Using e-books for FE in teaching practice and library services

E-books in teaching practice

E-books answer the need for academic integrity and quality in the blended learning environment and develop valuable digital research skills in students.

The collection is available at no cost to Jisc FE members – log in to the Ebook Central platform to begin searching the hundreds of titles available.

“Jisc e-books are an invaluable teaching resource because they effectively summarise the curriculum content we need our students to learn, and they also include good activities for students to apply their knowledge in preparation for their exams.”
FE head of business and economics

The Jisc e-books for FE collection provides authoritative curriculum-mapped content from major academic publishers in a format that encourages active participation, fosters collaboration and accommodates diverse learning needs. The unlimited concurrent access is perfect for group study, with all students having 24/7 access to core texts on campus and off via laptops and mobile devices.

Students can download chapters in pdf for reading offline, which means the content is permanently available to them.

E-books offer features that support students with special needs, such as text-to-speech options or adjustable text formats for students with dyslexia.

If you need a title that is not included in the Jisc e-books for FE collection ask your library about the possibility of adding paid-for titles to Ebook Central via ProQuest’s purchasing options.

"T-level e-books have been a game changer. Electronic and plumbing students are using the e-books despite usually being difficult to engage with in terms of reading."
FE head of library services

E-books in the classroom

You can build e-books into classroom activities without worrying about restrictions on numbers. Every student has access to the same edition of the textbook.

E-books can support flipped learning: you can send students a link to a specific e-book chapter or page in advance, allowing for additional class time to explore topics in depth later.

“The A level law e-book is a valuable resource as we use this book in every lesson and I can display the relevant chapter on the smart board and use it to teach effectively, highlighting key cases and points of law. I can also use it to clarify exactly where I want students to focus ensuring ‘we’re all on the same page’!”
FE law programme leader

“The books we use are fantastic at bringing the curriculum alive for students and providing accessible, real world examples.”
FE head of humanities

Interactive learning and digital study skills

While some students will come to college with experience of using e-books in school, others may be less familiar with reading productively online. Features such as bookmarks, highlighting and free-text notes can help students to navigate content and build their confidence with academic reading. Click and drag over an area of text to activate the highlighting, ‘add note’ and ‘copy text’ features.

Students can also export the notes they have created in an e-book text for sharing with others or using in essays. Go to the Bookshelf, and click on Annotated Books, as shown in the screenshot below.

For a specific title, click on the ‘more’ icon (three dots) and then ‘Export Notes’, as shown in the screenshot below.

Once your students have mastered the habit of using an e-textbook they’ll be in a strong position to explore more advanced resources later in their studies, especially if they are progressing to higher education.

Reading lists

One of the most useful features in Ebook Central is the Bookshelf, where you can create folders of hand-picked e-book titles and then share that folder with students via a single, permanent URL – ideal for creating and sharing reading lists.

The Ebook Central Bookshelf and reading lists (docx) gives step-by-step instructions, with screenshots, on how to create reading lists in the Ebook Central Bookshelf.

Linking up with library services

Embedding digital resources into learning and teaching is a collaborative process. Here are just a few ways library/learning resources staff can help you get the best from Jisc e-books. They can:

• Help you integrate e-book details into lesson plans and course materials, ready for the course start date
• Visit your classroom to show students e-books for FE and other resources
• Run a session at continuing professional development (CPD) days for staff or departmental meetings
• Help students in the library one-to-one or in groups
• Share any enhancements to the service with you
• Ensure changes to your courses are taken into account when planning resource provision for the next academic year

AI in Ebook Central – the ProQuest Research Assistant

From March 2025, Ebook Central will include the ProQuest Research Assistant: a generative AI feature that creates key learning points and summaries of e-book contents.

It is for each institution to decide whether to turn this feature on or not – library staff will be informed where the ‘switch off’ option is.

How to use the ProQuest Research Assistant: in the e-book's table of contents, click on a chapter or chapter section (ie any heading that is hyperlinked) and then click on the Research Assistant icon.

The two options are ‘Show key takeaway’ (a short one- or two-paragraph summary) and ‘Show concepts discussed’ (four or five numbered items).

Accessibility

The accessibility features in e-books give them an advantage over print copies.

The ProQuest Ebook Central platform achieved a 100% gold rating for accessibility in 2024 from verification service ASPIRE. Built-in options include an OpenDyslexic typeface, a text-only mode and the option to adjust text size. The ProQuest Ebook Central accessibility statement gives full details of available features.

To access the accessibility options in Ebook Central:

• click on the Profile icon in the top toolbar
• scroll down to Accessibility Settings

Click on Enable Text Only Mode if you want to convert the e-book to plain text.

Below this, there is an option to Enable OpenDyslexic typeface. When enabled, OpenDyslexic typeface is applied to all pages of Ebook Central.

If any changes are made to the accessibility options, click on the Save Changes button to finish.

Video guides

There are lots of useful how-to video guides for Ebook Central and LibCentral, (the ProQuest library admin platform), from two-minute shorts to 45-minute webinar recordings. Links to these videos are available on the e-books for FE blog site.

Information for library staff

Discovery, promotion, and academic liaison will improve usage of e-books.

A blog post by Katie Butler describes how Jisc e-books are promoted at Ashford College in Kent.

Read our member story from Itchen College, which describes how the college boosted its e-book use and redeveloped its library space.

"The key with the e-books was simply making people aware that they existed. At the time, many staff and students weren’t aware of the resource. So, the leadership team focused on a straightforward promotional strategy. They then communicated this to staff through the directors of departments and the leadership group, who passed it on to their teams."
Adrian Waters, Itchen College

Discovery

Importing e-book machine-readable cataloguing (MARC) records into your library management system will make them visible in your library catalogue alongside print resources. We make MARC records available every September, when the new titles go live. You should also delete expired titles from your systems every September. Email Jisc support for advice on MARC records.

Promotion

We have provided promotional resources and a guide on how to use them in the promotional materials section below.

Academic liaison

You can inform curriculum staff of relevant e-books by creating subject-themed folders of e-book titles in the Bookshelf area of Ebook Central, and then share direct links to these folders via Teams, SharePoint, virtual learning environments etc.

Daily download limits

There are daily limits on how much e-book content a single user can download as pdf chapters or copy as text, as explained in this ProQuest guide on per user per day copy, print, and download limits.

Usage reports

There are two ways to access your e-books usage stats: by subscribing to our JUSP statistics platform (for monthly statistics) or by manually running ad hoc reports in LibCentral.

Why use JUSP?

JUSP gathers data for your institution automatically and makes it all available in one place, so it is quick and easy for you to measure use and identify your most-used titles. Data is also available in the form of visualisations such as graphs and pie charts. For further information take a look at the first three links under ‘introducing JUSP’ on JUSP's guides page.

How to sign up if you are a new user

Step one: accept the agreement through the licence subscriptions manager.

Step two: the JUSP team will contact you and start setting up the publishers and suppliers you use. Once we have a list of your publishers and suppliers we'll activate your access.

How to access JUSP if you are an existing user

Visit jusp.ac.uk and select 'Access the Portal' and on the next page select ‘Access portal (Federated access)’. You will then need to select your institution from the list.

If it is your first time using JUSP you may need to have your access authorised by your institution. If so, the system will provide you with credentials to send to a nominated contact and the JUSP team will then authorise it.

Note: you will need ProQuest Ebook Central activated in your services list to see Jisc e-book usage.

If you need any advice or support with JUSP, please email help@jisc.ac.uk with ‘JUSP’ in the subject line.

Running reports in LibCentral

You can manually run COUNTER reports for Jisc e-book usage in LibCentral.

The Jisc e-books usage reports on LibCentral (docx) explains how to log into LibCentral and run COUNTER reports for your usage of Jisc e-books and also your own purchased ProQuest titles.

Promotional materials

Promoting e-books for FE has never been easier, because we have produced a new range of promotional materials.

To get you started, read this guide on how to use the promotional materials below. Promoting e-books: a guide to preparing and printing your posters and textbook stickers (pdf) describes how to create QR codes, customise the poster templates and use spine label stickers to promote the e-version of print resources.

Below, you will find links to downloadable zip files, PowerPoint files, pdfs and Word documents.

We have designed these digital assets to be used in conjunction with QR codes, which gives readers a quick and easy way to access the e-books platform.

Student posters and staff flyer

The poster and flyer templates are in PowerPoint, so they are accessible and easy to use:

• A3 student posters (pptx) - Simply add a QR code linking to your e-books platform and you’re ready to print
• A3 student posters - Welsh (zip)
• A3 student posters - English/Welsh (zip)
• A3 student posters - Welsh/English (zip)
• A3 textbook-specific posters (zip) - Available in both portrait and landscape, add a textbook-specific QR code and an image of the textbook
• A3 textbook-specific posters - Welsh (zip)
• A5 staff flyer - Add a QR code and use this flyer to educate staff on the benefits of e-books. You can even export to a pdf and use this template as a digital flyer.
• A5 staff flyer - Welsh (pptx)
• A4 staff flyer - English/Welsh (pptx)
• A4 staff flyer - Welsh/English (pptx)

Textbook stickers

We offer various sticker templates to allow you to promote e-books on your physical textbooks. These templates are compatible with address label stickers (63.5 x 29.6mm) and different layouts and colours are available:

• Jade stickers English (zip)
• Jade stickers Welsh (zip)
• Pink stickers English (zip)
• Pink stickers Welsh (zip)
• Avery address label template (docx)

Digital assets

To support you as you promote e-books via all available channels, here are some digital images:

• e-books VLE full banner English (png)
• e-books Instagram English (png)
• e-books Twitter (X) English (png)
• e-books LinkedIn English (png)
• All digital assets Welsh (zip)