The "Strategic Plan for Information and Communications Technology" launched in May 2010 by the Japanese Government advocates the creation of solid contents for digital textbooks to be used in primary and secondary education. However, it does not offer any insight on the role that digital textbooks can play in higher education. In the academic year 2013-14 the Italian language program at the Open Education Center of Waseda University launched two courses that offer students a full set of digital

more »

... booklets created with iBooks Author as a way to enhance the learning process. This paper uses Rogers' "diffusion of innovations" theory to investigate the meaning and potential of digital textbooks in higher education and then, using data collected in the first year of the project, it looks at the pros and cons of creating digital textbooks with iBooks Author and at ways to enhance the default "Review" widget to create meaningful and creative drills for language learning. Lastly, the paper also looks ahead at long-term issues and expectations.