Int. J. Mobile Learning and Organisation, Vol. X, No.

Y, XXXX

From web-based learning to eText learning: teaching

Sanskrit with an electronic textbook

McComas Taylor
College of Asia and the Pacific,
The Australian National University,
Acton ACT 0200, Australia
Email: mccomas.taylor@anu.edu.au

Abstract: The Australian National University has been teaching Sanskrit using
a successful web-based model of content delivery since 2006. As the
programme grew in sophistication and complexity, and as technology as
evolved, five problems emerged: students expected greater mobility, the
instructor needed stability of resources, demand for improved multimedia
support grew, bandwidth was constraining content delivery, and there is a
growing perception that course materials should be in the public domain. In
response to these problems, the entire content of the first-year Sanskrit
curriculum, incorporating over 1400 text, image, audio and video files, was
shifted from a web-based learning management system to an electronic
textbook in ePub format using Zipptek’s Legend Marker. Copies of the eText
were preloaded onto iPads which were distributed to over 20 students
worldwide. In addition to solving the five problems such as mobility, stability,
multimedia, bandwidth and openness, the eText has resulted in very high levels
of student acceptance and may lead to higher retention rates and improved
learning outcomes.

Keywords: language teaching; Sanskrit; iPad; tablet; web-based pedagogy.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Taylor, M. (XXXX) ‘From

web-based learning to eText learning: teaching Sanskrit with an electronic
textbook’, Int. J. Mobile Learning and Organisation, Vol. X, No. Y, pp.xx–xx.

Biographical notes: McComas Taylor is head of the South and Southeast

Asian Studies Department, and Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit, in the College of
Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. His research centres
on the application of contemporary critical theory to Sanskrit narrative texts.
His pioneering work in the flexible delivery of small-enrolment and less-
frequently taught languages has been recognised at local and national level. He
was recently named one of the country’s top five innovators in university
education by Australian Campus News.

1 Introduction

Since 2006, the Australian National University has developed a successful and growing
blended web-based course for Sanskrit, the classical language of India. Students all over
Australia and overseas have accessed content through the course website under the
learning management system Wattle (ANU’s flavour of Moodle). Content included

Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 M. Taylor

image files with embedded audios of the course textbook (‘talking pdfs’) and quizzes.
Students interacted with the instructor and one another in small web-conferencing
tutorials once a week.
The weekly content consisted of three items: (a) simple dialogues, (b) a verse, in the
form of a bon mot from the oral tradition, and (c) grammar. The course has enjoyed
notable success, with favourable student responses, growing enrolments, good learning
outcomes, and institutional and national recognition for innovation (Taylor and
Beckmann, 2009; Taylor, 2012). As the course has grown in sophistication and
complexity, five problems have emerged which are: mobility, stability, multimedia
support, bandwidth and lack of openness. In addressing these problems, this paper
describes a move from web-based learning to mobile learning. In a move some may
consider heretical, we moved our course materials offline and ePub format. This
approach might be beneficial for educational content providers, especially those who are
creating media-rich materials for geographically dispersed recipients.
eBook sales in the UK increased 366% to £92m from 2010 to 2012 (Flood, 2012) and
Amazon’s eBooks sales rose 70% from 2011 to 2012 (Amazon, 2013). Sales of
electronic textbooks (eTexts) in higher education are expected to grow by about 50% per
year and to account for 10–20% of all textbooks sales in 2013 (Simba International,
2010; Mulvihill, 2011). A large part of this increase is in response to the continued
growth in the number of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets (Mulvihill,
2011). By mid-2012, nearly half of all Australians owned a smartphone, and the number
of mobile devices doubled to nearly 9 million units over the 12 months to May 2012. A
total of 9.2 million Australians went online via mobile phone and 4.4 million accessed
the internet using a tablet in the six months to May 2012 (see http://www.acma.gov.
au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_600160).
In spite of the fact that eText sales still lag significantly behind general eBook sales
and one of the national leaders in eText sales in the USA sees only 1% of their texts sold
in eText format (Internet2, 2012), some analysts even predict ‘the end of the textbook as
we know it’ (Graydon et al., 2011; Young, 2010).

2 Advantages

eBooks in all their varieties have long been recognised as cheap, convenient, better for
the visually impaired, highly portable and searchable (Long, 2004). As printing usually
accounts for 30% of the cost of a book, in theory, all eBooks including eTexts should be
at least 30% cheaper (Miller et al., 2012). A survey of 5000 students and staff at 127
universities in the UK found that ease of access and convenience were seen as the main
reasons for using eTexts (Nicholas et al., 2010). Students like the portability of eTexts
(Internet2, 2012). The years 2010–2011 saw the start of a boom in the uptake of eTexts
as universities began to do deals with publishers and as students organised against the
high price of conventional textbooks (Hane, 2011).
The growth of eTexts is both a cause and an effect of the expansion in the use of
e-readers of all kinds, especially tablets. At the same time as eTexts have proliferated
there have been high levels of acceptance and enthusiasm for iPads and other mobile
devices in course work among tertiary students (Wakefield and Smith, 2012). Major
motivators in the adoption of mobile devices in learning are demand for mobility, the
ability to study anytime and access to learning resources (Martin et al., 2013).
 From web-based learning to eText learning

3 Disadvantages

It could be expected that universities would make the switch to eTexts, but this is not
necessarily the case (Young, 2010). The cost is the most commonly cited drawback of
eTexts. Prices for eTexts are still relatively high compared to new and used print
textbooks or rentals (Internet2, 2012). eTexts from major commercial publishers are
sometimes the same price as hard copy, and are more expensive than second-hand or
rented copies (Yu, 2012). If the price differential is great, students prefer eText over hard
copy (Internet2, 2012). An additional cost-related issue is that unlike hard copies,
students cannot resell eTexts after end of the semester (Yu, 2012). Students prefer
reasonably priced conventional textbooks to free online versions as they generally prefer
to read hard copy to reading text on a screen (Robinson, 2011). In another survey, more
than half of students expressed dissatisfaction with eTexts and only one-third of students
found it better to prepare for exams with an eText (Miller and Baker-Eveleth, 2010). In a
survey of 627 students, one-third reported that reading an eText was ‘somewhat to much
better’ than reading a conventional book, 29% said the eText was not as good as a
conventional book, and 25% were neutral (NACS on Campus Research, 2010). A survey
of 91 psychology students at a medium-sized regional university indicated a strong
preference for conventional textbooks regardless of gender, computer use or comfort
with computers (Woody et al., 2010). Students also report that eTexts are more difficult
to annotate (Yu, 2012).
One study found that staff did not use the enhanced eText features (sharing notes,
tracking students, question/answer, additional links, etc.) and therefore students saw little
benefit from the eText platform’s capability of promoting collaboration (Internet2, 2012).
Ironically while the visual and interactive elements in eTexts are commonly promoted as
strengths of the format, these features are seldom used to their full potential (Woody
et al., 2010).

4 Learning outcomes

No difference in learning outcomes in the use of eTexts and hard copies were reported by
two studies (Shepperd et al., 2008; Taylor, 2011). A two-year survey of students at
Suffolk University, Boston, found students become more receptive to and accepting of
eTexts but there were no significant differences in learning outcomes between students
learning from eTexts and those learning from conventional textbooks (Weisberg, 2011).
Educational advantages of the simpler, non-multimedia e-textbooks are yet to be
demonstrated (Murray and Pérez, 2011). In this paper, I hope to demonstrate some
seminal improvements that can be made by using multimedia-rich eTexts in a mobile
environment.

5 From web-based learning to eText learning

Media-intensive web-based content presented five problems for us. Each of these
problems is described below, and each ultimately was obviated by the creation of an
ePub.
 M. Taylor

1 Mobility: Students are demanding ever greater mobility. The original web-based
design described above required that they were tied to an internet-enabled desktop or
laptop system to access course materials. With the advent of portable mobile
devices, more and more students were expecting downloadable files so that they
could review materials, practice conversations and verses, and review the grammar.
The existing web-based design was unsuitable for mobile devices, largely because of
large audio and image files.
2 Stability: As the course content became complex, we experienced snowballing
problems with compatibility across platforms, operating systems and software. We
needed to accommodate Macs, Windows systems, Java and various browsers, and all
their frequent upgrades and software updates. This led to too-frequent failures,
frustration on the part of the students, and even greater frustration for the course
convenor.
3 Multimedia support: Our existing web-based model offered moderately good support
for audio but poor support for video. There is great value in videos for language
learning, especially when students are able to see the instructor articulating particular
sounds, phrases, etc. The ability to embed and to view videos in Moodle/Wattle was
limited and inconvenient as videos had to be recorded on one system, uploaded into
Youtube, and embedded using HTML in webpage in the LMS.
4 Bandwidth: Many of our students are in rural and regional Australia; and a growing
number are overseas in developing countries including India and Nepal, none of
which are well served with bandwidth. Lack of bandwidth is a real constraint on
accessing large files, and was a growing impediment for students and the course as a
whole.
5 Openness: As a matter of policy, for perceived security reasons, the university’s
LMS is closed to public access, and only students enrolled in the institution can
access course websites. In response to a worldwide movement towards openness for
course content, we have a strong desire to open the course materials to the widest
possible audience, and ultimately to place the entire course in the public domain. For
this reason we wanted to develop course materials that were not dependent on the
LMS or constrained by it.

6 The Solution: eTexts

Late in 2012 Grazia Scotellaro, Technology Educational Advisor in the ANU College of
Asia and the Pacific, demonstrated an electronic textbook incorporating simple text and
graphics that she had created for an iPad. This immediately appeared to offer the solution
to all five of our problems. An eText of this kind would give students the mobility they
were seeking. Further, by bundling all of the various files into a single entity, most of the
stability issues would be addressed. The eText offered much better potential for clean,
simple multimedia support, and being a single large file which students would only need
to download once; there was no need for a continuous internet connection, solving most
of the bandwidth problems. Finally, as an independent file which was not constrained by
the LMS, there was at last a possibility for placing it in the public domain.
 From web-based learning to eText learning

6.1 Creating an eText

Our goal then was to create a multi-media eText entitled The Joy of Sanskrit for an entire
first-year course. It would encompass all the course content to be covered over 26 weeks;
each week containing a short introductory video, a set of learning goals, and three basic
components: spoken Sanskrit, the weekly verse and the grammar section. The spoken and
verse components consist of graphics of spoken dialogues and textual material,
accompanied by explanatory audios and videos. The grammar section is essentially an
audio commentary to the course textbook (Egenes, 2011). With the kind permission of
the author, we scanned the content components of the text and included these in the
eText as graphic images. Students are still required to buy the hard copy of the textbook
in order to complete and self-correct weekly written exercises, thereby guaranteeing
continued sales of the book.
We looked at four e-publication authoring packages: Apple’s Pages ’09, Adobe
Indesign, Apple’s iBooks Author and Zipptek’s Legend Maker, and eventually narrowed
this down to the latter two. iBooks Author is a dedicated e-publication authoring package
available at no cost from the Apple AppStore and only runs on a Mac. The package
includes a number of attractive templates and is relatively intuitive to use, with a
WYSIWYG interface and drag-and-drop technology. Adding videos or graphics to an
eText is simply a matter of dragging them from the desktop into the publication. iBooks
Author offers a number of widgets, the most attractive of which, for language learning,
was an intuitive and simple review tool, which enables authors to embed multiple-choice
quizzes in publications. At the time of writing, iBooks Author’s output files in ibook
format can only be viewed on an iPad. One of our requirements was that our eText must
be viewable on the widest range of platforms possible: mobile platforms including tablets
and smartphones, as well as laptops and desktops. In spite of the very clear advantages of
ease of use, graphic sophistication and highly professional output, the fact that output
was only viewable on an iPad was a mission-critical shortcoming. Another significant
impediment was the inability to enlarge images larger than an iPad screen.
Legend Maker (ZappTek, $22.99) is a low-cost utility that runs under Mac OS X and
which produces electronic publications in ePub format. The advantage of this file format
is that it runs on a wide variety of platforms including Kindle, iPad, Sony Reader, Kobo,
Ibis Reader and Bookworm. Legend Maker takes as input rtf text files and offers a
certain amount of control over text format and layout, including heading levels and table-
of-contents creation. The input file contains links to image, audio and video files. The
output process stitches together text from the input and all the named files into a single
eText file. The package is said to support built-in quizzes, but we were unable to get
these to work correctly. There are a number of other difficulties associated with Legend
Maker. Any errors in the input file may cause the output to abort, but error messages only
appear at the end of the output process, which in our case took up to 45 min. This means
that error detection and correction is very tedious and time-consuming. In spite of its
shortcomings, Legend Maker at the time of writing is still the most appropriate eText
authoring package for this application.
While we were settling on an authoring package, we began to experiment with file
formats and production techniques for content creation. Written content for the spoken
Sanskrit and verses already existed as pdfs that we could import from the LMS, but fresh
videos and audios had to be created afresh. After experimentation with a variety of
packages and hardware, we found we could achieve the best quality for the least effort
 M. Taylor

with Quicktime Player video and audio recorder running on an iMac, with the system’s
built-in mike and camera. Higher quality audio and video could of course be created
using more advanced equipment in a professional sound-proofed lab, etc., but in view of
the quality of the playback on an iPad this seemed to be an unnecessary complication.
Pages from the textbook were scanned at 300 dpi and enhanced with preview. The entire
process of planning, software evaluation, recording, editing, compiling and debugging
took approximately three persons per month. The audio, image and video files created for
this eText now form a resource library that can be us used to created artefacts for
whatever comes after eTexts, for example, mobile apps and MOOCs. This is a form of
‘future-proofing’ against technological evolution. The final single ePub file created from
over 1400 images, audios and videos weighed in at a massive 2.4 gigabytes. A cut-down
version of the eText ‘Joy of Sanskrit’ incorporating weeks 1–4 is available at http://
tinyurl.com/joy-of-sanskrit

6.2 Distribution
We received a grant of $10,000 to purchase 20 iPads for students. Early on, we decided
that the ANU did not wish to own the iPads, but it would be preferable for the students to
own them themselves. The choice was then whether we would sell the iPads or give them
to the students at no cost. Based on previous experience in an earlier project in which
iPods were distributed to students several years ago, we decided to charge the nominal
sum of $100. This would instil a sense of ownership and commitment in the students, and
would shift the responsibility for the iPad from the university to the students themselves.
This appears to have worked satisfactorily. Some students already owned an iPad, but
none objected to buying a second one at a heavily discounted price.
In spite of having purchased a Powersync Cart, which was intended to simplify the
process, the activating, registering and uploading the eTexts on to the iPads proved to be
tedious and time-consuming and took an IT technician a day and a half. Once ready, the
iPads were then couriered or mailed out to students all over Australia, with some as far
away as Singapore and the USA.

6.3 Student use of the eText

Each week the students work through a new lesson in the eText. This consists of viewing
a five-minute introductory video ‘pep-talk’. This contains a quick review of material
covered in the previous week and an outline of what is to come. Students then read
through the half-dozen or so learning goals for the week. This is followed by a video or
audio introduction to the spoken Sanskrit component. They are required to fill in the gaps
in a ‘repeat-after-me’ style audio. Students watch a video or listen to an audio of the
instructor introducing, explaining and exemplifying the weekly verse. After they have
learned to chant it correctly, students return to Wattle where they record and upload their
own audio. Students then proceed to the grammar section which consists of 15–20
scanned images of half-pages of the textbook. Each section of text is accompanied by a
2–5 min audio. The idea is that students read though the text as the instructor explains
and expands it in the audio. Once they have listened to the grammar, they return to the
hard copy of the textbook, complete a set of written exercises, self-correct against the
answers in the book, scan their work and upload it into Wattle.
 From web-based learning to eText learning

In addition to working independently through the eText, students meet the instructor
for 90 min in a web-conferenced virtual classroom using Adode Connect. Each student
has a webcam and a headset, and all members of the class are able to see and speak with
one another.

7 Discussion

The eText has solved (or has the potential to solve) all five original problems. In terms of
mobility, the eText works well on mobile devices, especially the iPad and iPhone.
Students have reported listening and/or viewing course materials while commuting,
walking the dog or working out at the gym. This confirms an earlier finding that students
prefer eTexts which are not dependent on an internet connection (Internet2, 2012). The
stability issue has been resolved as the eText can be read independently of operating
system, browser and software updates. In terms of solving our multimedia issues, all of
the videos and audios embedded in the eText have worked seamlessly and instantly, a
great improvement over the previous web-based model. Over 20 students using the eText
intensively for a semester reported only a single incident of an audio failing to activate
correctly. The problem was rectified when the iPad was rebooted. Bandwidth has ceased
to be an issue as the eText was pre-loaded on to iPads, and students have not been
required to download any further course materials. Bandwidth continues to be an issue to
the web-conferenced virtual classes, but we have developed a number of workarounds,
such as deactivating the students’ video. As the eText is an independent file that exists
outside the university’s LMS, we have the potential to publish it independently. We are
currently in discussion with the university to make it freely available through its
e-publishing arm.

7.1 Student response

The student response to the eText has been overwhelmingly positive. After one semester
of use, students were asked to provide written responses to eight questions relating to the
eText on the iPad. A selection of questions and responses is given as:
What are your overall impressions of the ePub?

• I find it a great learning tool – it provides pre-recorded lectures with very clear
explanations of the course text, which we can work with in our own time and place.
The verse explanations and recordings are excellent, and we can post queries on the
forum to help clarify any areas. With exercises to complete each week the Monday
online tutorials are available to help with any remaining queries. This cycle works
very well for me.
• Very easy to navigate, useful additional information to support accompanying text
for the course, great to have the portability.
• This is the very first e-pub that I have come across at university and I have
absolutely enjoyed reading from it.
 M. Taylor

• Excellent. I believe not only me but all the other students thoroughly enjoyed the
experience of using the iPad and attending weekly web-conferences. No travel is
obviously required. You simply have to show up in your study at one of the two
designated times to attend the weekly web-conferences. Audio/video contents in the
form of lectures/Sanskrit chanting/spoken Sanskrit/pronunciation of vocabulary had
already been embedded in our iPad. This material could then be attended to when
time was available. All this added up to a very user friendly experience.
• Very helpful, indeed critical to an effective learning process involving learning a
language. It is very helpful to be able to hear the teacher on any subject covered at
any time, pronouncing words, etc. Also, to make the use of the textbook more
effective with commentary highlighting important points, etc.
Overall, would you say that the ePub has enriched your learning experience?
• What I really like is the flexibility to listen to and also review material at time of
one’s convenience during the week.
• I am been through higher learning over 15 years, this is the best form I have really
enjoyed and kept the interest ongoing. Especially the short videos.
• I like the multifaceted learning through different media, visual, audible, written, etc.
It complemented Wattle, the weekly conference class, using the book.
• Learning the spoken language would have been immensely more difficult without
the ePub.
• Yes, it has because of the features such as being able to replay McComas’s
instructions, flick through to pages/chapters/verses using the touch screen and of
course being able to carry it around in an iPad which allows me to read the e-pub
anywhere I go.
• Learning Sanskrit from home but with a feeling of being in a classroom at my pace
is the only best way to learn Sanskrit.
• It has made learning Sanskrit long-distance very easy in a stress free environment.
Particularly, I believe, the video and audio content which was embedded in the iPad
greatly facilitated the learning process. It allowed us to hear the language spoken
correctly and to ‘copy’ what was being said at our own pace. In addition, critical
content was embedded at the appropriate points within the iPad which I believe
simulated the normal classroom process…. Everything needed to learn Sanskrit, in a
home environment, I believe has been embedded on the iPad. The weekly web
conference/ANU course forum/e-mails then allowed us to ask any questions we
might have concerning the course material.
• It has not just enriched it, it been essential to my ability to learn Sanskrit.
• I also copied the ePub onto my iPhone and was able to consult it readily where I
was.
Students were asked to comment on the ability to study Sanskrit from home through a
flexibly delivery model of distance education. Again, the responses were unanimously
positive:
 From web-based learning to eText learning

• I had been trying over the years with self-study but with today’s busy lifestyles a
structured well-organised course delivered at our doorsteps, could not ask for any
more!
• I think it has opened up a world of ideas for me personally, in terms of online
education. It has been scoped and systematised beautifully by the course coordinator
with his brilliant use of technology and the internet to expand the university
education system.
• For me, living in Dunsborough WA, it is a godsend to be able to learn Sanskrit in
this way, accessing the quality teaching resources of the ANU. When physical
presence at a tertiary institution is not possible and there are no local teachers, it is
real gift. I rate this way of studying very highly, providing the student has the option
of one-to-one online interaction with the teacher for 60–90 min per semester.
• Only positive – I love this aspect which brings the learning of Sanskrit at a
university level within my reach.
• I consider myself very lucky to be doing this course from home. The structure of the
course and the way it is delivered makes me feel more confident that I would be able
to complete this course successfully. I enjoy the web classes and it has made the
learning extremely enriching.
• As I live interstate (Tasmania) with limited access to a wide range of university
courses, being able to study from home has meant that I can study my chosen course.
There is flexibility for study time which is important as I work full time. Choice
between day or evening tutorial times has been very helpful, allowing flexibility with
work and other commitments.
All students reported that the eText was easy or very easy to use. Most said the eText or
the iPad had worked flawlessly. The few reported technical issues were all resolved
independently or with tech support from the ANU. Comments on the eTexts appearance,
readability and aesthetics were overwhelmingly favourable, although several users
reported that they found multimedia controls inconveniently small.
What impact has the introduction of the eText and the shift to a mobile platform had
on student retention? In the final year of the web-based model, 19 students began the
semester and 13 completed it, a retention rate of 68%. In the first year of the eText
model, 22 students began the semester and 18 completed, representing a retention rate of
81%. Obviously such small numbers are not statistically reliable, but there is a clear
suggestion that retention rates are improving with the eText. Similarly, small numbers
make assessment of learning outcomes difficult. The average result in the mid-semester
assessment task was 82% in 2012 under the web-based system and 87% in 2013 with the
eText. This suggests a slight improvement. The quality of the chanting of the weekly
verses is impossible to quantify, but qualitatively as a cohort, the results in this field also
seem to have improved.
Students are reporting high levels of satisfaction and enjoyment, and there is certainly
novelty value attached to the eText. In addition there is the flexibility offered by the fact
that students can actively learn anywhere, anytime: they are no longer tied to a classroom
or even to a desktop. The eText also offers easier review and random access, and a quick
and efficient table of contents enables students to jump instantly to any point in the
publication.
 M. Taylor

7.2 New problems

The shift from LMS-based learning to mobile learning has not been without a downside.
Web-based quizzes have been a useful mode of formative assessment in the past. As we
were unable to recreate quizzes successfully in Legend Maker, we developed an
unsatisfactory ad-hoc solution: students continue to access the old web-based quizzes on
the LMS, and simply have to endure all the recurrent problems of instability and lack of
mobility. At the same time, we have begun to create a set of complementary quizzes
using iBooks Author for students to download separately. The difficulty with these is that
they only run on an iPad. This is a surmountable issue this year as all the students have
one, but it remains to be seen how this will transpire in future when students may be
working on more diverse platforms. Student feedback consistently pointed to the value of
quizzes.
Using scanned blocks of text and inserting them as image files in the eText was a
parsimonious solution to the problem of incorporating the textbook into the eText. The
main issue is that a single image will not flow across successive pages in an eText, which
leads to many blank half-pages in the final publication. It would be preferable to have the
textual units as actual keyed-in text which would then flow naturally from one page to
the next.
It is unlikely that a second grant will be available for iPads in subsequent years.
Students will be required to have their own mobile device, preferably a tablet (the eText
runs just as well on Androids as on iPads). If necessary, the eText can always be read on
a desktop or laptop with a suitable reader.
The eText is currently 2.4 gigs, 90% of which is accounted for by large video files.
Videos were recorded at maximum resolution. The eText will eventually be published in
three configurations: desktop/laptop, tablet and smartphone. The videos will be resized
appropriately for each platform, which will drastically reduce the file size, especially for
the latter two devices. This will make the eText much easier to download and sync from
one device to another.
Is the course instructor redundant? One student obviously thought so. As soon as he
unpacked his new iPad with the pre-loaded course materials, he emailed back saying,
‘Thanks for the groovy iPad. I have decided to withdraw from the course and to study on
my own’! Ultimately only a course facilitator can provide individualised feedback, a
focal point and an institutional framework. It is also the facilitator who is best positioned
to foster a community of learners, and only an institution can provide accreditation for
coursework. The human facilitator is not redundant yet.
Having capitalised on the advantages of moving to mLearning, we are still keen to
find ways of incorporating all the advantages of online collaboration, either into an
eText, perhaps in the form of an app which supports community and peer learning and
forums. Visual feedback of audio files such as that provided by Rosetta Stone would be
an excellent addition to a future eText. All these are available in desktop systems, but it
remains to be seen how they can best be integrated into an eText environment. Also on
our wish list their is the a high level of graphic sophistication and layout, of which EO
Wilson’s Life on Earth, available from iTunes, provides a wonderful example.
New technologies such as HTML5 make it feasible to develop interactive
applications that integrate with web services to provide a rich, pedagogically effective
learning environment compatible with a range of computing platforms (Schaffer, 2012).
 From web-based learning to eText learning

The challenges for us will be to ensure that eTexts run on the widest variety of platforms
and operating systems and to build in accessibility options for students with disabilities.
This ePub has only been tested over one year, 2013. The materials contained in the
ePub are undergoing annual revision and refinement as instructors and students gain
experience with ePubs and mobile learning. Further research into student responses to
this approach will suggest avenues for further innovation and consolidation.

8 Conclusion

Shifting content from a web-based learning management system to an electronic textbook

which was pre-loaded onto mobile devices for first-year language students enabled us to
solve five long-term problems. First, student demand for mobility was addressed, as they
can now access all the course content on tablets or smartphones. Second, as a single file
running under a single operating system, the eText is proving much more stable than the
web-based content, which was subject to the vagaries of operating system, browser and
software updates and incompatibilities. Third, we found that we can embed video and
audio files, essential for language learning, much more efficiently in an eText. Fourth,
students are able to access these items instantaneously without an internet connection at
any time and are no longer hindered by bandwidth availability under the earlier web-
based LMS. Finally, the eText is a free-standing file outside our institution’s closed LMS
and can be made public without compromising the university’s security. Students are
reporting very high levels of acceptance, satisfaction and engagement, and there is a clear
suggestion that retention rates and learning outcomes are improving.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge all the hard work that Grazia Scotellaro invested in
producing the ‘Joy of Sanskrit’ and Beth Beckmann for guidance and feedback.

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