The world is transforming fast as we speak, and so is education. Gone are the days when teachers had to rely on out-of-date textbooks to educate students.
We don’t have anything against textbooks, but they often have additional resources that are irrelevant to the students and curriculum. This is an issue that interactive eBooks can solve. Such eBooks contain up-to-date and to-the-point resources, making it easier for teachers to cover the objectives.
eBooks are easily accessible via any device, and students can learn from any place. In addition, interactive eBooks have visual features that can attract and engage readers, resulting in a more integrated learning experience for students.
So, do you want to know how to make an interactive eBook for school? Let’s start with the basics and a step-by-step guide to creating an eBook that can help you better educate your students.
What Is An Interactive Ebook?
eBook refers to electronic book, a digitalized version of a book that can be accessed using any electronic device.
Interactive eBooks are different from traditional eBooks. They have visual elements like images, videos, graphs, animations, quizzes, etc., that can interact directly with the readers. This increases the reader’s concentration and engagement. It allows teachers to interpret complex theories more easily so the learners can grasp them effortlessly.
Interactive eBooks thus increase student-teacher collaboration, resulting in a unified learning experience. Here’s how to make an interactive eBook.
How to Create an Interactive eBook from Scratch?
Step 1 – Prepare Interactive eBook Content:
Many platforms are available to help you build an interactive eBook. Kitaboo is a popular platform that lets you create interactive eBooks quickly.
Creating an interactive eBook requires these essential elements:
- A compelling title
- Attractive eBook cover
- Table of contents
- Chapters, page numbering, preface
- Social media buttons
- Interactive visual elements
- Multiple device friendliness
- Persuasive call-to-action button
Putting all these elements together manually can be tedious. This is where eBook design services like Kitaboo can help you, doing all the heavy lifting while you can focus on crafting your content.
Step 2 -Writing:
You can sign up on an eBook platform and start composing directly. Or, if you prefer using Word or Google docs, you can draft your content and convert the document into a PDF.
This is where you put your creativity to work and craft engaging content that is easy to read and interpret for the students. Or, if you’re someone with a plethora of ideas but unable to reflect them onto paper, you can hire a professional to write for you.
Tons of ghostwriters can help bring your ideas to fruition in text. Once you’re done with your content, import it to the eBook platform to add interactive elements.
Step 3 – Interactive Elements:
Adding visual elements like Images, videos, etc., will make your eBook more interactive for the readers. You can add images and videos as you write your content or collect them and import it all together.
If you’re adding visual elements to your eBooks from external sources, it is better to add links or embed them in your eBook to avoid copyright claims.
A major issue in adding visual elements is their size. Ensure the images and videos are optimized. Adding larger files will only slow your eBook loading time, frustrating the readers.
Kitaboo has an efficient drag-and-drop widget functionality to add interactive elements like images, videos, quizzes, etc.
- Images:
You can purchase high-quality images from stock photo websites and add them to your eBook. If you’re not keen on purchasing images, alternatives like Unsplash, Freepik, Pixabay, Canva, etc., are also available.
Remember to optimize your images. Many eBook publishers/stores do not allow images higher than 5 MB. So, compress your images using online tools like TinyPNG, Compressor io, etc.
- Videos:
Adding videos to your eBooks will make the learning process more interesting. If you don’t have enough resources and skills to create an interactive video, you can hire a video editor from freelancing sites like Fiverr and Upwork.
As you did for images, you also need to optimize your videos to fit them into your eBook. Further, if you want to add videos from external sources, just embed them or add links in your eBook. Readers can click the link, watch the video directly from the host website, and redirect back to your eBook as required.
Step 4 – Design And Layout:
Your interactive eBook content is ready; now it is time to make it attractive and inviting for readers.
Start with the eBook cover design. You can do this by yourself if you have the right design skills. Alternatively, you can seek the help of professionals or an eBook platform to design the cover for you.
- Layout:
Will the eBook layout be fixed or reflowable? This is a crucial decision to make.
Your layout will decide the readability of your eBook, so it is important to know which layout will be the right one based on your eBook theme.
- Fixed layout:
Every feature of your layout will remain the same regardless of the device viewed using a fixed layout. All the locations of the elements will be fixed, and they will not change according to the device.
It will almost resemble a photograph. When the reader zooms in, the layout will move beyond the screen. Readers might need to use the vertical and horizontal scroll bar to view the other contents of the page.
- Reflowable layout:
A reflowable layout is more dynamic than a fixed layout. This layout can adjust itself to the screen dimensions regardless of the device. Readers can also change the font size in a reflowable layout for better viewing.
The layout and interactive elements will automatically adjust by folding and lengthening the page, improving the user reading experience, particularly on mobile devices.
The reflowable layout is the most suitable one for eBooks.
Step 5 – Reader Interface Branding:
If you plan on publishing your eBook on a platform with a pre-built reader like the one on Apple Books or Kindle, you will not have the flexibility to change anything.
On the other hand, if you’re planning to publish it on an eBook app, you can build your own reader from scratch.
The benefit of using your own reader is that you can change it to suit your target audience (in this case, your students). Or, if your eBook is targeted at the general audience, you can publish it on a platform with an external reader.
Step 6 – Publishing:
We have reached the end of how to make an interactive eBook guide. Publishing your eBook doesn’t have to be difficult, not when you have a digital publishing platform like Kitaboo.
You don’t have to worry about formatting for multiple devices either. Kitaboo can help you deliver your eBook to students across various devices without any compatibility issues. Kitaboo’s publishing suite also enables reading on several operating systems, including iPad/iPhone (iOS), Windows, and Android devices.
If you already have a learning management system (LMS) in place for your students, you can integrate Kitaboo with your LMS, and your students can access your eBook without hassles.
Conclusion:
There you go, six simple steps on how to make an interactive eBook for your school.
As established, adding visual elements to your eBook will make it more engaging for your students. You can easily add images, videos, quizzes, gamification, etc., using Kitaboo. No need to worry about distribution either – Kitaboo has a cloud-based distribution platform with DRM protection and encryption, making your content more secure.
So, what are you waiting for? Start creating interactive eBooks and make it easier for your students to access and read them using Kitaboo.