The content covered in a Formal Languages course holds a mathematical nature, which requires students to engage with proofs and algorithms to grasp concepts. Conventional textbooks on Formal Languages predominantly employ textual explanations, with assignments often entailing manual problem solving. Some educators incorporate tools like JFLAP. JFLAP helps students construct models and apply algorithms to enhance interaction with the subject matter. However, students must put considerable effort into reading and solving problems manually to reach comprehension. Drawing inspiration from the Programmed Instruction (PI) teaching methodology, we have developed an innovative eTextbook for Formal Languages that facilitates a more intuitive understanding of these ideas. The PI approach has students read a bit, ideally a sentence or paragraph, and then answer a question or complete an exercise related to that information. Depending on their response, students can progress to subsequent information frames or re-attempt the exercise. Our objective is to present the entirety of the Formal Languages curriculum through a sequence of these informative frames, each accompanied by related questions. To evaluate the pedagogical effectiveness of our new eTextbook, we conducted a survey to ask students for their feedback on their experience with the Programmed Instruction etextbook. We also conducted performance evaluations on two offerings of the Formal Languages and Automata course. In performance evaluation, students’ grades are compared to assess learning gains between visualizations with exercises, and with PI frames.