On e-Textbooks Quality Model and Evaluation Methodology

Abstract

The paper aims to analyse and propose e-textbooks and other learning objects (LOs) quality evaluation methodology, i.e., quality model, and simple and effective expert evaluation methods, thus improving solution of educational tasks using informatics engineering methods. Qualitative learning material is one of the main factors of learning quality. Therefore, evaluation of e-textbooks and other LOs quality is one of the most relevant education problems. The problem is relevant for all participants of the educational sector – for educational institutions (e.g. schools) that have to select qualitative learning material for their needs, for education policy makers who need clear quality criteria while implementing e-textbooks and other LOs tenders, for authors of learning material (e.g. publishers) who need to know quality requirements to create e-textbooks and other LOs etc. It is obvious that some e-textbooks and other LOs could be very qualitative against some quality criteria, and the others – against the other criteria, and vice versa. Therefore, e-textbooks and other LOs quality evaluation is a typical case where one should apply multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) theory. In the work, MCDA principles are applied to create an objective rank of LOs alternatives according to their quality, and to evaluate each alternative’s quality against ”ideal” quality. In the work, e-textbooks and other LOs reusability and quality criteria system (i.e. model) is presented, as well as created expert quality evaluation method based on fuzzy numbers theory.