Ryan McFall, Herb Dershem Dept. of Computer Science Hope College Experiences Using a Collaborative Electronic Textbook: Bringing the “Guide on the Side” Home With You Ryan McFall, Herb Dershem Dept. of Computer Science Hope College Contributor: Darcy Davis Youngstown State University

The eTextReader Project Motivation: Textbooks are not as useful as they could be for both instructors and learners Goal: Create an electronic textbook that takes advantage of digital media and mobile communications More than: cheaper books lighter student backpacks Supported by the National Science Foundation as well as HP Technology for Teaching grant November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Applications At least two ways we expect this to impact student learning How students use a textbook as a resource outside of class time How the textbook is used as a resource during a session of a course This presentation will focus on both of these aspects November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Highlighting Purpose: emulate the traditional active reading process of highlighting while adding functionality that is unique to the electronic environment Highlighter colors can be associated with different names for organizational purposes Highlights can be removed or hidden November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Book-marking Purpose: allow both students and teachers to indicate important sections of the text Students can bookmark important passages or excerpts they find themselves referring to repeatedly Instructors can specify a passage of the text as a reading assignment Icons indicate the beginning and end of the assignment The progress bar fills as the user progresses through the reading Reading Assignment Demo November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Searching Purpose: improve upon the idea of a traditional index by making a fast and flexible way of accessing certain terms and phrases within the book Users are able to specify the scope of the search, including the current chapter chapters read previously in a specified date range in the entire textbook November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Web-browsing Purpose: facilitate access to outside resources Students can access web-based resources from within the textbook Outside sources can be annotated just like textbook pages Technically, content from outside sources can be included directly into flow of text November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Annotations Purpose: allow students and instructors to take (and share) notes and diagrams within the textbook facilitate note-taking using both pen-based and text-based interfaces . Annotations can be made in a variety of ways. For instance, ink annotations allow the user to take notes in his or her own handwriting. When doing so, both the pen color and background are customizable. November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Annotation Listing Purpose: provide a convenient and flexible summary of all viewable annotations for study, searching, and review purposes By specifying a date range, users can generate a listing of all accessible notes, sort and order them, and even view the notations within the context they occur. Annotation Listing Demo November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Preferences Purpose: allow users to customize their textbook in terms of visual display as well as a variety of other options Students (and instructors) can change font size Annotation display can be controlled both by type and by author Allows different modes of reading, depending on the user’s goals for that session Preferences Demo November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Discussions Purpose: allow focused interaction between users in a message board format Text- or ink-based allows for the inclusion of complex graphics or diagrams Anchored to a specific segment of text for better integration of discussion with context Discussion Demo November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

Using the textbook in a course Programming Languages course offered Fall 2004 with 14 students Electronic version of locally developed textbook was only text resource for course Supplemented with online readings within the e-textbook framework Students given a tablet PC for a semester to read e-textbook November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

Use of annotation by the instructor expanding on the text requesting further research into a topic requesting students to respond to the instructor only requesting students to submit responses that are read by all members of the class including the instructor student annotations raising a question or making a point about a portion of the text. November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference

HP Mobile Technology Conference Resources eTextReader home page: http://www.cs.hope.edu/etext/ Papers: McFall, R. L. (2004) "Evaluation of a Prototype of an Electronic Textbook Application", EdMedia 2004 McFall, R. L. (2005) "Electronic Textbooks That Transform How Textbooks Are Used", The Electronic Library, Vol 23 No 1, January 2005. Contact Ryan McFall (mcfall@hope.edu) November 5, 2004 HP Mobile Technology Conference