TECHNOLOGY
NAVIGATING THE SHIFTING EDUCATIONAL CONTENT LANDSCAPE
by Kent Freeman
TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, especially in the development, delivery and application of educational content. E-textbook adoption is still only 5 to 6 percent of the market, but with digital textbook sales predicted to grow substantially, the content shift is just start- ing to take off. From his perspective as the CEO of Ingram Content Group and the head of Vital Source, a market leader in the digital learning space, John Ingram recently spoke at the Blackboard World Conference in New Orleans about six key trends happening in educational content and how to navigate the changes taking place.
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Tere is more availability of digital content, but we’re just at the tip of the iceberg in rich-media e-textbooks. Most textbooks available in digital form today are simple iterations that were intended, first and probably foremost, to go into print. Right now, there’s minimal rich media added to textbooks. For example, at Vital Source, we have approximately 80,000 digital assets and only about 1 to 2 percent includes interactive media
elements today. But, we’re in the midst of a transformation, moving from a print workflow to one that puts digital first– with enhanced content at the core. Our view is that digital compels us to do more than replicate the printed book. We expect that with HTML5 and epub3 standards, along with new development tools, the incremental costs of providing this more interactive content can be managed.
Niche segments of higher education have moved substantially to digital materials–but it’s still a single digit percentage in the overall market. One example is a program like DeVry, which is at 90 to 100 percent digital in its online component, an easier area to experiment and implement “e.” It’s also an institution with centralized decision-making in terms of textbooks and materials. Traditionally, the education content process has worked
in relatively long cycles with lengthy adoption cycles–the academic year. But there are early adopters of digital content working on significantly different schedules. We work with institutions starting new terms as frequently as every week. Tere are alternatives to the traditional lengthy cycle times, and schools looking to make a shift should find those alter- natives and experiment to see works best.
Tere is a definite focus on improving learning outcomes with adaptive or directed learning. Interactive content will allow students to learn on their own terms, and digital offers the ability to measure and adapt quickly with timely feedback to learning management systems and mentors, so educators can measure the impact of tech- nology on learning. We expect to see more adaptive/directive learning in e-textbooks to meet individualized
preferences. With integrations such as Vital Source’s connection to the Blackboard Learn platform, educators will have easy and direct access to student performance and relevant content.
JULY/AUG 2012 •
TODAYSCAMPUS.COM
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