Abstract:

With the development of information technology, digital textbooks have become an important form of teaching materials. However, there is still a debate about which is more beneficial to students’ learning when using digital textbooks or paper textbooks. To this end, this study conducted a meta-analysis of 36 experimental and quasi-experimental studies. The results show that compared with the use of paper textbooks, digital textbooks are more conducive to students’ academic achievement (g=0.218). In addition, in the context of collectivism culture, digital textbooks have a greater impact on the improvement of students’ academic achievement; There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the intervention duration and the impact of digital textbooks on students’ academic achievement. When the intervention duration is between 12 and 24 weeks, the effect is the largest. Compared with other subjects, digital textbooks have the most obvious positive effect on students’ social studies. Grade type can also regulate the impact of digital textbooks on students’ academic achievement, that is, the more timely test results have a more significant impact. The prediction effect of digital textbooks on students’ academic achievement is not affected by gender, grade, publication year and experiment type.The digital age needs to strengthen technological innovation to provide a better foundation for the teaching and use of digital textbooks, and improve teachers’ digital literacy and better support the learning promotion function of digital textbooks. Also, it's necessary to, based on the periodicity rule of digital textbook promoting learning, create activities to promote students’ learning, improve students’ digital literacy, and give full play to the function of digital textbooks to improve the learning outcomes.

Key words: digital textbook, academic achievement, meta-analysis