Collaborative Research: Integrating the eTextbook: Truly Interactive Textbooks for Computer Science Education

University Of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh WI

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this project is to develop a storyboard defining a detailed roadmap for an entire interactive eTextbook on data structures and algorithms, an end-to-end framework for the development process, and several complete prototype sections. The project improves the development of future eTextbooks by demonstrating ways to integrate text, interactivity, and assessment in a creative commons environment. The integration of online textbook content, interactive courseware, collaborative creation, open source, and online assessment benefits students, instructors, content authors, and algorithm visualization developers. Interactive hypertextbooks are valuable beyond Computer Science since online instruction in many fields can be enhanced by student interaction with well-designed simulations. The project provides an exemplar of how collaborative, open-sourced workflows could be used to develop hypertextbooks for many disciplines. The goal is to allow instructors to modify existing eTextbooks by adopting major portions and then changing sections, or taking text and visualizations from different books and combining them.