The Challenge of Raising the Quality of the Textbook and its Companion Website – Just when is Less More?

Companion websites of today typically contain multiple-choice questions on topics already covered by other tasks in the corresponding textbook. Such redundancy does not help to increase usage of digital learning resources in schools, nor does it help to develop a holistic digital competence. Using multimodal social-semiotic theory, I propose that quality criteria should consider the didactical interplay between textbook and its companion website. My claim is that textbooks and companion websites that are better integrated will ensure increased usage by being a qualitative necessity in addition to the textbook.