Surely by now every individual who has access to digital technology knows what digital textbooks are. But there is still a need to further elaborate certain facts about e-textbooks, just to ensure that all those who are new to converting books to eBooks are on the same page.
Yes, there are some publishers out there who are yet to make the shift from print to digital. And for them, this blog is going to prove more than informative.
Everything you should know about digital textbooks -
What is a digital textbook?
A digital textbook is an electronic version of a traditional print textbook. It is accessed through a computer or mobile device and can be read online or downloaded for offline reading.
Digital textbooks or e-textbooks includes additional features such as interactive elements, multimedia content, and built-in study tools. They are often cheaper and more portable than print textbooks.
Digital textbooks are becoming increasingly popular as more and more educational materials are made available in digital formats.
They offer a number of advantages over traditional print textbooks, such as being more portable and often being less expensive.
Additionally, digital textbooks can be updated more easily than print textbooks, so they can provide the most up-to-date information.
Here are 8 Reasons to Create Interactive Textbooks for Engaging K-12 Students
Can students study better using digital textbooks?
Definitely. Each course module is designed and aligned on every page in a way that will keep the students engaged while learning.
With interactive features such as page scroll, annotations, bookmarks, highlights and so on, students do not need to look anywhere else for supplementary material. They can make notes for themselves and even share them with their peers or teachers. They can also bookmark pages for later reference.
Online custom assessments in the form of drag and drop, fill in the blanks, labelling, click and reveal, etc., are a great form of engagement that will help the students completely focus and take interest in their studies.
Moreover, with hyperlinks embedded into the content, they can look up for additional information if needed. A digital textbook thus acts as a wholesome learning package for a student.
Learn more on are Digital Textbooks more Effective for K-12 Curriculum.
Guide:
How to Build an eBook Store
How does digital textbook help measure student engagement?
If you opt for an eBook platform that provides in-depth analytics, then you can get an accurate rate of student engagement.
An in-built analytical tool will give insights on the number of students who’ve read a chapter, amount of time spent on each module, average time spent on videos and so on.
These factors help in determining the engagement level of each student as well as the overall class, allowing teachers to change their teaching approach or redesign the course module, whichever seems necessary.
Here are 5 Ways to Use Learning Analytics in K-12 Education.
Are digital textbooks really cheaper?
They certainly are. With expenses like warehousing, transportation, printing and so on out of the picture, the costs involved in developing a digital textbook reduces drastically.
Various other factors also come into play which makes digital textbooks cheaper than their print counterparts. In spite of being less expensive than print, digital publishers can still keep their revenue streams flowing as the demand for digital over print is ever increasing.
Apart from the high demand aspect, publishers can also increase etextbook sales by selling the eBooks on a subscription basis, which will guarantee more buyers. Students anyway have no use of textbooks once their term is over; they usually resell their textbooks.
Although reselling is not possible with etextbooks, students are getting the books at a considerably lesser price in the first place- almost 40-50% cheaper than print books. This makes them opt for eBooks as they are convenient and feasible.
Do digital textbooks combat from piracy?
The content available on the internet is always at a risk of piracy. In order to protect online content, there is DRM protection. Digital Rights Management for eBooks allows only authorized users to make changes or download the content.
The users are given an access code which they have to enter while accessing the digital textbook. You can also set a time duration until which the access codes will be valid. Thus, your content stays safe from unauthorized use.
Here’s more on how to use Digital Textbooks in the classroom.
How to create digital textbooks in simple steps?
An eBook creation platform is all you need to develop digital textbooks.
Choose a cloud-based digital publishing platform where you can upload your source files, design the layout, add enrichments, and then publish. The process is pretty much simple if you choose the right platform for the task.
Here’s a short breakdown of an eBook creation process:
- Upload the file – Upload the source file into the epublishing tool. The source file could be in the form of a PDF or text document.
- Convert to ePUB – The tool will convert the file to ePUB.
- Select layout – Decide whether you want a fixed or reflowable layout. Align the content as per requirement.
- Add enrichments – Add multimedia elements such as images, videos, audio, etc. to make the content interactive.
- Create a table of contents – Link each page to the table of contents.
- Add cover image – Select appropriate cover image for the thumbnail and upload the image.
- Set license validity – Determine the duration until which the user can access the digital textbook.
- Preview – Preview the final output before publishing.
- And finally, publish.
Guide:
How To Create An Interactive eBook
Best tools to create digital textbooks
The tool you use to create a digital textbook will determine the quality of the final output. Given below are some of the eBook creation tools that you can use to create a compelling etextbook.
Also read: How to Select the Best eBook Publishing Platform
Kitaboo – Kitaboo is an award-winning cloud-based digital publishing platform to create, publish and securely deliver multimedia-enhanced interactive eBooks. You can deliver mobile ready responsive content which can be accessed on all major operating devices and platforms.
Designrr – With this tool, you can import content directly from a weblink or a text document or start writing from scratch. You can choose from the hundreds of layouts available on the tool and start designing the eBook. You can customize the eBook by adding images, changing fonts and colors.
Blurb – Blurb is an eBook publishing software capable of assisting throughout the publishing and distribution process.
Notion press – Notion press lets you create eBooks with the help of dedicated eBook experts. Notion Press will help you publish eBooks and distribute it globally.
To sum it up
Digital textbooks are the future of education. The sooner they are adopted by schools and institutions, the sooner teachers and students can leverage its benefits.
Not only is it helpful for course creators in terms of content creation and design, but it also helps students to learn better, improving their overall learning experience.
For all the institutes and publishers who are still in two minds about making the switch, digital learning is the way to go, and therefore they should make optimum use of this technology.
Related Reads:
Digital Publishing Textbooks | Reasons Students Prefer Digital Reading
How Can K-12 Publishers Adapt in the Digital Era
Pre-K Learning: Enhancing Education with Digital Technology
How Can K-12 Schools Improve Learning Outcomes with Technology?
