A Case Study on the Utilization of Interactive eBooks in Post Secondary Education

An eBook is an electronic book that can be read digitally on a computer screen, tablet, e-book reader, or mobile phone.  While this may seem like a simple definition, as eBooks improve and become more interactive, it becomes increasingly more difficult to define what an eBook is and what it can do.  Interactive eBooks are no longer just a PDF version of a textbook.  An interactive eBook has various elements that educators and learners can interact with.  In addition to text, it contains rich media such as digital images, GIFs, videos, audio files, interactive graphs and charts, polls, maps, presentation slides, file uploads, downloadable cloud files, LMS integration, engagement insights, and/or feedback.  Initially, eBooks were simply electronic versions of its printed counterpart, utilizing one-way interaction.  However, developers of eBook technology continue to push the boundaries of how an eBook can perform and what has never been developed before.  We know that technology changes us and the world around us.  If it didn’t, we would still require oral communication to transmit history and without paper, books would still be printed on silk scrolls that only the wealthy could afford.  Who has demanded this shift?  We know that educators and learners alike have changed their attitudes towards teaching and learning, or have textbook publishers, who have had to become educational technology experts played a role in this shift.  My case study aims to analyze the utilization of interactive eBooks in post secondary education from the perspective of a user who actively supports and teaches students using this technology.