Vol 7 No 1 (2013): Transforming Teaching and Learning through ICT Optimization

DYAN YULFIAINI
Politeknik Kota Malang

Abstract

As teaching and learning media, digital books offer many benefits, such as contain multimedia and can be accessed by any devices, comparing with printed books. This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of digital books as learning media in the asynchronous learning. The study was conducted based on sample of 24 diploma 3 students in Politeknik Kota Malang (Poltekom). To obtain the data, a test and a survey were given to the students at the end of the course. The result showed that the use of digital book facilitated students to do independent learning and master the course material as well as it improved student achievement toward the subject. The digital book features which are portability, reflowable content, multimedia support and navigation were also found useful to support students learning. On the other hand, difficulties to provide electronic devices for reading the digital book and eye fatigue became the biggest challenges faced by students during the learning process. Some suggestions were given by students, thus, needed to be considered by academicians and
digital book developers for improving the development of digital books in the future.