Abstract:

Traditional textbook usage is experiencing a significant declining trend in the past few years, whereas online interactive textbook material has a high acquisition and completion rate by students. Interactive textbook materials use less text, instead using activities: animations, learning questions, and interactive tools. Each interactive textbook had approximately 1,000 activities along with readings.

We analyzed online interactive material usage of two different topics used at two major public universities. 282 students were in an introduction to programming course (CS1), and 299 in a discrete math course (DM1). The CS1 interactive material included an integrated homework system of coding activities. Both courses required the online interactive material and awarded points for completing assigned reading activities.

Of the 583 students total, 99.8% acquired the online interactive material. In contrast, surveys in classes using traditional textbooks had only about a 70% acquisition rate. Furthermore, students completed 92% of the assigned activities in the interactive material.

Our analyses showed that students accessed the interactive material 4.5 times per week. The CS1 students spent 29 minutes each time on average, whereas DM1 spent 16 minutes each time.

CS1 students spent 31% of interactive textbook usage time with activities in the interactive textbook, and DM1 students spent 17%, with the remaining percentage of time assumedly spent reading text and viewing figures. The proportional difference may be due to the CS1 interactive textbook including a homework system of activities.

Students valued the interactive textbook as an exam preparation aid. During Midterm preparation, DM1 students voluntarily revisited and recompleted 33% of assigned reading on average, and CS1 students recompleted 23% on average. During Final Exam preparation, DM1 students revisited and recompleted 30% of assigned reading on average, and CS1 students, who were given numerous other review materials including two practice exams, recompleted 6% on average. The low recompletion for CS1 Final was expected since students were given practice exams from which to study.

Also, students felt they learned more with interactive textbook material than traditional textbook material. We surveyed 197 student using interactive textbook materials, and 65 students using traditional textbook materials. The survey included an agreeability statement saying that “the textbook materials contributed to my learning”, which students rated from 0 (Strongly disagree) to 6 (Strongly agree). Students using the interactive materials rated 4.8 out of 6, whereas students using traditional materials rated 3.5 out of 6.

Overall, using interactive textbook material appears to have reversed the trend of students not acquiring and thus not learning from required textbooks outside of lectures. In contrast, interactive textbooks have nearly 100% acquisition rates and completion rates in the 90% range. Students spend significant amount of time using the material as part of their studies. Further, students felt they learned more with interactive materials than traditional materials.

Keywords:

Student usage, behavior patterns, online, interactive, textbook, materials, activities, reading assignment.