146 eTextbooks – 12.06.2018

Electronic textbooks provide digital access to content and have the potential to save students thousands of dollars. In the December 6, 2018 Active Teaching Lab, participants explored the benefits, challenges, and learning effects of eTexts. How does going digital change the way students prepare and interact with course information? How do you go about making an eText? Attendees discussed the process of creating, implementing, and revising electronic textbooks. 

Takeaways

• An eText ≠ a textbook on a screen. To capitalize on the advantages of digital vs. paper, add video, animations, and interactive activities to keep students engaged and help them prioritize and assess their learning.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel; make use of shared resources by adapting existing content to your needs.
• Involve students in the eText creation process. Knowing that they are creating an enduring resource for future classes will increase motivation and quality of student work.
• UW-Madison currently offers two primary eText tools: Engage eText and Unizin Pressbooks. Dive in to the session’s activity sheet to learn more about these tools at UW-Madison and which one might be right for you.

Video

The Active Teaching Lab is a Faculty Engagement program with sessions held on Thursdays from 1:00-2:00pm (room 302) and Fridays from 8:30-9:45am (room 120) in the Middleton Building (1305 Linden Dr.) during fall 2018. Check out upcoming Labs or read the recaps from past Labs. We build interdisciplinary conversations that are more emergent than a presenter and more dynamic than a panel — a conversation with colleagues sharing challenges, solutions, and experiments on topics selected by a variety of stakeholders.

Sign up for regular Lab announcements by sending an email to join-activeteaching@lists.wisc.edu.