tools-only Chapters
This textbook is organized into 13 chapters covering 200 concepts that guide you through the complete workflow of creating intelligent, interactive textbooks using Claude Skills.
Chapter Overview
Introduction to AI and Intelligent Textbooks - This chapter introduces artificial intelligence fundamentals, Claude AI, and the concept of intelligent textbooks with their five levels of intelligence.
Getting Started with Claude and Skills - This chapter covers Claude Pro accounts, the Claude Code interface, and introduces the Claude Skills system including skill definition, installation, and basic usage.
Course Design and Educational Theory - This chapter explores course descriptions, target audiences, prerequisites, learning outcomes, and Bloom's Taxonomy (2001 revision) with its six cognitive levels.
Introduction to Learning Graphs - This chapter introduces learning graph fundamentals, concept nodes and edges, dependencies, prerequisite relationships, DAG structure, and learning pathways.
Concept Enumeration and Dependencies - This chapter covers the concept enumeration process, generating 200 concepts, concept labels, granularity, atomic concepts, dependency mapping, and foundational vs. advanced concepts.
Learning Graph Quality and Validation - This chapter focuses on graph quality metrics, DAG validation, circular dependency detection, orphaned nodes, disconnected subgraphs, indegree/outdegree analysis, and quality scoring.
Taxonomy and Data Formats - This chapter covers taxonomy categorization, CSV file formats, pipe-delimited dependencies, JSON schema for learning graphs, metadata (Dublin Core), and color coding for visualizations.
MkDocs Platform and Documentation - This chapter introduces MkDocs, Material theme, configuration files, navigation structure, markdown formatting basics, admonitions, and GitHub Pages deployment preparation.
Claude Skills Architecture and Development - This chapter deep dives into skill directory structure, supporting assets, Python scripts, templates, reference documentation, skill workflow instructions, commands vs. skills, and skill execution context.
Content Creation Workflows - This chapter covers chapter structure, section organization, content generation processes, chapter index files, concept lists, reading level appropriateness, worked examples, and practice exercises.
Educational Resources and Assessment - This chapter explores glossary generation with ISO 11179 standards, FAQ creation from course content, quiz generation, Bloom's alignment in quizzes, and assessing student understanding.
Interactive Elements and MicroSims - This chapter introduces MicroSims, p5.js library, interactive simulations, directory structure, iframe embedding, seeded randomness, and interactive controls.
Development Tools, Version Control, and Deployment - This chapter covers Git basics, version control, GitHub integration, Visual Studio Code, terminal operations, Bash and shell scripts, Python scripting, pip management, skill testing/debugging, security, permissions, and concludes with the capstone project.
How to Use This Textbook
This textbook follows the natural workflow of creating an intelligent textbook from start to finish. Concepts are carefully sequenced so that each chapter builds on knowledge from previous chapters. All concept dependencies have been validated to ensure a smooth learning progression.
We recommend working through the chapters in order, especially for your first read-through. Later, you can return to specific chapters as reference material when working on particular aspects of your textbook project.
Note: Each chapter includes a detailed list of concepts covered. Make sure to complete prerequisites before moving to advanced chapters, as the content assumes familiarity with earlier material.