SCHOOL SUPPLIERS
Solving schools’ textbook and budget problems
content is designed first and foremost for ease of use on mobile devices.
The technical platform
Most of the interactive educational material of a decade ago was developed in Flash. Ever since Apple said that Flash wouldn’t be allowed to run on their iPad, the publishing industry has struggled to redevelop what they have in HTML5, which has proved immensely difficult. We develop all of our content in MasterClass, which allows us to output content in any suitable format (including HTML5) which means one creative process produces content that is accessible on any device (Android, iOS, PC, Windows 10 app, Chrome Books, Apple Mac**), and the content automatically adjusts to fit any screen size.
Increased accessibility T
he e-book revolution promised many potential benefits for education, not least the possibility of dramatically lowering costs – something which would be of great benefit to schools suffering from decreasing per-pupil budgets. The cost of textbooks ranks fairly high in the list of expenses for most schools, but the potential of e-books to deliver savings has not materialised – at least, not until now.
A Star Education has been working to address this, to help schools with budget problems. Starting with History (and progressing through Maths and Science), we are releasing libraries of e-textbooks, supported by a range of electronic resources – presentations, timelines, flashcards – suitable for primary and secondary schools, for a fixed price.
And it’s a tiny price. Our price for access to the History Matters library (
history-matters.co.uk) is just £60 (plus Vat) per annum for the whole school – teachers, students and parents can access all of the resources, anywhere, on any device, for everything, and there is no restriction on use at the front of class.
To put that price in perspective, Pearson Education charge £80 per year (medium-size school*), for only a single copy of their GCSE history e-book, Anglo-Saxon and Norman
England, allowing use for front-of-class teaching. Each student book must be purchased separately. Our History Matters Saxons, Viking and Normans topic includes a British Depth Study textbook on Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, for the new GCSE syllabus, as well as all the other resources and all the other topics, and it can be used not just by teachers, but by all students who need it as well. So it’s easy to see how savings of thousands of pounds can be made. The resources are high quality and cover the topics in depth. Our First World War collections contain 27 books, most of them specially written for History Matters, and include over 1,600 black- and-white photographs and beautiful colour illustrations.
Design
To be usable on devices with moderate screen sizes, design is crucial. E-books cannot be just a replica of a printed book – with zooming-in required to look at details or read the text – they must be designed for electronic delivery. The latest iOS and Android devices have very high- resolution screens and simple pictures of pages of a print book only offer a disappointing and fuzzy reading experience. Text and pictures need to be sharp to avoid eye strain. All of A Star Education’s
Crucially all of our content works well on phones, the one device you can guarantee students will have with them at all times. There is no zooming required, no scrolling around the screen. And because our apps download the content, it’s available anywhere, without needing an internet connection. All students can have a textbook, and carry their curriculum with them without risk of loss or damage and without complicated log-in procedures or digital rights management.
On-going expansion
New content and new topics are being added to History Matters all the time, making signing up even more of a time-saver for your staff and a better experience for your students, as well as benefitting your school’s budget.
*Price displayed on Pearson Schools and FE Colleges website on 21 June 2017. **All trademarks acknowledged.
www.history-matters.co.uk
info@history-matters.co.uk
July/August 2017
www.education-today.co.uk 23
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