E-books for FE
The e-books for FE project, funded by the Learning Skills Council and JISC
will make over 3000 e-books freely available to every further education
college in the UK, for five years. The e-books available cover subjects as
diverse as Fashion Design and Software Engineering, Heath and Social Care
and Automobile Electronics, Beauty Therapy and Practical Lambing.
A recent study[1] indicated that e-books are popular with students in higher
education because they are ‘more accessible than print books, meaning that
users can get at them wherever they are and at whatever time they like.’
Now, because of this project, all students in the UK studying at further
education can access course texts to support their studies online. Access is
available whether they are studying in the college, at home or in an
internet café.
Further education colleges across the country helped to choose the e-books,
casting 80,000 votes. Nicola Scott ( LRS manager at Hackney Community
College said, “The CoLRic ( Council for Learning Resources in Colleges)
committee were pleased to be invited to participate in this project, as it
will make a sound contribution to the quality of services”
“The enthusiastic response to the request to evaluate the resources offered,
confirmed our belief that our members would be quick to identify the value
of the project to the FE sector. We know that they are responsive to the
opportunities presented by new technologies, and the promotion of e books is
a means of transforming learning”.
Steve Nichols of the Learning Skills Council said, “The LSC is delighted to
support this ground breaking initiative to provide FE learners with this
valuable e-book facility.
We are confident that the high proportion of vocational subject books within
the collection will provide a flexible and convenient platform to help
learners develop their work skills”.
The e-books will be available from the start of the next academic year on
the ebrary e-books platform. Colleges will have the opportunity to buy
additional e-books at specially discounted prices to add to the collection.
This will enable each college to build a digital library of e-books tailored
to meet the needs of its students.
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[1] http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/wp-content/jisc-freetext-report.pdf
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