Blog
Creating a Group in ActiveTextbook PRO
Welcome to the “Creating Groups in ActiveTextbook” blog. We are going to show you step by step how to create Contacts and Groups in ActiveTextbook, and how to assign a book to Groups. Groups A Group is a list of individual users that can be addressed in a single action, such as granting and revoking access to Books or sending messages. For example, you can setup a Group to represent a class. Each Group has an Owner – an individual user that created the Group and controls access to it. Accounts that are operating under Publisher roles are allowed to create Groups in ActiveTextbook PRO.
Read MoreScribble Path Smoothing
Some devices don’t report precise touch point readings. This results in noisy(i.e., not smooth) scribble paths. We need to clean up the scribble data. Firstly, we use the Douglas-Peucker path simplification algorithm to reduce the number of points in a scribble. Douglas-Peucker is able to remove about 80% of points while retaining shape of scribble. It works by removing any points that fall near a line between some other two points. Then when drawing a path with the reduced set of points, a shape very similar to the original scribble path is reproduced.
Read More3 Reasons Why You Need to Implement ActiveTextbook at Your School
Has Your School Implemented ActiveTextbook Yet? 3 Reason Why You Need to Implement ActiveTextbook at Your School
Read MoreLearning Tools Interoperability (LTI) support for ATB
Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is a standard for embedding third party applications into Learning Management Systems (such as Blackboard, Moodle, canvas, etc.). LTI allows a seamless connection of web-based applications that are externally hosted or different tools to platforms that present them to users.
Read MoreAnnotating eBooks with Hypothes.is
Evident Point has partnered with Hypothes.is to bring annotation support to Readium and ActiveTextbook. Hypothes.is is the leading online open platform for annotating the web, while Readium is the largest open source project for consuming ePUB documents. The goal of this partnership is to bring ebook annotations capabilities to the web. This is what Laurent Le Meur of EDRLabs had to say in A partnership to bring open annotation to eBooks – EDRLab :
Read MoreEvident Point has joined Publishing Working Group
Evident Point Software has joined the Publishing Working Group, by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to work together with other organizations on advancing traditional publishing and Web standards. Prior to joining W3C, Evident Point was a founding member of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) which was integrated with W3C in January 2017.
Read MoreReadium 1.5: towards a fully compliant Readium 2
Readium 1 is now ancient in Internet terms, and there are a number of good reasons for a rewrite. However while that is happening it’s helpful to reuse some of the functionality from Readium 1 with Readium 2. Although Evident Point was the initial contributor to Readium, there were many organizations and individuals that contributed to Readium over the years. Readium grew organically, to solve business needs at the time. This has resulted in a complex code base that is poorly documented and is difficult for newcomers to understand. To address these and other issues EDRLab announced the start of Readium 2 project at the end of 2016. Along with resolving issues identified earlier, Readium 2 (R2) aims to define a “Web Publication Manifest”. Readium 1 (R1) was only designed to work with ePUB documents, while R2 is committed to the open web by engineering support for various document types at inception. Readium 2 introduces a few architectural changes compared to Readium 1.
Read MoreInteractive Solution for Corporate Training
Corporate training programs are designed to bring all the employees to the same level of knowledge and skills that is consistent with the company’s standards. In the technology era, training methods such as one-sided presentations typically lead to having disengaged audiences, and therefore, are not the best solutions anymore. Nowadays, it is crucial to have interactive training programs to enhance learning experience and have satisfied and well-trained employees from the very beginning. As it is often said, employees are company’s best assets, and thus, companies need to take advantage of their own talent by increasing productivity and engagement as much as possible. With an effective and engaging training program, new workforce would likely become high-performing and motivated employees in the long run. Motivating employees to participate and engage in the corporate training programs have become very challenging, and that is why
Read MoreActiveTextbook: The Solution for Online Learning
Online learning (eLearning) has become a global phenomenon as many educational institutions have entered the field in an effort to improve the student learning experience. While eLearning has many benefits such as cost saving and customizing learning materials, it does have a few shortcomings compared to traditional classrooms. Two of the biggest disadvantages of eLearning have been lack of student interaction and motivation. In traditional classrooms, students are able to interact with each other and learn from one another by asking questions or listening to comments of others. This traditional environment has greatly enhanced learning and helped students stay engaged and motivated. To bridge the gap between traditional classrooms and online learning, ActiveTextbook provides a platform with interactive features that improves teaching and learning experiences and helps students stay engaged. In this blog, we will look at a few ways instructors can boost the student learning experience using ActiveTextbook:
Read MoreSingle sign-on: ActiveTextbook with an LMS using OAuth2
Introduction You’re probably familiar with OAuth2 already. OAuth2 is the technology behind the “Login with Facebook” or “Login with Google” buttons (and many others). OAuth2 is the best way to create a single sign on for two disparate web applications. With single sign-on (SSO) users do not have to remember multiple passwords when logging into various applications. This becomes especially convenient with applications such as Blackboard, Canvas or Moodle where an instructor embeds an ActiveTextbook document in a course. When a user clicks the book link from within an LMS the user is transparently logged into ActiveTextbook without having to type a username and password, potentially without realizing that they have ended up in a separate application.
Read MoreEvident Point brings Web annotations to Readium and ActiveTextbook
W3C has standardized annotations which is a step towards the right direction. Evident Point is working together with NYU Libraries, NYU Press, Readium and Hypothesis to bring annotation to EPUBs. By working together, this partnership will bring collaboration and cross-platform annotation to eBooks. Which is the next step in bringing hihg quality open annotation implementation to eBooks.
Read MoreActive Textbook technology is now available with Sony DADC’s User Rights Management System
At the London Book Fair, Datalogics and SONY presented an Active Textbook-based READynamic reading system with URMS (User Rights Management System). It’s a new version of Active Textbook technology branded for DataLogics that offers the same interactive functionality and benefits of the original solution; and now with the integration of Sony DADC ’s URMS. The Sony DADC URMS, featured in READynamic, offers a powerful level of industry recognized security that will allow for full content protection, while offering the user flexible content control.
Read MoreEvident Point joining IDPF/W3C
Evident Point has joined W3C community, namely W3C Publishing Business Group that will be working on development of EPUB and related Open Web Platform functionality going forward on a royalty – free (RF) basis. We also joined the EPUB Community Group, which has been as formed, the W3C / IDPF Combination was finalized, to ensure EPUB’s maintenance and advance EPUB’s further adoption.
Read MoreW3C officially releases “Annotations” recommendations
W3C publishes standards (recommendations) for Web Annotations, which makes annotations first-class citizens of the web. This is an important step in making annotations available on the web, cross-applications and cross-platforms. ActiveTexbook comments are mostly inline with the spec, and plan to extend the support for application-independent annotations. See more info about the spec here
Read MoreNew Features in ActiveTextbook 2.0!
Active Textbook new version is a deep re-work of our original 1.0 platform, and includes deep architectural changes, as well as very significant changes in functionality , encompassing all components. From the user point of view, the most important changes are:
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Discussions beyond the classroom
One of the unique features of ActiveTextbook is that it allows users to add comment boxes to the books and initiate discussions with others. ActiveTextbook is a great addition to Learning Management Systems (LMS) since it allows comment boxes to be created inside the books, which is unlike most systems, where discussion boards are typically located in a separate folder. With our platform, students are able to share their ideas anywhere, any time. They also have the opportunity to reflect on their thought and check for spelling before posting a comment. Furthermore, the platform is a valuable tool for students who don’t feel comfortable speaking in classrooms.
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