to digital textbooks will benefit educators a lot, too. Here’s how:

1. They improve engagement and knowledge retention: Digital textbooks are much more engaging and interactive than ever. The infusion of gamification into the digital curriculum has proven to improve engagement levels by 54% as per recent study, which is a massive win for educators and students alike. 
2. They enable self-directed learning: Digital books come integrated with a host of interactive features, and educators can add a lot of links to additional learning materials to help further explain concepts. With higher engagement levels digital textbooks offer, students can take charge of their own learning. This is a big plus for educators as it is difficult to give students individual attention when student-to-teacher ratios are 25:1 in the best of cases. 
3. They can be updated or corrected instantly: Spotted an error or a misprint? Or do you need to update an important statistic or some new information? Educators can correct these errors and redistribute them to students with ease. 
4. Easy Collaboration: With a digital curriculum, educators can easily share new information, notes, or additional digital textbooks with students instantly.
5. Track student progress and give customer feedback: Digital textbooks, when used in conjunction with learning management systems, allow educators to track student’s progress and give each student personalized attention or feedback on portions where they may be lagging behind.

Schools and educational institutions, too, have a lot to gain from adopting digital textbooks into their curricula. 

1. Significant cost saving: Schools can benefit a great deal from a digital format of imparting education. Expenses related to printing, transport, storage, and distribution are all eliminated with digital textbooks. While there are publishing costs associated with digital books as well, they are minuscule in comparison. The funds saved can be put to better use to improve the facilities of the school. 
2. Minimal turnover time: Unlike printed textbooks, digital textbooks can be published in a fraction of the time. Professional publishers like KITABOO can deliver textbooks in a matter of weeks in comparison to traditional textbooks, which usually take an average of 2-4 years to publish. Moreover, they can be passed on to the students the moment they are published. No more waiting for the textbooks to reach you from the publishers or the need for students to wait in lines to collect them. 
3. Equal access to education: Digital textbooks transcend the socio-economic and disability boundaries. Their cost-effective nature ensures that every child can afford access to them. Digital textbooks also adhere to WCAG guidelines, meaning that disabilities are no longer a limiting factor to impart equal education for all. Digital textbooks come with a host of features that can benefit students with various disabilities. 
4. Improved reputation: With the above benefits to both students and educators alike, schools should start to see an improvement in their overall performance. Better results not only boost your reputation as an educational institution in certain cases but will improve the funding they receive as well. That brings us down to the last benefit of this list, one that benefits all of us as a whole.
5. They are eco-friendly: We are not amidst a climate crisis, and the number of trees that have to be cut down and the water used to print traditional textbooks are criminal, to say the least. Switching to digital textbooks can be one small step towards fitting climate change and working towards a greener and healthier future.

Digital textbooks offer several advantages over traditional textbooks for everyone involved in the world of education. If you are looking for a way to improve the learning experience for your students, switching to digital textbooks is a great option.

These 15 points mentioned above should be more than adequate to convince you that digital textbooks are the future of education.

Contact our expert team now and get started!

To know more, please write to us at KITABOO@hurix.com.

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