A meta-analysis of the effects of E-books on students' mathematics achievement

Abstract

The 21st century allows the use of e-books to substitute printed books in educational context, thereby adapt teaching and learning to the potentialities of our digital era. Several studies examined the effect of mathematics e-books compared to traditional printed books on students' mathematics achievement, however, the results are still inconclusive. Therefore, this research conducted a meta-analysis to determine the effects of mathematics e-books on students' mathematics achievement. This is a quantitative research with data collected from 17 studies with 26 effect sizes (N = 3115) published between 2010 and 2021. The collected data were used to analyze the moderating effects of publication year, sample size, level education, treatment duration and type of e-books on students' mathematics achievement. The result showed that overall using mathematics e-books has a high effect (g = 0.82) on students' mathematics achievement. Furthermore, using e-Books does not affect students' mathematics achievement in year publication and significantly affects the pre-school level, who are more proficient in using technology. Mathematics e-books are more effective when used for less than 4 weeks and also effective when the sample is less than 30 students. There is no significant difference between non-interactive and interactive mathematics e-books. Moreover, this research provided a detailed description of the findings and implications as well as highlighted some suggestions for future studies.