Review of Related Literature About Ebooks in Elementary Schools

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• Published: 20 January 2015

Enquiry on teachers' needs when using east-textbooks in teaching

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Abstract

The major purposes of this study were to sympathize teachers' definitions of e-textbooks, to place teachers' needs when using due east-textbooks and to explore the relationships between teachers' needs of using e-textbooks and teachers' attributes. To achieve these major purposes, an open questionnaire was proposed to experts to obtain their requirements of using eastward-textbooks. A needs of using e-textbooks perception scale (NUEPS) was then synthetic based on teacher interview results, the literature review and the results of the open up questionnaire mentioned above. In the formal study, 378 elementary and secondary schoolhouse teachers were selected to consummate NUEPS, and the reliability and validity of the scale were checked. The results indicated that the teachers' needs when using due east-textbooks comprised three factors: (ane) to support instruction activities (STA); (2) to support reading and presentation (SRP); and (iii) to support learning activities and parental interaction (LAPI). As well, the findings of the written report showed that the Taiwanese school teachers' perceptions of using eastward-textbooks were positive in boilerplate. There were no meaning differences in terms of gender and historic period, merely in that location were differences regarding teachers' school level, and application experience in both the STA and SRP sub-dimensions. The results of this study can exist used to offer a better agreement of teachers' needs of using e-textbooks, and to help novice teachers' application in e-textbook.

Introduction

In this digital age, the usage of e-textbooks in the classroom is becoming increasingly popular (Woody et al. 2010; Shepperd et al. 2008; Tees, 2010). E-textbooks can be seen as e-books that contain educational materials and functions, and which can be used for educational purposes (Landoni & Diaz, 2003). However, the definition of due east-textbooks frequently changes because the development of technologies and the new application of these technologies in education are progressing at such a rapid rate (Jung & Lim, 2009). Currently, e-textbooks usually offer various major features which are described every bit follows. Showtime, eastward-textbooks can display various digital resource, such as digital texts, photos, animations, simulations, videos, audio and other resource (Chen et al., 2013; Shepperd et al. 2008; Woody et al. 2010). Second, e-textbooks tin can back up learning with some basic text functions such as highlighting, annotating, searching, bookmarking, referring and editing (Chen et al., 2013; Lam et al. 2010; McFall et al. 2006; Woody et al. 2010). These functions brand the usage of due east-textbooks more than convenient. Likewise, the contents can exist easily updated by publishers, and the functionality allows students to access the latest knowledge at any fourth dimension and in whatsoever identify (Brusilovsky et al., 2004). 3rd, east-textbooks provide students an easy access to Internet resource (such every bit websites and online quizzes) (Chen et al., 2013; Lam et al. 2010; Nelson & Webb, 2007; Woody et al. 2010). This characteristic too enables teachers to easily assign relevant materials to students according to the students' levels (Brusilovsky et al., 2004; Chen et al., 2013; Nelson & Webb, 2007; Everett, 2009). Finally, e-textbooks allow students to share what they exercise in their e-books (due east.m., annotations and highlight) and what they think (eastward.grand., reports and notes) with other students. This feature can enhance students' collaborative learning or interaction (Chen et al., 2013; Huang et al., 2008 & Huang et al. 2009; Järvelä et al., 2007; Kodippili, & Senaratne, 2008; McFall & Dahm, 2004; McFall et al. 2006; Ravid et al. 2008).

In the past there have been many scholars reporting in-depth enquiry on e-book'south functions and features. For case, Chen et al. (2013) accept used Delphi method in Beijing for school administrators, teachers, students, parents and researchers, etc. These studies explored the concept of due east-textbook in elementary schools, which declared a number of e-textbook in features and functions. In improver, Taizan et al. (2012) compared digital textbooks in Japan and Korea from the viewpoint of functions and effect. The study on eastward-book offered a great help of understanding in this realm. Some applications in the classroom, such as recent learning innovation in instructional applied science, and emerging technologies with instruction (due east.one thousand., IRS, classroom direction systems, and mobile devices) take get increasingly pop. The combination of the context taught in the class and the use of e-textbook makes the eastward-textbook possible. The features and functions are improve than those in the past. The success of information integration in education, teachers play a key role in this new pedagogy era (Liu, 2007; literature). Therefore, what teachers' needs regarding the features and functionality of e-textbook have get an interesting issue for the researchers to explore.

Literature review

The application of e-textbook in learning and teaching activities

With the evolution of mobile devices, IRS combining with the learning arrangement increased the diverseness of teaching and learning in the application of e-textbook. Many previous studies have demonstrated students' usage of e-textbook (Daniel, & Woody, 2013; McGowan et al. 2009; McFall et al. 2006; Nicholas et al. 2010; Quan-Haase & Martin, 2011; Rose, 2011; Rockinson- Szapkiw et al., 2013; Sun et al. 2012; Weisberg 2011). For example, McFall et al. explored academy teachers' usage of e-textbooks in reading courses and reported positive responses from teachers. They tin assign the students reading assignments and know which function requires more attention too as who take a correct agreement of the fabric. Furthermore, it can help teachers classify misunderstandings and designate students to assist their classmates. For their efficiency in teaching, teachers argued that the use of e-textbooks had fully changed their teaching approaches, providing them with a improve connectedness to the students and their learning, and enabling more effective apply of course time for teachers who practise not like to give lessons using traditional books (McFall et al. 2006). In recent years, non just the trend of using east-textbooks in m-learning has appeared, only also the birth of many opinions on improving students the reading and learning efficiency by using of due east-textbooks, has showed upwards. It provides the students with higher learning desires, greater cocky-motivation, and enhanced learning capacities (Woody et al. 2010; Shepperd et al., 2008; Korat & Shamir 2008; Luik & Mikk 2008; De Jong & Bus 2004; Maynard & Cheyne 2005). In the classroom, information technology is the teachers who generally determine whether and how to adopt data technologies (innovative technologies) and ofttimes the teachers' attitudes towards technologies decide whether the technologies can elicit the expected effects in the classroom (Hew & Brush, 2007; Keengwe & Onchwari, 2008; Liu, 2007; Teo, 2008; Ertmer, 2005). For example, do these functions fit teachers' requirements? What functions do teachers mostly demand? Do teachers with different attributes need e-textbooks with different functions? To explore these questions, the following sections firstly review the related literature to explore the possible relationships between teachers' attributes and their perceptions of the employ of applied science.

However, much of the literature on e-textbooks is from the researchers' perspective, while only a few studies have examined how teachers perceive e-textbooks. Thus far, nosotros have no proper tools available to written report teachers' perceptions of eastward-textbooks. Furthermore, different studies have shown that gender, age, school level, application feel and other background factors may affect users' application of technologies. Even so, few studies exploring teachers' opinions of their e-textbook needs have been carried out, and thus it is of peachy significance for both theoretical and instruction practice purposes to construct reliable and valid tools to empathise the teachers' perspectives on e-textbooks.

Teachers' attributes and their perceptions of the utilize of technology

Previous studies have shown that users with different attributes may hold varied perceptions of the use of technologies (Liu et al. 2010; McGowan et al. 2009; Wang et al., 2009; Uzunboylu & Ozdamli 2011). It is known that teachers play a critical role in determining whether and how to apply technologies in their classrooms, Withal, students are usually the ones, rather than the teachers, who have served as the subjects of study in previous relevant research. In this report, we consider the literature on gender, age, school level, and application experience factors.

Commencement, considering few studies take explored the relationships between teachers' gender and the utilise of due east-textbooks, several studies related to the outcome of students' gender on the usage of e-textbooks are also reviewed here. Some studies have found that male person students are more likely to read eastward-textbooks. For case, Liu and Huang (2008) surveyed the effect of undergraduate students' gender on their reading behaviors and experiences regarding printed materials and electronic media. They plant that female students preferred reading printed materials while male students were more satisfied with electronic learning materials. In addition, McGowan et al. (2009) found that male person students from universities and graduate schools were more likely to utilize east-textbooks. However, another studies (e.yard., Wang et al., 2009; Liu et al. 2010) establish that males and females have very similar perceptions of or ways of using mobile devices. In addition, there are few studies on gender differences in teachers' perceptions of the use of east-textbooks. In one written report that did investigate this issue, Uzunboylu and Ozdamli (2010) plant that male teachers' perceptions of mobile technologies were insufficiently more positive than those of female teachers; for case, male teachers were more likely to believe that mobile engineering science-based learning systems better the quality of their lessons, teachers can have instant access to materials, the appliances tin be utilized every bit a supplement to traditional education, and instructor-student communication can be enhanced past ways of grand-learning tools.

Second, from the perspective of historic period, McGowan et al. (2009) indicated that older students showed a stronger preference for e-textbooks than younger students. In one of the studies investigating the determinants of g-learning usage intention which explored how age difference moderates the influence of these determinants on usage intention, the results indicated that historic period difference moderated the effects of effort expectation and social influence on m-learning use intention (Wang et al., 2009). The instructor group most inclined to apply computer-based technology to teachers' classroom instruction was the middle-aged group in a technology-rich environment (Hung & Hsu, 2007).

Tertiary, but a express number of studies on school levels have been performed and are available. So and Swatman (2006) studied primary schoolhouse teachers in Hong Kong and compared them with teachers in secondary schools. They establish that teachers in chief schools were less familiar with the utilize of technologies in didactics. Hsu (2010) investigated 3,729 teachers from grades one through ix in Taiwan in terms of vi aspects, namely (one) information collection and preparation; (two) cloth producing and troubleshooting; (3) communication and sharing; (4) planning, instruction and evaluation; (five) professional person development and self-study; and (6) ideals, wellness and safety problems, and found that unproblematic schoolhouse teachers had a higher level of preference for the use of technologies in teaching compared to teachers in middle or high schools. Teachers at unlike levels have been found to have varying opinions on the use of technologies in educational activity, and this may also be true for the apply of e-textbooks in the classroom. According to International Society for Applied science in Education (2003), there was no pregnant differences were found in computer availability betwixt differenct school types (elementary vs. secondary schoolhouse).

Quaternary, regarding teachers' application experience, computer feel has a significant effect on attitudes toward technology (Levine & Donitsa-Schmidt, 1998; Smith et al. 2000; Woodrow, 1992). There was significant positive correlation betwixt teachers' level of ICT use and their attitudes towards ICT (Al-Zaidiyeen et al. 2010). Teachers' competency in using ICT has also been found to be a stiff determinant of their level of technology employ in the classroom (Bauer & Kenton, 2005; Wozney et al., 2006). If teachers accept more experience with instructional blueprint, they would be able to conduct amend course grooming (Gong et al. 2013). Therefore, teachers' attributes and their perceptions of the use of due east-textbooks should exist cleared.

Purpose

On the basis of the literature review, this study aims: (a) to construct a needs calibration of using e-textbooks and to examination its reliability and validity; (b) to survey teachers' needs when using e-textbooks; and (c) to explore the relationship betwixt teachers' needs and other variables that are related to the teachers' personal characteristics, such as gender, age, school level, and application experience in the classroom.

Methodology

Participants

This inquiry involved 415 teachers from 22 elementary and secondary schools in Taiwan every bit subjects. The teachers were enrolled in a teacher education program that was held in three areas in Taiwan. The return rate was 91.1%, with 378 usable questionnaires available for analysis.

Development of NUEPS

According to the basic aims of this research, a scale was used to determine the teachers' perceptions of their demands for using e-textbooks. Based on the literature review, we identified 4 stages in the development of the needs of using due east-textbooks perception scale (NUEPS). In the first stage, half-dozen open questions relevant to instruction using e-textbooks in real-life situations were proposed on the basis of the literature review. These questions, which were prepared for five teachers who worked as experts in the field of integrating technologies in unproblematic or secondary school didactics, involved how teachers should present their materials, and how to act as coaches and facilitators to improve students' learning (see Appendix A). The five teachers are experienced in using e-textbook. Their instruction experience in the application of applied science in the classroom is 10 years at average. After the interviews, the teachers' definitions of e-textbooks were evaluated and used in the follow-upwardly study.

In the second stage, on the basis of the opinions of these v educational applied science experts and the literature review, 27 items were constructed. For content validation, three uncomplicated school teachers, ii secondary school teachers, and one university professor who had experienced using e-textbooks were consulted to assess the quality of each detail, confirm their classification in the NUEPS, and suggest necessary item revisions. The five teachers have experienced in the application of technology in the classroom. The professor's experience in integration technology in teaching and research were thirteen years. Some experts were invited to help mensurate the validity of the vi questions. A four-point calibration was used. The calculation of this questionnaire content validity index value is 0.96. In line with CVI value should be 0.eight or more than of the requirements (Waltz, et al., 2010). This shows the validity of the questionnaire in this report is adequately good. Lastly, v items were added to the questionnaires as a issue of the specialist reviews. Thus, the scale consisted of 32 items. All of the items were measured using a five-point Likert scale, where 5 indicated "strongly hold" and i indicated "strongly disagree".

In the tertiary stage, this pilot instrument was administered to 95 teachers to perform the reliability and validity analysis. Data collected from the pilot instrument helped to determine the scale's items, and the average, standard departure, and the total item correlation of each parameter were calculated. The average particular grades were betwixt iii.92 and iv.41, whereas the standard deviation was betwixt 0.84 and 1.02. Analysis results of the item assay, which was show to determine the bigotry of the items, revealed that the total item correlation was between 0.45 and 0.88. No items were removed from the original questionnaire. The reliability coefficient of the entire scale was measured as Cronbach's α = 0.98.

In the fourth stage, the last questionnaire was divided into 2 parts. The start part, which consisted of questions, focused on the demographic information of the teachers, including their gender, age, length of teaching experience, and school level, amidst other factors. The second part consisted of the 32 items related to the needs of using eastward-textbooks. The questionnaires were delivered to the teachers who attended the preparation program on using technologies in the classroom. Completion of the questionnaire was completely voluntary and anonymous. Frequency analysis of the data was used to demonstrate the teachers' distribution in this stage. Coefficients of regression and MANOVA were calculated using SPSS 12.0. A level of 0.5 was established as a priori for determining statistical significance. The whole phase was shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Experimental procedure.

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Results and Discussion

In this written report, questionnaires were distributed to teachers who applied e-book in learning activities. Teachers enrolling in a free and voluntary plan were asked to make full in the questionnaire. Among the participants, 55.30% were female (169 males and 209 females); the teachers (simple school teachers: 71.9%, secondary school teachers: 28.1%) were from 24 to 58 years old with an average age of 38. The percentage of participants with feel using due east-textbooks in teaching was 68.5%, and those without such experience comprised 31.v%. Teacher's background varied from subjects (e.g., Chinese languages, English, mathematics and other x subjects) to form level (1 to 9). Besides, sometimes they are required to take turns to teach the different subjects and the target students' grade level. The average of teaching feel is 13.51 years.

Teacher's views on the requirements of eastward-textbooks

In the interviews performed during the starting time phase, the teachers expressed their views regarding their due east-textbook requirements:

Teacher 1: "Teachers should choose e-textbooks based on curriculum outlines for utilize in teaching. E-textbooks should have some functions which echo the curriculum outlines similar to how teachers should teach and consistent with the requirements of the curriculum outline, which are used to prepare lessons following the education manuals or guidance, and to provide students with respective assignments and quizzes, etc. Thus, in improver to the same contents in traditional textbooks, due east-textbooks should provide convenient and more easily integrated multimedia functions".

Teacher 2: "Basic functions included in e-textbooks for students' use should provide no answers for students' assignments, offer supplementary explanations, hyperlinks and favorable settings, while those for teachers' use (a version that differs from the students' version) should have supplementary teaching explanations, such every bit answers for assignments, assessments and other things, and instructional videos integrated in one place".

Teacher ii: "We still cannot do without approved versions of materials consequent with the textbook review and approval policy. Due to unified assessments and things such as these in approved versions of the materials, such materials fail to run across the students' private needs. To cope with individual needs, east-textbooks should take additional supplements".

Teacher 3: "The schoolhouse bought some books once, and these were not reviewed and canonical versions of the materials, if you lot teach using such books, what would parents say? … We received disapproval from the parents".

Teacher four: "Why do we trust textbooks? They have definitely been reviewed and accept met approval standards. Thus, if we make e-textbooks in Taiwan, and so their review and approving are a must. In reality, parents attach not bad value to such things (textbooks)—review and approval will give parents reassurance regarding their children'southward use of e-textbooks, but self-prepared ones (education materials) are susceptible to the parents' disapproval".

Instructor v: "Nosotros should not only add multimedia and hyperlinks to existing textbooks, but besides put in teacher-student interactions and overall support of learning records and assessments".

Taken together, the teachers' views on the requirements of eastward-textbooks are summarized as follows: (1) use approved e-textbooks; (2) e-textbooks should have not only textbook contents but likewise digitalized assessments or pedagogy materials such as assignments and academic records; (3) e-textbooks should have multimedia presentation functions to help the students learn. Nosotros distributed these three perceptions and questionnaires to teachers and performed descriptive statistics after retrieving the questionnaire responses. We institute high levels of agreement among the teachers for these three items, with values for "agree" and "strongly concur" ranking above 81.1%, and with all the means higher than 4.12(Cronbach's alpha (α) = 0.953) (see Tabular array 1). Both the simple and secondary schoolhouse teachers surveyed idea that e-textbooks were positively defined as "ones whose compilations follow the education objectives, contents, ability indicators so on in the Course ane–9 curriculum outlines, that take passed review and approving, and that are equipped with multimedia presentation functions plus digitalized assessments or teaching materials, such every bit assignments and academic records". This definition requires conformity with the Class one–9 curriculum outlines and approvals, which varies from the definitions in the existing literature (Shepperd et al. 2008; McFall et al. 2006). The teacher idea that content and version of e-textbook could be improve if these could be accredited or reviewed past the official. The findings in this study are coincident with the claims found in Chen et al. (2013) study.

Tabular array one Teacher'south perceptions of their requirements for using eastward-textbooks (n = 95)

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Needs of using east-textbook perception scale (NUEPS)

Our study provides the offset findings on teachers' perceptions of e-textbooks in Taiwan. The data in the scale were generated to make up one's mind the teachers' perceptions of their needs when using e-textbooks.

Validity

In this study, the NUEPS Scale was validated past using factor assay. Through the method the study tin can identifying items whose removal would raise the internal consistency reliability and the scale'south cistron structure. The results of the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Examination reveal p = 0.00, and the values of the KMO were above 0.xc. According to these analysis results, it conclude that the sample data were adequate for cistron analysis. Side by side, main component analysis was performed on the data to explore the component construction underlying the instrument. The boilerplate of the calibration items was between four.06 and four.47. Too, the standard departure was between 0.72 and 0.91. The analysis results of total item correlations, which were used to determine the discrimination of the items, all items were above 0.40, ranging from 0.xl to 0.81. 3 factors were found in the teachers' perceptions of the e-textbook calibration. The total variance obtained past the three factors was estimated every bit 63.554% after the Varimax rotation (in Table 2). Table ii represents the items included in the factors later the Varimax rotation.

Table 2 NUEPS mean, SD, gene, and reliability results

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According to the results of the analysis, we have three components. The items' contents, which were obtained from the factors and their ceremoniousness to the theoretical structure, were taken into consideration in providing titles for these three sub-dimensions: 'Supporting Teaching Activities' (STA, 13 items), 'Supporting features and functions of Reading and Presenting' (SRP, 13 items), and 'Learning Activities and Parent Interaction' (LAPI, 6 items). Pearson correlation of the dimensions was calculated to observe the relationship amidst the dimension of the scale after cistron analysis. It concluded that the interactions among all dimensions were strong, ranging from 0.77 to 0.87. In this context, upon examining the correlations regarding the total points, the scale measures take the desirable features.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the 3 scales in NUEPS was determined in the study past computing the Cronbach'due south blastoff reliability coefficient for the higher up sample. The results in Tabular array 2 signal that the internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.91 to 0.95 for the three NUEPS scales. For the whole calibration, the Cronbach'south blastoff (α) value was 0.98, and the one-half-split reliability of the scale was 0.93. For the 'STA' sub-dimension, the Cronbach's alpha (α) value was 0.95, with a half-divide reliability of 0.93. For the 'SRP', the Cronbach'southward alpha (α) value was 0.95, and the one-half-split reliability was 0.xc. Finally, for the 'LAPI' sub-dimension, the Cronbach's alpha (α) value was 0.92, and the half-split reliability was 0.ninety. Thus, the internal consistency reliability of the measures used in this study can be considered as favorable.

Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that the reliability and validity criteria for the calibration were high. The sub-dimension of 'STA' independent statements that described the eastward-textbooks' application modes, cess and needs of the implementing remedial learning and studies, which share functional needs amidst students when teachers are using e-textbooks in teaching. The sub-section of 'SRP' independent statements on features that supported eastward-textbook reading and the presentation of functions and operations, a function to enable network admission, a didactics-presenting function in addition to a content and style integrative function when the teachers are using east-textbooks in teaching. In the dimension of 'LAPI', statements on the students' needs to make marks, take notes or transmit assignments, and the parents' needs to manage their children's learning activities were found. The details of each subscale are provided in Tabular array 3.

Tabular array 3 Descriptive information of the NUEPS

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Teachers' scores on the three perception dimensions of NUEPS

Three subscales may be observed in Table ii, which presents the teachers' mean scores and standard deviations. The results showed that the teachers' mean scores were 4.26 to 4.forty on a 5 indicate Likert-type scale, and the standard deviations were 0.62 to 0.71. Nosotros used multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to examine whether differences existed in the perceived needs between male and female teachers in elementary and secondary schools, teachers of dissimilar ages, teachers with application experience and those without such experience.

Gender divergence in the perception of using e-textbooks

To identify whether in that location was a significant gender difference in the needs of using eastward-textbooks, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was utilized (Table 4). We establish that gender (F = ane.863, P >0.05; Wilks' Lambda (Λ) = 0.985; partial eta squared = 0.015) had non reached the significant level when MANOVA was conducted at the significant level α = 0.05. The findings of this written report revealed no significant difference among the 'STA', 'SRP', and 'LAPI' dimensions, suggesting that male person and female teachers in Taiwan accept the aforementioned perceptions regarding the use of e-textbooks in the classroom. It appears that the findings of this study are consequent with those of Liu et al. (2010), and Wang et al. (2009), who previously claimed no gender bias in teachers' utilize of m-learning. However, some studies accept reported gender divergence in their results. For instance, Uzunboylu and Ozdamli (2010) found that male person teachers' perceptions of m-learning technologies were insufficiently more than positive than those of female person teachers. All Teachers accept the same opportunity to join training or professional development courses near integrating technologies every semester in Taiwan.

Tabular array 4 Descriptive statistics and F-test of gender on NUEPS dimensions

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Historic period deviation in the perception of the need to use e-textbooks

This study farther analyzed the relationship between the teachers' age and the perception of using eastward-textbook sub-dimensions. According to the study of Hung & Hsu (2007), the participating teachers were divided into four groups: (1) upward to 30 years old, (2) between 31 and twoscore years sometime, (3) between 41 and 50 years former, and (4) over 51 years onetime. The findings showed that no pregnant difference (Wilks' Lambda = 0.957, P > 0.05) existed in teachers' different age (run across Table five). The finding of this study is consistent with of Hsu et al. (2008), who claimed no historic period deviation on the teacher's proficiency of ICT integration.

Table 5 Results of the MANOVA and mail service hoc tests on age difference in the NUEPS dimensions

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Unproblematic and secondary schoolhouse teachers' difference in using eastward-textbooks

The MANOVA test showed that there were statistically significant differences in unproblematic and secondary school teachers in the NUEPS (F = four.671, P <0.05; Wilks' Lambda (Λ) = 0.963; partial eta squared = 0.037). In the findings shown in Table 6, a meaning departure in the simple and secondary school teachers' needs when using east-textbooks tin be observed in the sub-dimension of STA. As illustrated in Table 6, elementary school teachers held statistically significant perceptions that differed from those of secondary school teachers in the sub-dimension of SRP. In that location were meaning differences in the needs of the teachers' teaching activities, assessment and remedial learning, and students' group learning activities in STA, with the secondary school teachers having manifestly fewer needs compared to the simple school teachers. This was besides truthful for the needs in the SRP dimension (including interface presentation and operation, network functions, teaching demonstration and information updates when elementary and secondary school teachers used e-textbooks in teaching). In the LAPI dimension (including needs for learning activities and parent management), the results of these sub-dimensions showed no significant differences, simply the secondary school teachers' needs were lower than those of the elementary school teachers. These results differ from those of the survey conducted in Hong Kong, in which the results indicated that primary school teachers had no sufficient agreement or mastery of technology apply in learning compared with secondary teachers (So & Swatman, 2006). This difference could well be because Taiwanese secondary school teachers have long been revealed to confront higher force per unit area of college entrance systems and thus seldom use technologies in the classroom.

Tabular array half-dozen Results of the MANOVA on elementary and secondary school teachers' departure in NUEPS dimensions

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Experience difference in perceptions of using eastward-textbooks

The MANOVA exam showed that whether or not teachers had previously used an e-textbook fabricated a pregnant difference in the NUEPS (F = 2.662, P < 0.05; Wilks' Lambda (Λ) = 0.978; partial eta squared = 0.022). In the findings displayed in Table vii, teachers with such application feel reported higher needs in 'SRF' than those without such experience. Unremarkably, the teachers with e-textbook application experience already have a willingness to introduce using technology, and besides they express more requirements regarding using e-textbooks in the classroom.

Table vii Descriptive statistics and F examination for those with or without feel on NUEPS dimensions

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Determination and suggestions

Research contribution

Our research is the start written report to report findings regarding teacher perceptions of e-textbooks in Taiwan. The reliability and validity of the NUEPS have been confirmed, thus providing a highly suitable scale for agreement teachers' needs when using e-textbooks. In previous g-12′southward studies (Chen et al., 2013; Gong et al. 2013; Taizan et al., 2012) teachers comments on due east-book features and functions was not indicated. The didactics action blueprint (e.one thousand., quizzes, learning to share, class cooperation) was not discussed owing to the lack of large-calibration survey questionnaire tool. In this study, most of the teachers who accept the feel of e-textbook in primary and secondary schools were recruited and asked to answer the questions. It showed that while implementing a mobile device in didactics the instructional design needs wireless, Classroom Response Systems and deject computing systems. The real demands for teachers were found out. NUEPS Calibration not simply is good for experienced teachers, merely likewise helps novice teachers' application of e-textbook and lesson planning. This serves as a guideline in establishing norms for the official institute, and a reference in constructing the electronic teaching system. In the meantime, in this written report a e-textbook unit which integrated of new technology mobile device, wireless and cloud computing systems for schoolhouse smart learning environment in the new trends of east-textbook applications was developed.

Conclusion and suggestions

For elementary and secondary school teachers in Taiwan, e-textbooks are "ones whose compilations follow the teaching objectives, contents, power indicators and then on in the Grade i–9 curriculum outlines, accept passed review and approval, and are equipped with multimedia presenting functions plus digitalized assessing or educational activity materials such equally assignment and study lists" and which can be matched with mobile devices to facilitate students' power to carry and learn at any time and place. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale of perceptions of needs of using e-textbooks (NUEPS). As a effect of the iv-stage development process adopted in this study, a NUEPS with 32 items was developed. To determine the cistron structure, these items were examined, and regarding the assessed features, these three factors were labeled as "Supporting Instruction Activities"; "Supporting Features and Functions in Reading and Presenting", and "Learning Activities and Parent Interaction". We concluded that when using e-textbooks in education, teachers hold positive views (all the ways of the descriptive analysis were over iv.0) on east-textbook features too as the teachers and students' learning needs. We establish that male and female teachers in Taiwan maintained no difference in opinions, but for teachers with experience using digital textbooks, their needs for "supporting reading and presenting of e-textbooks and operating functions, network admission, instruction demonstration plus dissimilar format integrating functions" (SRP) were stronger compared with teachers without such experience. When elementary schoolhouse teachers utilise due east-textbooks in teaching, they take higher STA (including due east-textbook's application mode, assessment and needs for remedial learning, and students' needs to share studies) and SRP needs (including supporting e-textbook presentation and operation functions, network access, teaching sit-in plus content and fashion integrating functions) than those of secondary school teachers. These may exist related to the fact that secondary schoolhouse teachers have long been exposed to higher pressure of schoolhouse entrance systems and they seldom use technologies in assessments, sharing, or collaborative learning. The findings of this enquiry revealed no significant divergence between needs of using east-textbook perception of teachers and age.

The digital classroom is a new medium of instruction for both teachers and students, and is in a state of continuous innovation in Taiwan, whereby textbooks and blackboards are gradually being replaced (Chen, 2010). Many researchers accept constructed e-textbook-based environments with various advanced features and functions. For case, Classroom Response Systems (CRSs) (or classroom communication systems or voting machines) are awarding in the educational system equally they elicit more interaction betwixt students and teachers (Salemi 2009), and help teachers to conduct formative assessments and to understand the students' prior knowledge and attitudes to facilitate their acquisition of new noesis (Fies & Marshall, 2006). CRSs likewise provide an active learning approach in the classroom (Martyn Margie, 2007). Furthermore, progress has been made in context-aware ubiquitous learning environments, which are able to sense the state of affairs of learners and provide adaptive supports (Hwang et al. 2008).

As learning environments are changing so chop-chop, an indispensable learning content in the classroom - e-textbooks, combined with mobile devices and connected to the Internet, is becoming more important for supporting learning and teaching in the classroom. E-textbooks are worth further report, as they will guide students into the side by side generation of learning - smart learning environments.

Adoption of technologies lies in the hands of teachers. To bring e-textbook multimedia and yard-learning features into play, it is advisable to provide customized teaching application assistance for dissimilar teacher groups when promoting the use of e-textbooks in the futurity, and involve the students and parents in the preparation of using such teaching application assistance in advance. Moreover, Education Bureaus and schools should provide proper training programs nigh independent thinking and the application of new technologies to guide in-service teachers to apply e-textbooks to better cooperative learning, interactions, etc.

Limited past time and resources this study was for teachers in iii areas who attended, cannot be grouped by age and sample each course subject field teachers to assign sampling, therefore, unable to explore the idea of teachers from unlike disciplines. 1 limitation is that some teachers who may understand the questionnaire described, but take no practical teaching feel with eastward-textbooks before. Their awareness of due east-book may non be mature or sophisticated enough, which might touch on the results of this study. Suggestion for time to come research is to enlarge the sample size. It volition lead to a greater extension of exploration and discovery. Farther topics regarding teachers and students' awarding quality surveys, awarding of e-textbook assessing tools, and employ of multimedia contents and thousand-learning deserve further studies to aid teachers to understand, assess and improve teaching furnishings.

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Affiliations

1. Graduate Institute of Learning and Instruction, National Key University, Jhongli City, Taiwan

   Yen-chen Lin

2. Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei Urban center, Taiwan

   Tzu-Chien Liu

3. Faculty of Scientific discipline and Technology, Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB, T9S 3A3, Canada

   ᅟ Kinshuk

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yen-chen Lin.

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors' contributions

YC is the overall e-textbook project coordinator and in add-on responsible for the study conception and design, acquisition of information, analysis and interpretation of data. Professor TCL and Chiliad provide comments and suggestions for this paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Appendix A

Appendix A

Interview questions for experts/teachers (outlines of interviews)

What is your definition of e-textbooks? (Definition from the teachers' perspective).

If y'all employ e-textbooks in classroom didactics, what type of presentation and performance interface features should e-textbooks have?

If you use due east-textbooks in classroom education, practise you recall it is necessary for portable devices to have network functions?

What is your opinion on the presentation, updates and richness of the eastward-textbooks' contents?

If you use e-textbooks in teaching, practise yous need teaching activities manuals, updated versions at any time and alerts for teaching progress to friction match the east-textbooks?

If yous use e-textbooks in educational activity, do you call up it is necessary to programme and support teaching direction, students' learning activities and management functions or systems to assistance the teachers manage their classes?

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Lin, Yc., Liu, TC. & Kinshuk, ᅟ. Research on teachers' needs when using e-textbooks in teaching. Smart Learn. Environ. ii, ane (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-014-0008-1

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• Received: 08 June 2014

• Accepted: 27 November 2014

• Published: 20 January 2015

• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-014-0008-1

Keywords

• E-textbook
• Mobile learning
• Digital book
• Educational technology

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