E-book Features

Much of the editing work on this web-based E-book went into making the Guide easier to read, especially on a screen. With the help of Claude, I added the reading aids below, drawing on research in psychology and education. The text itself is identical to the final printed and PDF copies.

The features help in four ways: (1) seeing the structure, (2) staying focused, (3) digesting the content, and (4) reading comfortably. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome at mengwei.lin@ub.edu.

Seeing the structure

• Each section opens with a label giving its reading time, and a marker closes it.
• The contents show your reading path: the lectures you have finished and where you are now.
• Previews of figures and sections let you look something up without losing your place.

Research behind it: cues that make the organisation of the material visible help learners both remember it and apply it [1].

Staying focused

• Chapters longer than 12 minutes are offered in two or three sittings, which end at section boundaries.
• “Done for today” saves your place, an optional calendar entry reminds you, and, when you come back, a short card lists the sections you have already read.
• Progress is counted in sections rather than in minutes left.

Research behind it: in long tasks, the mind wanders more and more often as time goes on [2], and short breaks reduce fatigue [3]. In online surveys, progress that looks slow at the start makes people give up, while progress that looks quick keeps them going [4]; and motivation tends to sag around the middle of a task [5].

Digesting what you read

• The Notes panel lets you take notes, quote a sentence from the text, and download everything as a Markdown file.
• At the end of each section, a recall box asks you to write down its main points in a few words of your own; they are kept with your notes.

Research behind it: recalling what you have just learned is one of the most effective ways to study [6], and short recall questions between the parts of an online lecture reduced mind-wandering [7]. Explaining ideas to yourself also improves learning [8].

Reading comfortably

• In the Aa menu you can choose the font, text size, and line and letter spacing. Lines stay at about 65–70 characters.
• You can switch between Day, Green, and Night themes.

Research behind it: no single font is fastest for everyone. In a study of 352 adults, each reader’s fastest font was about 35% faster than their slowest, and which font was fastest differed from reader to reader [9]. For most readers in ordinary light, dark text on a light background is the easiest to read [10]; Green and Night are offered for comfort and personal preference.

References

1. Schneider, S., Beege, M., Nebel, S., & Rey, G. D. (2018). A meta-analysis of how signaling affects learning with media. Educational Research Review, 23, 1–24. doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2017.11.001
2. Zanesco, A. P., Denkova, E., & Jha, A. P. (2025). Mind-wandering increases in frequency over time during task performance: An individual-participant meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 151(2), 217–239. doi:10.1037/bul0000424
3. Albulescu, P., et al. (2022). “Give me a break!” A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance. PLOS ONE, 17(8), e0272460. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0272460
4. Villar, A., Callegaro, M., & Yang, Y. (2013). Where am I? A meta-analysis of experiments on the effects of progress indicators for web surveys. Social Science Computer Review, 31(6), 744–762. doi:10.1177/0894439313497468
5. Bonezzi, A., Brendl, C. M., & De Angelis, M. (2011). Stuck in the middle: The psychophysics of goal pursuit. Psychological Science, 22(5), 607–612. doi:10.1177/0956797611404899
6. Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. doi:10.1177/1529100612453266
7. Szpunar, K. K., Khan, N. Y., & Schacter, D. L. (2013). Interpolated memory tests reduce mind wandering and improve learning of online lectures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(16), 6313–6317. doi:10.1073/pnas.1221764110
8. Bisra, K., Liu, Q., Nesbit, J. C., Salimi, F., & Winne, P. H. (2018). Inducing self-explanation: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 30(3), 703–725. doi:10.1007/s10648-018-9434-x
9. Wallace, S., Bylinskii, Z., Dobres, J., et al. (2022). Towards individuated reading experiences: Different fonts increase reading speed for different individuals. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 29(4), Article 38. doi:10.1145/3502222
10. Piepenbrock, C., Mayr, S., Mund, I., & Buchner, A. (2013). Positive display polarity is advantageous for both younger and older adults. Ergonomics, 56(7).