Using eReaders and Tablets in the engineering classroom

The use of eReaders, and Tablets is increasing dramatically by engineering students. As engineering and science textbooks become more available for these devices at costs significantly below the costs of traditional printed textbooks, even more students will uses these devices. In addition to the text, students often use a professor´s slides, handouts, assignments, laboratory exercises, and supplemental material as part of their studies. While some is prepared by the publisher, the material is more often locally prepared by the professor. Having this material available on the students´ eReader or Tablet would significantly enhance the students´ use of their device. During the past academic year, we have begun to develop supplementary materials for several courses for use with a Kindle or Tablet. In this paper, we will describe the techniques needed, beginning from the straightforward transfer of purely textual materials, to developing materials will highly mathematical and graphical content for display on the devices. In addition, we will describe how these techniques can be used to produce material for these multiple uses without placing a significant additional burden the faculty member. The paper will report the results of a pilot project where students in several Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 Electrical and Biomedical Engineering courses were loaned Kindles and all material beyond the texts for the courses was produced for the devices. The results of the students´ surveys on their use of the material and the eReaders will be presented and discussed.