The Textbook of Tomorrow: Rethinking Course Material Interfacing in the Era of GPT

Online Learning Management Systems (LMSs), such as Blackboard and Canvas, have existed for decades. Yet, course readings, when provided at all, consistently exist as simple digital twins to their real-life counterparts. While online tools and resources exist to help students process digital texts more efficiently or in ways better suited to their learning styles, knowledge about such resources is not evenly distributed and creates a gulf in advantage between students. This paper proposes the courseware integration of "smart" textbooks, a newfound way for students to chat with their readings, receive summaries and explanations for highlighted text, and generate quiz questions via an AI agent embedded in their online course material. Future iterations of the software aim to add in-context reference highlighting for AI-generated answers and personalized tunings for the end learner.