Developing the information model of e-textbooks

Wei Fu,Gui-chao Qi and Xiao-qing Gu
East China Normal University
Shanghai, China


With the development of personal digital terminals and the popularity of e-reading, many countries and organizations have initiated research into the development of e-textbooks. ISO/JTC1 SC36 has also started a new standard project on e-textbooks proposed by the authors’ team. By September 2011 at the ISO/IEC JTC 1 plenary meeting in Shanghai, 35 cases of e-textbook use had been collected, which were contributed by various countries and organizations. In this paper, we first define a concept model by use-case analysis, and consider its implications for e-textbook usage within e-learning. Second, we propose the design of an e-textbook information model which aims at connecting reading and learning. This model defines the content structure and the function structure of an e-textbook. The goal of the information model is to guide the design and development of e-learning textbooks and create a new generation of e-textbooks for e-learning.