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Levels of Intelligent Textbook Sophistication

Run the Levels of Intelligent Textbook Sophistication MicroSim fullscreen

About This MicroSim

"Intelligent textbook" is not a yes-or-no property. It is a spectrum, and books sit at different points on it for reasons that have more to do with engineering effort than marketing.

This MicroSim lays out six levels. Each rung adds one capability the rung below it lacks: the web adds navigation, MicroSims add manipulation, a learning graph adds an explicit dependency order, personalisation adds per-reader routing, and an AI tutor adds generated explanation on demand.

The amber marker sits on Level 4, which is where this book actually is. Every chapter here was generated by walking the book's learning graph in dependency order, so no chapter assumes a concept you have not met. What this book does not yet do is Level 5 or 6 work: it does not track what you personally already know, and it does not generate a fresh explanation for your particular confusion.

How to Use

  • Click any bar to read what that level adds and see a concrete example.
  • Next and Previous step through the levels in order.
  • This Book jumps back to Level 4, the rung this textbook occupies.

Lesson Plan

Bloom level: Understand (L2) -- explain

Learning objective: Explain how intelligent textbooks range from static content to fully AI-driven, adaptive learning experiences, and place this book on that spectrum.

Before the sim (5 min). Ask the group what makes a textbook "intelligent." Most answers jump straight to Level 6 -- a chatbot that answers questions. Note those answers; you will come back to them.

With the sim (10 min). Step up from Level 1. At each rung ask what a reader can do now that they could not do one rung below. Stop at Level 4 and point out the marker: this book is the thing they are holding, and it is not the chatbot they described.

After the sim (10 min). Ask students to name a book, site, or app they use and place it on the spectrum, defending the placement by naming the capability it has and the one it lacks.

Check for understanding. Ask: "This book has AI-generated chapters. Why is it Level 4 and not Level 6?" The distinction -- generated once for everyone versus generated live for one reader -- is the idea this sim exists to install.

Embedding This MicroSim

Paste this into any page of the book, adjusting the relative path to docs/sims/ for the page's depth:

<iframe src="../../sims/book-levels/main.html" width="100%" height="517" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Specification

The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 2: AI, Intelligent Textbooks, and Where Coding Clubs Meet.

Type: infographic
**sim-id:** book-levels<br/>
**Library:** p5.js<br/>
**Status:** Reused<br/>
**Source:** https://dmccreary.github.io/tracking-ai-course/sims/book-levels/<br/>
**Source Repo:** https://github.com/dmccreary/tracking-ai-course/tree/main/docs/sims/book-levels

Reused from the MicroSim catalog (WHAT match score 0.7644). Learning objective: Understand (L2) -- explain how intelligent textbooks range from static content to fully AI-driven, adaptive learning experiences, and place this book on that spectrum.

References