Do Digital Textbooks Boost Students' Learning Motivation? Evidence From a Meta‐Analysis

ABSTRACT Background Compared to paper textbooks, digital textbooks (DTs) offer greater accessibility, multimodal representations, and interactivity, which might boost personalized and social learning and greater motivation. However, past DT studies showed mixed results: more learning versus non‐significant results versus less learning. Objectives Hence, this meta‐analysis (a) determines the overall effect of DTs (vs. paper textbooks) on student motivation, and (b) identifies moderators that account for different effect sizes across the original studies. Methods We conducted a random‐effects meta‐analysis of 42 effect sizes from 27 experimental/quasi‐experimental studies of 3590 participants. Results and Conclusions Compared to paper textbooks, DTs boosted students' intrinsic motivation ( g = 0.536) but not their extrinsic motivation. DT effects were larger for (a) collectivist cultures than individualist cultures; and (b) students at higher educational levels. Implications Educators and policymakers can consider how to help students use DTs to improve their motivation, especially starting with intrinsic motivation in collectivist cultures among older students.