A major goal of NCSeT is to provide experimental evidence that will further the development of the NIMAS Standard.
The Center’s focus on supported electronic text as a presentation medium reflects our understanding of the goals set for the NIMAS Technical Assistance Center and the NIMAS Development Center (both at CAST). Specifically, experimental evidence about the types of electronic text enhancements that have a consistently positive effect on students’ reading comprehension and learning of academic content will argue for extending the standard. This may ultimately result in revising NIMAS to include recommendations to publishers that electronic versions of their text materials use a file format that supports the desired additional features or enhancements.
Toward that end, we have included a phase of research entitled “E-text Component Studies” that focuses on establishing the efficacy of specific e-text supports and resources, investigated individually.