Apple

Notre Dame Calls Early Results Of IPad Study Encouraging

(online at http://blogs.forbes.com/ )

In late August, the University of Notre Dame handed 40 students an Apple iPad as part of a year-long study of e-readers. Though it is still early, the school says its first survey of the test group already points to high satisfaction with the device.

Students in the school’s Project Management course are using the iPads in place of conventional textbooks while they conduct seven-week-long special projects. Corey Angst, an Assistant Professor of Management, who is teaching the class, says he expects students to tap their iPads to write and share documents, take notes and show plans to their project “clients”. He plans to ask the students throughout the semester how they are adapting to the change.

The results could be useful for other schools that are considering adopting iPads or other tablets in the classroom. Notre Dame will rotate the iPads among different groups, including selected freshmen and law school students, next semester. Its eventual goal is to create an “e-publishing ecosystem” for the entire university.

Angst says the first survey of his students was more encouraging than he had expected. It found that the majority was comfortable with their iPads and utilizing them regularly within the first two weeks of use. Asked “How would you rate your skill level of using the iPad?”, 50% responded “some [what skilled]“, 35% said “quite extensive[ly skilled]” and 8% said “very extensive[ly skilled]“.

Though they were only tasked with using the iPad in Angst’s class, students reported employing it elsewhere. More than half said they were using the iPads to do all of the reading for the Project Management course and that they had turned to the iPad to do some reading for other classes, as well as for non-academic reading.

Students also said they were reading the articles assigned for the course on their iPads rather than printing them, which was another hoped-for benefit of the switch. Notre Dame is calling the class the school’s first “paperless” course.

For a good number of students, this iPad reading added up to multiple hours on the gadget a day. More than half of them said they brought their iPads to class every day, including days they did not have the Project Management course.

Angst had anticipated slightly more negative feedback. “In [Information Technology] research, we almost always see a slight dip in satisfaction after a couple weeks of usage,” he notes. “In this case, we saw very little of that.”

Polled on the benefits of incorporating iPads into the class, a majority agreed that the device “encouraged exploration of additional topics,” “provided functions/tools that are not possible with a traditional textbook” and “made the coursework more interesting.” Others added that the iPads improved collaboration among team members, helped them stay organized and–as a replacement for a textbook and/or laptop–made their bags and backpacks much lighter.

The students did have some quibbles. A few worried about the effects of spending so much time looking at a computer screen. Others admitted that the iPad, with its wealth of applications and games and its Web browser, could be distracting. One noted that it was more difficult to highlight text on an iPad than in a regular book.

Overall, however, Angst says the school is “very happy with where this appears to be going.”