Study: Student, Faculty Views on Digital Materials

Most faculty members and students think digital course materials will dominate the classrooms of the future, even though they at the moment prefer to learn from physical textbooks, a study by the market research firm Penn Schoen Berland and education company Pearson found. More than four-fifths (82 percent) of the 1,000 students and 200 faculty members surveyed said they believe digital course materials will supplant physical textbooks in the future, and a similar number said they have used digital course materials in the last six months. A majority -- though a much smaller share, 56 percent -- said more than half of their courses already use digital course materials.