Textbook Dependency Web

Abstract

After a textbook has been written and published, one may want to customize it for a particular audience; it may be desirable to delete or reorder some of the chapters or sections. However, there may be dependencies among the chapters, sections, examples and exercises which make it very tedious to rearrange the order of not only the chapters but also, the associated exercises. Martinsen has defined a structure to describe the dependencies among the chapters and sections in a portion of the online Calculus book, MYMathApps Calculus, being written by Dr. Yasskin and Dr. Meade. Further, he has built a GUI for an instructor or institution to reorder the chapters and sections by drag and drop consistent with the required dependencies as specified by the original author.