In-Class Activity: Evaluate Online eBooks

But a book is different—it is not just a material possession but the pathway to an enlightened mind, and thence to a well-ordered society. ― Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age

Online eBooks promise to be more engaging, immersive, and interactive to provide a better learning experience than traditional, physical textbooks. Review an eBook from both a pedagogical and student-oriented perspective.

Submitting your Work

In groups, use this shared Google Doc to record your discussion about your past experiences and your predictions about the the future. For each, use principles to justify why you think it is "good" or "bad".

In your groups, each person should take on the following roles:

• Facilitator: manages the group to stay on task, be aware of time constraints for the overall discussion, and that there is room for everyone in the conversation
• Recorder: takes notes on the discussion, including keeping track of who initiated major ideas within the discussion
• Representative: represents the group in reporting back to the class and for any discussions between groups

Specifications

Choose an online book to review from the following and form groups based on your interest/access. Try to make sure groups review different books so they are all covered.

• Runestone (completely open and free)
• ZyBooks (completely proprietary, charges by the book)
• Rephactor (completely proprietary, charges by the year)
• Python Bakery (completely open and free)

Start by reviewing the book's main page that advertises its features, advantages, and pedagogy/goals so you have a context in which to review whether or not the book's content and interactivity live up to those goals. Then pick at least two topics (typically short due to students' short attention spans :) to serve as concrete examples for your review:

• one each from middle and late content
• that you feel students would learn something concrete from (i.e., not introductions or overview topics)

Use the the following questions to drive your review:

• Do you feel the "quick check" or "experiment" exercises within the topic are helpful?
• There is less text than a print book or tutorial, do you feel the other features (animations, interactive examples, etc.) make up for this difference?
• How does the online text use learning theories in the features it provides?
• Are there things about traditional print textbooks you miss?
• Do you feel the online text lives up to the hype it advertises?