An XML-Based Digital Textbook and Its Educational Effectiveness

Abstract

Textbooks are undergoinga transformation into digital textbooks, which can offer a diverse range of supplementary digital media functions including sounds, audiovisuals, animations, 3D graphics and other state-of-the-art multimedia features. This paper proposes such an XML-based digital textbook aiming to maximize the learning effectiveness by integrating the advantages of traditional printed textbooks with additional digital media functions. The functions of the digital textbook are defined and an XML document format is established to facilitate more flexible use of and the interoperability of digital textbooks among different users and providers. As an application of these proposals, a digital textbook for sixth-grade mathematics was developed and then tested for two semesters at three elementary schools, to assess the overall effectiveness of the proposed concept. Our results indicate that classroom use of the digital mathematics textbook is comparable to that of a printed textbook, but the digital version offer more diverse learning opportunities and facilitate the improvement of learning achievement.KeywordsDigital textbookXML-based digital textbookMathematics digital textbookEducational effectiveness of digital textbook