Excerpts from a Reuters Article on Ebook(textbooks): Looks like HHSE is AGAIN in the RIGHT technological niche!
“Online products accounted for 27 percent of the $12.4 billion spent on textbooks for secondary schools and colleges in the United States last year, according to research firm Outsell Inc.
But the publishers expect that percentage to grow, and are retooling their businesses to compete in what they see as the future of the industry.”
“The transition "obviously doesn't happen overnight," he said, "but we do think the direction is very clear."
Executives say students might be wary at first, but once they try the new software, they are hooked.
McGraw-Hill's LearnSmart software - which serves almost as a personal tutor, guiding students through e-books - debuted in 2010 with just 150,000 student users. Two years later, more than a million students were paying $25 to $35 per course to access the online tutor, which they purchase separately from the online textbook itself. Executives say sales are expected to rise again this year.
Some digital texts embed links to videos, articles and clips from a professor's lectures, while others will monitor a student's progress and draw up personalized study plans to keep them on track.
"We can even predict what you're most likely to forget...and when you're most likely to forget it," said Jeff Livingston, a senior vice president at McGraw-Hill Education.
Manju Bhat, an assistant professor of physiology at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, monitors how much time his students spend reading the digital texts he assigns, how they do on embedded quizzes, and which concepts stump them. Bhat, a paid consultant to McGraw-Hill, uses that data to shape the next day's lesson.
The students' grades improved so much that "My department chairwoman called me into her office and asked me, 'What did you do?'" Bhat said.
There is another advantage of online texts: They can be edited and updated quickly, with new material pushed out to all users around the world.
"Ten years from now, almost 75 percent of students believe that e-textbooks will be used more than print textbooks," said Cindy Clarke, a senior vice president for CourseSmart, an online joint venture of five textbook publishers. "It's happening, and I believe it will start to happen more and more exponentially."
(Reporting by Stephanie Simon in Boston and Madeline Will in New York; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Leslie Gevirtz)”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/us-usa-education-textbook-idUSBRE96M04520130723
“Online products accounted for 27 percent of the $12.4 billion spent on textbooks for secondary schools and colleges in the United States last year, according to research firm Outsell Inc.
But the publishers expect that percentage to grow, and are retooling their businesses to compete in what they see as the future of the industry.”
“The transition "obviously doesn't happen overnight," he said, "but we do think the direction is very clear."
Executives say students might be wary at first, but once they try the new software, they are hooked.
McGraw-Hill's LearnSmart software - which serves almost as a personal tutor, guiding students through e-books - debuted in 2010 with just 150,000 student users. Two years later, more than a million students were paying $25 to $35 per course to access the online tutor, which they purchase separately from the online textbook itself. Executives say sales are expected to rise again this year.
Some digital texts embed links to videos, articles and clips from a professor's lectures, while others will monitor a student's progress and draw up personalized study plans to keep them on track.
"We can even predict what you're most likely to forget...and when you're most likely to forget it," said Jeff Livingston, a senior vice president at McGraw-Hill Education.
Manju Bhat, an assistant professor of physiology at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, monitors how much time his students spend reading the digital texts he assigns, how they do on embedded quizzes, and which concepts stump them. Bhat, a paid consultant to McGraw-Hill, uses that data to shape the next day's lesson.
The students' grades improved so much that "My department chairwoman called me into her office and asked me, 'What did you do?'" Bhat said.
There is another advantage of online texts: They can be edited and updated quickly, with new material pushed out to all users around the world.
"Ten years from now, almost 75 percent of students believe that e-textbooks will be used more than print textbooks," said Cindy Clarke, a senior vice president for CourseSmart, an online joint venture of five textbook publishers. "It's happening, and I believe it will start to happen more and more exponentially."
(Reporting by Stephanie Simon in Boston and Madeline Will in New York; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Leslie Gevirtz)”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/23/us-usa-education-textbook-idUSBRE96M04520130723
