Student Response to Digital Textbooks Climbs, Says New BISG Study

The popularity of digital textbooks may have hit a tipping point in 2012 as preference by college students climbed significantly, according to new research from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)'s ongoing study of Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education. The first installment in Volume Three of the study, powered by Bowker Market Research, shows that students' preference for print over digital texts dropped from 72 percent in November 2011 to 60 percent in late 2012. The picture isn't entirely rosy for digital texts: satisfaction with these works declined in 2012, with only 26 percent of students citing they were "very satisfied" with their digital text, down from 30 percent in 2011.