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Interactive Electronic Textbooks

Page history last edited by Shannon Toohey 8 years, 11 months ago

Interactive Electronic Textbooks

 

Interactive electronic textbooks or eTextbooks provide instructional material in a digital platform, allowing integration of video, audio and reader interactivity, such as self-quizzing.

 


 

Table of Contents 

 


 

 

Background

 

     Digital text and media have existed since the 1980s. Several companies, such as NuroMedia and SoftBook, tried to popularize electronic reading in the late 1990s. However, it was not until Amazon released the Kindle in 2007, that reading ebooks became mainstream. By 2014, 50% of Americans had dedicated devices for reading ebooks.

 

     Over the past decade, many books, including textbooks were converted to ebook format. Early formats of electronic textbooks or eTextbooks were minimally interactive, only allowing flipping through pages, linking to chapters, searching, highlighting, definitions and changing font size and background color (Itzkovitch, 2012).  In 2010, the Enhanced eBooks (ePUB3) was released allowing increased interactivity: including images, audio, video, shared annotations, and self-testing.  This has lead to numerous new opportunities for teaching with textbooks, enhancing home learning and potentially improving student learning.

 

Advantages of eTextbooks

 

  • Cost savings. ETextbooks are often as much as 40% off of the publisher’s MSRP for the physical textbook. Additionally, some platforms allow savings to students through “buy by the chapter” capabilities, allowing students to only purchase chapters they need.
  • Space and weight savings. Ebooks are substantially lighter and smaller than physical books, a reader can carry hundreds of ebooks and extensive eTextbooks on a device smaller than the average fiction book.
  • Up-to-date. Physical books have to be republished, printed and repurchased to receive updated information or chapters. For eTextbooks, publishers can push updates for corrections and additions directly to readers' devices, often for no cost.
  • Technology makes it easier to read. Due to the nature of e-readers, users can read in low level light conditions. Additionally, text-to-speech software can improve accessibility for the visually impaired or convert a textbook into an audio book.
  • Multimedia. The implementation of images, videos, audio files and interactivity allows for presentation of multimedia within a book, providing a richer reading experience and potentially, better learning.
  • Envirng textbooks.   
  • Easier distribution and access. Due to the cheap overhead of creating and publishing eTextbooks to a platform such as iBooks or Kindle, authors are more easily able to create content and share it with the world. 
  • Automatic back-up. Like computers, most e-reading platforms have some kind of cloud based back-up system. As such, readers cannot lose their book, and if they lose their device they can still access their purchased eTextbooks via other devices. Additionally, this same technology allows easy synchronizing between devices.
  • Shared and non-permanent annotations. Readers can highlight and make notes in the book, which can be altered, shared or deleted after use.
  • Built in dictionary. Allows easy reference for words or terms a reader may not know.
  • Search function. Allows a reader to search for a particular topic or concept, however the usability of search features varies greatly.

 

Disadvantages of eTextbooks

 

  • Digital rights. A reader cannot usually transfer ownership of an e-book to another person, so unlike physical books, its more difficult to share or give away a book for someone else to read.
  • Privacy issues. The technology used to allow synchronization and back-up can also infringe on users privacy. For example, Amazon and Kindle use the data to track readers' reading habits.
  • Requires a power source. If unable to plug the device in to charge, it can easily run out of battery, even within a single day or use.
  • Lack of physical aspects. Some users dislike ebooks because they lack the texture, smell, weight and appearance of a physical book; owning one hundred large textbooks in your iPad is less impressive than having a library with dozens of shelves of physical books.

 

 

(Dreusicke, 2012)

 

 

Uses in K-12 and Higher Education

 

     eTextbooks allow better teaching and tracking, particularly in K-12 where metrics are heavily emphasized. Teachers can adjust the electronic textbook content to better suit their course through products such as Flat World and Actively Learn. This flexibility could improve student learning through better integration of textbooks with classwork. Additionally, the interactivity of modern textbooks allows teachers to track student results on homework, quizzes, progress on reading, and even how long a student spent on a particular assignment. These tools can be essential in the world of education where standards change often and must be measured and tracked for the success of schools and teachers.

 

     The use of eTextbooks in higher education is on the rise, with about 40% of students in 2013 reporting use of an eTextbook at some point, but eTextbooks still only account for 9% of textbook market.  The rise is likely due to cost savings and convenience, however, its continued limited market share is likely due to student preference, as surveys of students reported that they find writing and annotating eTextbooks to be “clumsy” and preferred print (Hanover Research, 2013).  Additionally, in one study most professors did not use the collaborative features like sharing notes or creating links within the text. However, students reported use of these features improved their learning and allowed capabilities that a traditional physical textbook could not provide (Chen, 2012).


     Current studies show no difference in cognitive learning and grades between students who use physical textbooks when compared to eTextbooks, suggesting that they are at least as effective as physical textbooks. However, students using etextbooks reported a significantly higher perceived affective learning than those using physical textbooks (Rockinson- Szapkiw, Courduff, Carter, & Bennett, 2013). Many of the existing studies looking at efficacy of eTextbooks were done before the integration of interactivity, audio, video and self-quizzing components. Given that more interactive media and games have proven effective at teaching in prior research, it will be interesting to see if these multimedia components will eventually make interactive eTextbooks more effective.

 

     Students are not the only ones who benefit from interactive eTextbooks. It also allows for faster production and updating of textbooks, directly from author to reader, increasing the speed at which new knowledge can reach learners.  One of the first examples of this came from David Johnston, a marine biologist at Duke University. After being turned down by several electronic textbook publishers he sought his own publication tool, ultimately using Flow to create his own eTextbook.  He now offers his textbook Cachalot for free through its own app; the book was the first interactive marine science textbook, including text, images, studies and videos (Mosher, 2012). 

 

     Publication tools like this are important for the continued evolution and production of eTextbooks. Authors no longer need a publisher or approval, but can use publishing tools to create their own peer-reviewed format. This can also allow academicians to publish up-to-date information more quickly allowing textbooks to catch-up to the literature more quickly. For example, in medicine, textbooks are generally 5-10 years behind the most current practices – that’s a scary thought! By providing authors with their own publishing tools, which are easily updatable and could even update on buyers’ devices, we may be able to close the gap and provide more current information in textbooks.

 

     Not only can ebooks be used in the classroom for reading and learning, but applications such as iBooks Author and Book Creator allow them to create their own ebooks.  This can be used as an assessment tool for learning, and helps to foster creativity and collaboration in the classroom.  

 

                                                                                  

(Sutherland, 2014)

 

     One issue with interactive eTextbooks is that they are often locked to a single platform. If an interactive eTextbook is made for Inkling, then it can only be used with the Inkling app, same for iBooks and Kindle. As such, a student may end up with many textbooks spread over a variety of applications, and while this may seem only an inconvenience it also makes it harder to use the collaborative features as one must learn to use these in a variety of different apps and share with other students in multiple apps.  As the use of eTextbooks becomes more proliferate, publishers will likely receive pressure to provide support across multiple platforms to prevent this issue.

 

Examples

 

Inkling   

Interactive textbook platform and marketplace, they work directly with publishers to develop and share popular textbooks.

 

iBooks    

An iPad based platform for ebooks and interactive eTextbooks.

 

Kindle  

Perhaps one of the best-known e-readers, Kindle also works with textbook publishers to provide eTextbooks, although currently they are minimally interactive. They recently released the Beta version of a Kindle Textbook Creator program, allowing authors to include audio, video and other interactive features in their eTextbooks.

 

Actively Learn   

Provides interactive content to replace K-12 ELA, science and social studies textbooks.  Allows teachers to upload their own content, share and co-author assignments, build-in interactive testing, and track student proficiency.

 

Flat World 

Provides established eTextbooks, but allows teachers to use an online editor to adjust content to suit their class, easily adding, deleting and rearranging content.

 

Big Universe 

Offers eTextbooks, literacy and language tools for K-12 students with integrated tools for writing, assessments, and data reporting.

 

Kno 

Interactive e-reader program for textbooks, which allows reading, sharing notes, creating flashcards, as well as individual stats for tracking progress and reading time.

 

 

Resources

 

Chen, A. (2012, August 22). Students find e-textbooks “clumsy” and don’t use their interactive features. Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-find-e-textbooks-clumsy-and-dont-use-their-interactive-features/39082

 

Dreusicke, V. (2012, June 19). E-book vs. Book [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9DXdlewgwA

 

Hanover Reseach. (2013). Usage of e-books in higher education. Academic Administration Practice, 1–24.

 

Itzkovitch, A. (2012, April 12). Interactive eBook apps: the reinvention of reading and interactivity. Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://uxmag.com/articles/interactive-ebook-apps-the-reinvention-of-reading-and-interactivity

 

Mosher, D. (2012, January 26). Digital textbooks go straight from scientists to students. Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.wired.com/2012/01/flow-digital-textbooks/

 

Rockinson- Szapkiw, A. J., Courduff, J., Carter, K., & Bennett, D. (2013). Electronic versus traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students' learning. Computers & Education, 63(C), 259–266. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.022

 

       Sutherland, J. (2014, October 10). Creating eBooks in grade 1. [Video file]. Retrieved                      from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Xh-Qxh1aA 

 

 

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