The Relation between Comments Inserted onto Digital Textbooks by Students and Grades Earned in the Course

When students read textbooks in the classroom, they usually apply active reading. The practice of marking in university textbooks is a familiar one. They scribble comments on the margin, highlight elements, underline words and phrases, and correlate distinct parts to foster critical thinking. While the use of annotations during active reading supports the students themselves, these can also be useful for other readers. Investigations were carried out to evaluate the comments inserted by students onto their digital textbooks and how this relates to their eventual grade earned at the end of course. The results of our study highlight two main factors influencing students; eventual grade, quantity and quality of annotation. Students who wrote a lot of comments and focused upon the more important keywords in the text trend to receive a higher grade. Accordingly, our analysis was based on number and quality of text word selection.