FiT, BISG, and the future of the textbook

At the Book Industry Study Group (#BISG) conference on ebooks and higher learning, which took place last month in New York, several industry specialists turned their attention to the manifest destiny of digital texts and trade books.

The conference opened with the statement, “There is tremendous noise in the industry.”

It’s hard to avoid the oft-overused “Wild West” descriptor, but it’s true. It was apparent today that while industry gurus have a strong grasp on focus groups, marketing numbers, and projected stats, the future of digital media in higher learning is still a great unknown. While it is achievable to poll several thousand students from 1,100 universities and colleges across the Western world to see what their preferences and current trends are, it is difficult to predict the impact of technology as it changes as fast as people can assemble a business plan.

The conversion from print to digital media has been complex. According to Steve Paxhia, President of Kaplan Publishing, three years ago only 1.5% of magazines were read online, compared to 38% today. And newspapers are finding 61% of their readers are getting their news online. Trade books had no digital market four years ago (this fact can probably be refuted, although minimally), yet today their digital share is 10% and doubling annually.

But textbooks are tricky. Students are confounding predictions, since conventional wisdom suggests that they are the first to adopt “gadgets” like androids and iPhones, iPads and tablets, and Kindles and Nooks. But the economy has dragged down student pocketbooks, as well as the pocketbooks of their families. Fewer loans are going out, tuition has been rising, and the cost of textbooks continues to escalate.

BISG put out a lot of great information, some of the highlights are listed below:

—The longer students are in school, the more likely they are to obtain their study material via alternative methods. Some of methods of procurement include: copying textbooks, downloading texts and quizzes from online sources, screen capturing, using International texts, and staying with old editions (only 62% stick with current new/used editions).

—Students still prefer print textbooks by a 4 to 1 margin. Reasons for this include: high expenses of technology, the ability to resell textbooks for “money” (of an undefined number), because they are directed to by faculty, and the feel and permanence of print (they are able to carry that book with them into their careers).

—The top four platforms students use for ebooks are: 1) Laptop computer, 2) Desktop computer, 3) Kindle, and 4) iPad. Computers (#1 and #2) overwhelmingly make up the vast majority of platforms.

—Kelly Gallagher, Vice President of Publishing Services for RR Bowker, says that in spite of dire predictions of the textbook market, it continues to grow. One reason for this is the massive return of professionals to school, due to the state of the economy.

—Textbooks that deal with the sciences are more often kept by students, unlike liberal arts textbooks.

—According to Rob Reynolds, Director of Product Design and Research at Xplana, for-profit universities, tech schools, and colleges are continuing to rise dramatically. From 2005-2010, they rose from 903 to 1,215.

—Because of the economical strain, students have become much more savvy with their purchasing, as quoted by the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Students are comparing prices, shopping around, and are utilizing coupons and discounts.

—Students are a great test group, because they are willing to experiment with new technology, but only as long as there is a viable, tangible reward or payoff.

—There is a new future developing where textbooks are going to experience the “iTunes effect”; that is, they are going to be chopped up into smaller, more affordable segments that can be pieced together into a custom ebook.

How does this relate to FiT? We have made a committment to listening to the professors, faculty, and students that we engage with on a daily basis. We solicit their thoughts and needs, and plan accordingly. We have been making several of our books available as an accessible, interactive e-book. We also realize that many students like to keep their hands on hard copies of texts for future reference, or as a type of barter that enables cash-in-pocket at the end of the semester (although e-books are usually, ultimately cheaper down the stretch).

We are interested in hearing what you have to say, and we want to know your thoughts. Whether you’re a new student in a sport psychology course, an academic who wants our trade books on the iPad2, or you’re a faculty member that wants a comprehensive package of print, digital, and “packaged” slides and material, please drop us an email to fiteditors@mail.wvu.edu. Tell us what you like, what you want to see us do, and what suggestions you have for us. We welcome all of your ideas and comments. You can even tell us what we’re doing right!

Female Student-Athletes and Sporting Violence

Elizabeth Lambert was suspended indefinitely after her aggression on the soccer field vs BYU

Last year, Oregon’s LeGarrette Blount sucker punched Boise State’s Byron Hout at the end of a hotly contested football game after Hout mouthed off. This month, Baylor’s Brittney Griner decked Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle after a Lone Star shoving spree during a women’s basketball game. The events were remarkably similar: a college athlete overreacted with a swinging fist during a tense game. The only difference is that Griner’s actions seem to accent a growing trend of violence and aggression in women’s athletics; something that the public eye is finding both a novelty and a blight.   

A recent New York Times story highlighted some of the more recent high-profile events attributed to over-aggressive female college and high school athletes: New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert slammed her BYU opponent to the ground by the ponytail; women’s basketball rivals Georgetown and Louisville threw some pre-game punches; and a Providence, R.I., high school girls’ soccer game erupted in fights on the field and in the stands.  

Whether or not women are becoming more violent during sporting events, the real question is “why?” 

Dr. Jack Watson, chair of the Department of Sports Sciences and an associate professor of sport and exercise psychology at West Virginia University, said that in order to get a better understanding of why women athletes may be trending towards violence, we should take into account the very nature of women’s athletics today compared to a generation ago. 

“We’re putting more pressure on women’s sports,” said Watson. “It used to be about merely having a coach, but now there is a lot of competition and we’re putting more money into coaching, and coaches need to win.” 

West Virginia University professor of sport and exercise psychology and psychologist for the school’s athletic department, Dr. Ed Etzel remarked that student-athletes, regardless of sex, are influenced by role models and media outlets.

Watson echoed the sentiment: “It’s all a form of societal learning.”

In the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, the following excerpt appeared in the article “Aggression and Violence in Sport,” which was published in 2003: 

[A] recent article in Referee Magazine . . . presents the view that poor sportsmanship at the professional level has led to similar problems among high school athletes. Mike Pereira, Director of Officiating for the National Football League (of American Football; NFL) is quoted as saying, “The pros and college sports have a huge impact on the play of the game at lower levels.” 

One could argue that college sports are on a “lower level” just as much as high school sports; both collegiate and high school athletes, male and female, have access to the same media outlets that broadcasts MLB brawls and WNBA scuffles. And both male and female student-athletes seem to respond similarly, if recent events are any indication of what is to be commonplace. 

“If [students] see a particular modeling of behavior in the media by peers and others in professional sports, they begin to change what they see as acceptable behavior,” said Etzel.

As students adopt new attitudes toward what is acceptable sportsmanship behavior during competition and training, they carry those attitudes with them as they become new parents. While this is old hat for men, the territory may be new for most women.

“We’re now seeing children born to moms and dads that were post-Title IX kids,” said Watson. “We’re into the second generation of females now.” 

Because of the inroads laid by Title IX and the work of countless women, female student-athletes now have unprecedented access to sports—and increasing competition—when it comes to sporting activities, and they are working as hard as their male counterparts. Watson observed that women are spending as much time in the gym as men, but their determination extends well beyond training. “Women are just as competitive as men on the court,” he said. 

Brittney Grimes was handed a two-game suspension for her punch that broke Barncastle’s nose. LeGarrette Blount was punished by a season-ending suspension, but was reinstated late in the season. The Oregonian reported that Blount’s incident dropped his NFL stock, and he went from “probably a second round draft pick to pretty much undraftable.” 

Although Grimes’s and Blount’s punishments were drastically different, repercussions and penalties for violent and aggressive behavior vary greatly. Lambert, for example, was suspended for the season after her hair-yanking fiasco. But how should athletic organizations find common ground when punishing violence and aggression?

“I have a radical idea,” said Etzel, “Perhaps we should consider these behaviors as crimes as they would likely be seen off the court and on the street?”

** 

Dr. Ed Etzel is the editor of Counseling and Psychological Services for College Student-Athletes and is coauthoring a chapter in a forthcoming handbook on sport and exercise psychology with Dr. Jack Watson; these books and the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology are published by Fitness Information Technology and are available at www.fitinfotech.com.