<![CDATA[Digital technology offers opportunities to provide engaging and accessible learning media for mathematics education. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of e-comic media integrated with a contextual approach in teaching linear equations and inequalities in one variable to seventh-grade students at SMP Negeri 7 Metro, Indonesia. The study employed a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test control group design. The population consisted of eight seventh-grade classes, while the sample comprised 60 students: 30 students from class VII C as the experimental group and 30 students from class VII F as the control group. The experimental group learned using e-comic media with a contextual approach, whereas the control group received conventional instruction without the e-comic intervention. Data were collected through pre-test and post-test assessments and analyzed using normality and homogeneity tests followed by a paired-samples t-test. The Shapiro–Wilk test indicated that the analyzed data were normally distributed (W = 0.903, p = 0.156), while Levene’s test indicated homogeneous variance (F = 9.702, p = 0.081). The paired-samples t-test reported a statistically significant difference between pre-test and post-test scores, t(29) = ?15.789, p 0.001, with Cohen’s d = ?3.086. These findings suggest an improvement in students’ learning outcomes following the use of contextual e-comic media. The visual storytelling, simple language, and connection between mathematical concepts and everyday situations may help students engage with and understand the learning material more meaningfully. Therefore, contextual e-comic media can be considered a promising digital learning medium for mathematics instruction at the junior high school level. Further studies are recommended to examine its effectiveness over a longer period and across different mathematical topics and subject areas.]]>
