E-Reader Pilot Project - University Results

Princeton University recently released the results of a semester long pilot project on the use of the Amazon Kindle DX as a tool to assist students.

The six college and universities that participated in the study were: Princeton University, Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Check out the article here.

Highlights of the study include:

What they liked best about the devices was:

* the battery life, the wireless connection and the portability of the e-reader;
* the fact that all the course reading was on one device;
* the ability to search for content; and
* the legibility of the screen, including the fact it could be read in full sunlight.

The top five suggestions students had for improving e-readers were:

1. improving the ability to highlight and annotate PDF files;
2. improving the annotation tools;
3. providing a folder structure to keep similar readings together;
4. improving the highlighting function; and
5. improving the navigation within and between documents on the reader (including having more than one document open at the same time for comparison).

For the full results of the study, check out the pilot program website here.