Crossmedia textbooks: concepts, classification, problems of editorial and publishing preparation

Due to the lack of analysis of the editorial aspects of creating digital educational content, publishers’ approaches to enriching paper textbooks with digital content are different and discursive. The object of the study is to propose a concept that would briefly characterize paper textbooks enriched with digital content; to determine the main types of such textbooks; to identify the problems of editorial and publishing preparation of digital content and to put forward ways to solve them. Using the analogy method with the cross-media production of journalistic content, it is proposed to use the term “cross-media textbook” to designate printed textbooks with digital applications, and two main types of such textbooks are distinguished: 1) printed textbook + separate digital files; 2) printed textbook + web page or web platform. According to the authorship the digital content of cross-media textbooks is divided into content: 1) created by the authors of the textbook; 2) developed by publishers; 3) borrowed from external resources. The quality of the digital content of ten textbooks recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2020–2021 was analyzed, and a number of problems of editorial processing and technological implementation of digital content were identified, in particular: links to websites of doubtful origin in the textbooks; violation of copyright by placing links to digital content without indicating its authors or performers, etc. The following recommendations are offered to the publishers of cross-media textbooks: indicate the authors and performers of each media file; store all digital content on the publisher’s own resource: Google Drive, website, YouTube channel providing the possibility to control feedback on video; carefully prepare the image material in accordance with the requirements of the digital environment: 72 dpi, RGB; do not mix content for teachers and students; adapt pages, images from printed publications to web space: format, page orientation, design, fonts, number of files.