TECHNOLOGY
Why the Transition to Digital Course Materials is So Slow
by Micky Levitan G
one are the days when 16-year-olds stocked up on CDs when new albums came out. Today, they buy their favorite hits on iTunes with the
click of a button. Services like iTunes and Spotify provide a better user experience and unprecedented savings, driv- ing older forms of physical distribution out of the market. Te music industry is not alone in making this transition to digital. Streaming video through Netflix and other ser- vices has driven the transition with movies. And Amazon and Barnes & Noble are now selling more recreational e-books than print books to readers using tablets. Higher education is lagging. A major reason is fear of piracy. With the examples of
what Napster and Kazaa did to the music industry, pub- lishers of textbooks and other academic content have been rightfully cautious about making their content available in digital forms. While higher enrollments during a down economy have temporarily masked the revenue impact of exploding piracy, the anecdotal evidence is frightful to publishers and authors alike. In one recent test, a college student went online to look for pirated copies of the four textbooks he had just purchased at the bookstore. How long to get all four for free from illegal file sharing sites? Fifteen minutes. Despite publisher efforts to shut them down, file-sharing sites are as rampant as ever. As long as there exists a high economic incentive to steal, pirates will find a way. In response to this fear of piracy, content owners
deploy digital rights management (DRM) measures that limit printing, copying, period of access, only online ac- cess or number of allowable devices. But these restrictions seriously frustrate the user experience without stemming the proliferation of illegal files. On the cost side, digital textbooks are commonly
available direct to students at 50 percent off list price. With this pricing, students have no incentive to switch to digital when they spend less by buying and selling back a used print copy. Apple’s genius with iTunes was to combat piracy with
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TODAYSCAMPUS.COM
a breakthrough business model, great user experience and attractive pricing, not cumbersome DRMs. At a buck a song, with all the advantages of using a terrific service like iTunes, they encouraged most people to eschew piracy and purchase legitimate copies of songs. Until the full advantages of digital–lower cost and better usability–are also made available to students, fac- ulty and administrators, the uptake of digital content in higher education will not mirror what has happened with music, video and recreational reading.
Courseload has been an early and consistent advo- cate of a business model that breaks the logjam. When schools include the cost of course materials in tuition, the economic incentive to acquire illegal content disap- pears. Why would a student seek out a pirated copy of something they have already purchased? With used books and piracy out of the equation, authors and publishers can offer much reduced prices and be equally or more profitable than they are today. With the additional savings that come with digital versus physical distribution, digital content can be offered at a lower cost than used books. Content owners gain the only true protection for their content against piracy and win with higher profitability on higher volume. Students win with lower cost. Courseload’s approach is straightforward. Adopt a business model that removes the impediments to faster uptake of digital course materials. Create a win-win for the key players in the new digital supply chain–creators of content and users of content. Listen to students, faculty and administrators and develop a platform that meets their needs. Address all of the perceived issues around potential campus-wide adoption of digital: great user experience, ability to work on all devices that use a modern browser, print on demand for those preferring print, ability to work both on and offline, new capabilities to facilitate accessibility and ways to optimize use of data. Develop strong partnerships with participating schools to collaboratively refine solutions. Ask anyone on a college campus if they expect that
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