Jisc e-books for further education platform launches guide covering new innovative AI features
New 'Research Assistant' will help make content more accessible and easier to digest for students.
A new guide to the Jisc e-books for FE platform launched on 4 March 2025, aimed at helping learning resource centre staff, teachers, and learners make the most of the platform and its new AI features.
The Jisc e-books for FE collection offers free access to hundreds of curriculum-mapped titles for UK further education (FE) sector members. Covering GCSE/standard, vocational qualifications, and study skills subjects, the collection is refreshed annually. E-books are available on ProQuest's Ebook Central platform, requiring a UK Federation-registered identity provider for access.
From March 2025, Ebook Central introduces the Research Assistant, a generative AI feature that creates key learning points and summaries of e-book contents. The Research Assistant provides options to show key takeaways or concepts discussed in e-book chapters.
E-books for FE’s accessibility features include an OpenDyslexic typeface, text-only mode, and adjustable text size, with Ebook Central achieving a 100% gold rating for accessibility from ASPIRE in 2024.
The guide outlines how e-books can be integrated into classroom activities, supporting flipped learning and group study. Features like bookmarks, highlighting, and free-text notes help students navigate content and build confidence in academic reading. The Bookshelf feature allows for creating and sharing reading lists via a permanent URL.
Library staff can assist with integrating e-books into lesson plans, running sessions for students and staff, and ensuring resource provision aligns with course changes. E-books support academic integrity and digital research skills, offering unlimited concurrent access, offline pdf downloads, and features for special needs, such as text-to-speech and adjustable text formats.
The platform’s subscription is managed via the Jisc licence subscriptions manager, with the current licence due for renewal in August 2025.
Andrew Jackson, e-books for FE product manager at Jisc, said:
“This guide is designed to help a wide range of groups use the e-books for FE platform more effectively and highlight the new opportunities for further education institutions with Jisc memberships to benefit from the use of a wide range of e-books for free.”
Two FE institutions will be speaking at Jisc’s annual teaching and learning conference, Digifest, on Tuesday 11 March, outlining how they used the platform to achieve their goals.