Exploring the affordance and acceptance of an e‐reader device as a collaborative learning system
| Published date | 03 August 2012 |
| Date | 03 August 2012 |
| Pages | 516-542 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211252229 |
| Author | Boon‐Chong Seet,Tiong‐Thye Goh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Exploring the affordance and
acceptance of an e-reader device
as a collaborative learning system
Boon-Chong Seet
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, and
Tiong-Thye Goh
School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington,
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this research is to identify users’ perceived affordances and explore how they
influence the acceptance of an e-reader device collaborative learning system.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports on two studies conducted to identify and
explore perceived affordances. The first study enabled four users to experience a collaborative
problem-solving task to elicit perceived affordances. The second study developed and used a survey
instrument based on a modified technology acceptance model with 54 participants to investigate the
influences of the affordances on users’ acceptance using the partial least square technique.
Findings – Five major affordancefactors were found to be significantly influencingusers’ acceptance
of the proposed system. These affordance factors are: mobility affordance, support affordance,
connectivity affordance, immediacy affordance, and collaborative affordance. Surprisingly,
sustainabilityaffordance was found to have limitedinfluence on the acceptance ofthe proposed system.
Research limitations/implications – The findings can be applied to other e-reader devices with
features similar to iLiad such as Sony PRS, Kobo, Nook, PocketBook and Viewsonic. Prototyping is a
critical design process which aims to elicit user experiences. The research implies that the prototype
system is capable of generating perceived affordances that are useful for e-reader device development
in order to enhance acceptance. The convenience sample used in the survey is biased towards male
participants. As male and female users perceive information and communications technologies (ICT)
differently, caution should be taken when applying the findings to the general population.
Practical implications – Practitioners should focus on utilising the support affordance of the
system and identifying clear learning goals with the help of collaborative affordance as the learning
pedagogy. System designers should focus on creating a good range of visible support affordances that
are intuitive, while enhancing or complementing the collaborative learning affordances. The design of
an integrated chat application is important as it lays the foundation for ensuring that collaborative
learning with e-reader devices is possible.
Originality/value – E-reader devices have not been studied extensively as collaborative learning
systems. This research is believed to be the first to integrate and explore the use of an e-reader device
in a collaborative learning environment. This study introduces the concept of composite affordance
with a modified technology acceptance model for investigating users’ acceptance of an e-reader device
as a collaborative learning system.
Keywords E-reader devices,Collaborative learning, Affordances, Acceptance,E-books, Learning,
Learning methods
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
The research was supported by the Auckland University of Technology Interdisciplinary
Contestable Research Fund in collaboration with a Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of
Commerce and Accounting research grant.
EL
30,4
516
Received June 2011
Revised September 2011
Accepted September 2011
The Electronic Library
Vol. 30 No. 4, 2012
pp. 516-542
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640471211252229
1. Introduction
E-books are digital objects with textual and/or other content, which arises as a result of
integrating the familiar concept of a book with features that can be provided in an
electronic environment (Vassiliou and Rowley, 2008, p. 363). The history of digital book
reading can be traced back to 1971 from the Project Gutenberg digital library.
Twenty-seven years later, the first e-reader devices, the Softbook reader and Rocket
eBook, were launched in 1998. An e-reader (also known as an e-book reader or e-reader
device) is a dedicated hardware device designed specifically for reading e-books. A decade
later, e-reader devices began to be widely adopted. According to Gartner Inc. (2010),
e-reader sales in 2011 are projected to exceed 11 million units, a 68.3 per cent increase from
2010, and their market is predicted to become very competitive. E-reader devices can
move from their current reading focus to incorporate a learning focus to enhance their
usefulness and gain wider acceptance. A recent survey in US higher education indicates
that e-reader devices are likely to be important platforms for instructional content within
the next five years (Green, 2010). E-reader devices are portable, lightweight and capable of
storing hundreds of textbooks and are high in educational affordance. Many e-reader
devices also include useful functional affordances such as wireless connectivity,
touch-screen interaction, note taking, text highlighting, text search, and dictionaries
(MacFadyen, 2011; MobileRead, 2011a). These features provide excellent educational
affordances for e-reader devices to be integrated into a learning environment that allows
opportunities for collaborative and ubiquitous learning.
In collaborative learning, learners help each other to learn and maximise each other’s
knowledge, and through the process, become more knowledgeable learners (J ohnson and
Johnson, 1992; Barkley et al., 2005). E-reader devices are potentially suitable for
implementing this kind of collaborative learning and knowledge building process through
device-to-device communication (Resta and Laferriere, 2007). Many usability issues
regarding e-reader devices as a reading platform (Wilson and Landoni, 2003; Clark et al.,
2008; Demski, 2010; Gibson and Gibb, 2011; Heikkila
¨, 2011) and their effects on individual
reading habits and behaviour (Maynard, 2010; Pattuelli and Rabina, 2010; Grzeschik et al.,
2011) have been explored. However, there is limited knowledge on how e-reader devices
can be used in a collaborative learning environment. Thus, the current research intends to
fill the knowledge gap and provide a timely investigation on how e-reader devices can be
integrated into a collaborative learning system, and how users’ perceived affordances
influence the acceptance of such a system in a tertiary education context.
In this paper, we discuss the implementation of an e-reader device system that
supports web based social interaction and collaboration. The system aims to engage
students in collaborative learning through authentic problem solving using e-reader
devices. The perceived affordances and their influence on user acceptance of the
system were investigated, and possible potential enhancements to the current design
were identified.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 provides a review of
literature on e-readers and related studies. Section 3 presents the theoretical
background of the study, covering the concept of affordance, and e-reader device
acceptance models. Section 4 outlines the implementation of the proposed system.
Section 5 discusses the evaluation methodology and results. Section 6 discusses the
findings and the study’s limitations. Finally, Section 7 concludes the paper with
directions for future work.
Collaborative
learning system
517
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