Lemken (1999) defined interactive E

Lemken (1999) defined interactive E-books as “mobile, physical devices to display electronic (i.e. digital)
documents”. On the other hand, E-book functionality is defined as the ability to support instructor in developing
teaching strategies integrating teaching multimedia and assisting teachers in guiding students to engage in
interactive learning and access learning contents using E-book devices. (Crespo et al., 2011 ; Derting & Cox,
2008; Korat & Shamir, 2007).
An E-book is based both on emulating the basic characteristics of traditional books in an electronic format, as
well as leveraging internet technology to facilitate easy and efficient use (Anuradha & Usha, 2006; Lam &
McNaught, 2009). An E-book can take the form of a single monograph or multi-volume set of books in a digital
format that allows viewing on various types of monitors, devices, and personal computers. It should allow
searching for specific information across a collection of books and within a book. An E-book should utilize the
benefits of the internet by providing the ability to embed multimedia data, to link to other electronic resources,
and to cross reference information across multiple resources (Buckley & Tritt, 2011; Lam & McNaught, 2009).
An E-book collection should be accessible anytime, anywhere via the internet, requiring no device but a
personal computer to access the content. An ideal E-book should provide content of value, the ability to view
online, the ability to download to a PC or view offline, and the ability to view on a handheld device or personal
digital assistant (Buckley & Tritt, 2011).
THE ADVANTAGES OF E-BOOKS
Today various types of teaching technology are adopted in the classroom such as personal computers and tablet
PCs. These digital tools can be used as E-book devices to assist instructors to teach in the digital form. The
advantages of E-books for teaching are straightforward and include several factors:
1. Increasing interaction
Many researches have revealed that interaction is a critical factor in developing an excellent e-learning
environment. E-books facilitate written and visual communication between the participants who are at different
places, enabling students to interact with other students and teachers; this kind of fast communication is an
important factor in the improvement of the value of e-learning (Anuradha & Usha, 2006; Buckley & Tritt, 2011).
Moreover, several researchers have pointed out that the use of E-books for social interaction constitutes an
important role in the emergence of internet usage (Huang, et al., 2012; Nunez-Valdez, et al., 2012).
2. Promoting learning motivation
E-books have a huge impact on learner motivation. As such information technology becomes increasingly
ubiquitous in e-learning, it is important to design them to optimally impact motivation (Mock, 2004). Buckley &
Tritt (2011) mentioned that student motivation is reflected by the amount of time spent on the internet,benefits
gained from social networking, and identification of personal learning needs.
3. Encouraging student participation
It is important task for instructors to encourage active participation and contribution of each group member
to successfully promote collaborative learning via E-books (Anuradha & Usha, 2006; Siozos, et al., 2009).
E-book applications have resulted in increased user participation and open multimedia contents, some of which
is potentially useful for learning (Derting, & Cox, 2008). In addition, many researches have indicated that
awareness of the collaborative learning context through E-book devices significantly increases student
participation in learning activities and improves student learning performance (Derting, & Cox, 2008; Mock,
2004; Siozos, et al., 2009).
4. Usefulness -Facilitating the understand of abstract concepts
E-books create new opportunities for teachers and have revived the scholarly monograph. The emergence of
E-books has given publishers new ways to serve customers by re-purposing content and creating living books,
which incorporate text, audio, video, and other resources (Derting, & Cox, 2008; Lam & McNaught, 2009;
Siozos, et al., 2009), and enhance students’ vocabulary, story and concept understanding (Korat, 2010).