Gower College Swansea uses more e-books than any other further education provider in Wales, according to the latest statistics. Staff and students at the college viewed 192,000 pages of e-book content in 2013 – the highest in Wales and the 15th highest amongst further education providers across the UK.
The college has been heavily promoting e-learning resources for a number of years in line with increasing demand from students to be able to access materials inside and outside of the libraries on campus. A team of six Learning Advisers in the library work with teaching staff and students to identify and promote both print materials and electronic learning resources such as e-books through classes and one-to-one sessions.
Mark Ludlam is the college’s Learning Resources Manager. He said: “Libraries are a fantastic facility for students and teachers to have, but it is important that we keep up with advances in technology and use them to the benefit of our students. They want to be able to access information at home or on the move, via their smartphones or devices, and so we have put a lot of time and effort into promoting ways of doing that.”
The college uses its internal Intranet site, known as Moodle, to upload course-relevant e-books for students to easily access and lecturers actively promote them during lessons. Mark added: “It has now become an important part of our culture to make the most of new technology and incorporate it into improved learning. It is something that has been embraced by all subject areas too. The most popular e-books are childcare, business studies, sport science and IT, so the use of e-books isn’t limited to one type of student either. Everyone is benefitting from it. We are delighted to be the top user in Wales and we’ll continue to support the use of e-books in 2014.”
The statistics were collected by JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), which monitors e-books for further education. It consists of a collection of over 3,000 e-books.