23-nov-2010 the transformation of digital content in higher education ecar symposium 2010 mobilizing...
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23-Nov-2010
The Transformation of Digital Content in Higher Education
ECAR Symposium 2010 Mobilizing Campus and
Transforming Community
David McCarthyBarnes & Noble
23-Nov-2010
What is
Study Smarter, Not Harder
is a free ereading platform with a focus on features critical to success in with digital textbooks and educational content.
Through faculty and student interviews, was developed from the ground up based on the needs of students.
More than simply an eBook reader, is an end-to-end solution for students to acquire, organize and study their assigned content.
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Growth of etextbooks
Barnes and Noble has seen a significant increase in digital sales this past fall.
14% of students have purchased a digital product as part of their studies.
The general acceptance of digital reading for pleasure is bleeding over to higher education content.
23-Nov-2010
Reasons for Purchasing eBooks
Price is the primary factor
Only way to obtain the textbook [out of stock, preference by the professor, custom PDF type eBook that the professor created for sale].
18% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they enjoy the features.
10% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they had never used one and were curious.
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What is taking so long?
What is taking Ebooks so long? Music went digital overnight.
Barnes & Noble had an ereader ten years ago.
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What is taking so long?Ereading fundamentally changes the way users interact with content.
Digital music only changed the distribution of content. Consumption was still done through speakers of some sort.
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The book works really wellThe book is a piece of hardware used for thousands of years. It is the ultimate “reader”
• Inexpensive – You get free reader hardware with each physical book purchased• No batteries needed.• Very durable• So simple a three year old could use it
Replacing the physical book is not going to be easy.
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And yes students love themThe digital dream is even more difficult for education content.No other user interacts with the physical content more than students•Highlighting•Note taking•Bookmarking•Flipping• Multiple books a once
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Three Layers of eReading
Reader Software
Content
Hardware
Digital reading is accomplished through the lens of hardware and software.
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Digital Studying
Reading/Studying Software
Content
Hardware
Realize, for students studying is much more important than reading. All layers have to be conducive to studying.
Why not Digital Readers
B&N.com Company Confidential 04/19/23 11
Why not Digital Readers
B&N.com Company Confidential 04/19/23 12
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What hardware works for studyingThe optimal requirements of an higher education ereading hardware solution :
• 10 Inch screen or larger•Color•8 hours or more of battery life•Decent input mechanism
• Mouse and keyboardOr/And
• Touch•32 gig or more of memory
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Candidates in the market today• Nooks and Kindles – Not higher education appropriate.
Nookcolor shows promise for as a satellite device.
• Ipad – Meets the minimum requirements
• Coming android tablets – Shows promise for higher education content.
• PC/Mac – Currently the best study platform.
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S
PC/Mac and Mobile Satellites
Heavy duty studyingHome/Library
Digital Content EcosystemCloud hosting digital locker
Sync through a common cloud (locker)
Reading on the go.Light studying
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What hardware works for studyingDevices such as tablets will be used for studying as satellites to a central core of a PC/Mac.
•The PC/Mac will still be the ultimate hardware for some time.
•Almost all students have one so there is no incremental costs
•It is currently the only platform that can handle all of the software needs of a student (word processing, specialized software…)
•Any solution you review should contain an option for PC/Mac.
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eReading/Studying Software
eReading software need to be conducive to studying
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eReading/Studying Software
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Features Students Want
Based on several surveys related to digital textbooks, students are saying these features are most important:
– Search within and across content
– Annotation/highlight and sharing of notes
– Downloaded texts over online access - Flexibility of where and when they can access their books.
– Integration with other course content including lecture notes, professor guidance…
– 1/2
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Feature Drivers
• Replicate real world use cases of print textbooks where appropriate.
• Enhance study experience using features unique to etextbooks.
• Create tools that allow students to manage and link all of their content including textbooks, notes, instructor provided content and study aids.
Textbooks
Internet
Study Aids/Other BooksInstructor Supplied
Class/Study Notes
Students need to deal with a myriad of content. Each is managed independently
Students are “content pressured”
Textbooks
Internet/Other Content
Study Aids/Other Books
Instructor Supplied
Class/Study Notes
Reader
Note Taking
Content Management
Study Ad-ins Trade BooksPeriodicals
Com
mon Interface , F
ormat and S
mart E
xtractsEcosystem-Commerce-Sharing-Messaging-Annotation
Reader Platform
A true reading/studying ecosystem
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DRM DRM is a necessary part of a full featured ereading solution.
Major education publishers require a proven system of DRM.
Due to content’s high price and students shared interest, higher education content is under greater risk of piracy
Components of DRM• Content distribution limitations• Print limitations• Copy/Paste limitations
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508 Accessibility Requirements Accessibility issues have plagued some instances where reading solutions have been used.
“Read aloud” content does not mean 508 compliant.
Look for the following in 508 compliant platform:• Text to speech on content AND controls/navigation• Navigation without use of mouse• Defined focus/cursors
Each institutions needs are different so compare the platform features to the intended user base.
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Digital Content growth
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Digital Availability 10% 60%
Propensity To Opt For Digital 10% 40%
Digital Textbook Market 1% 3% 6% 12% 25%
Digital textbook growth is driven by several factors:• Content available• Students adoption of format• Growth of relevant technologies• Publisher cost structure and market efficiencies
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Content is not just textbooks
Adopted Content Type
Textbook 63.3%
Professional 15.7%
Trade 12.2%
University Press 1.5%
Other 7%
Publishers are Torn on Digital
Why Publishers Embrace Digital Undercuts the Used Book market. Reduces operating costs Good PR around lower pricing
The end results is that textbook content is moving to digital, but not as quickly as trade books.
Why Publishers Are Fearful of Digital Reduced pricing control Enables competitive products Piracy, piracy piracy
• Formatted as a single stream of text • No concept of page• Most common standard – epub• Most commonly used in trade content
Content Formats - Reflowable
Page Fidelity•Formatted exactly as the printed page.•Most common standard – PDF•Most commonly used in textbook content.
Content Formats – Page Fidelity
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What about multimedia
Publishers are only now creating digital versions of their flat content.
Next steps will be to incorporate more interactive content but doing this at scale is some ways off due to costs.
The major issue is there are no standards around mixing book and multimedia content.
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Content Management is Complex
Barnes and Noble College bookstores by the numbers (2009)
Over 207,000 unique titles adopted Over 201,000 of the 207,000 titles had demand of fewer than
1,000 units Nearly 16 percent of these were custom titles
26 percent of the titles used by faculty do not have ISBNs
Over 14,000 of these titles had a digital option Only 7 percent of titles used by our faculty
Over 8,000 unique publishers represented
Online & in-store is expected
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A case study in eTextbooks Goals
Collaborate with universities to learn more about digital content and eReader usage.
Test and inform the NOOKstudy application with design and functionality feedback from the pilot.
Methodology Faculty and students received NOOKstudy and eTextbooks Students completed two surveys during the program. Participants and faculty received access to 24-hr technical and program
support. As possible, “First Day” presentations were given to participating classes. Campus bookstores reserved physical copies of the textbook as back-up.
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NOOKstudy Research Program: Participation
Participation 6 universities
Harvard University Pennsylvania State University Rochester Institute of Technology Texas A&M University University of Pennsylvania West Virginia University
CONFIDENTIAL
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Application: Contribution to Performance and Efficiency
91% of students said that ereading platform either improved their class performance or had no negative impact.
Improved Performance or Efficiency: Being able to search for a particular word or phrase in the textbook has improved my
efficiency in studying. I use my laptop extensively and take notes on it, so having a copy of the book on my
laptop at all times helped me work on my class work whenever I want without having to worry about whether or not I have the book with me.
No 10-lb book to carry around = epic win. It really helped me with the tests.
CONFIDENTIAL
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Application: Student Experience
Student Experience Slightly less than half of students brought their laptop to class (48%) 60% of students used NOOKstudy once a week or more often
CONFIDENTIAL
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Current Features Rated on Usefulness
The Top 5 Current Features, as rated on usefulness by students
Reading Controls (paging, zoom…) Finding terms in a book Creating Highlights and Annotations Reviewing previously created Highlight and
Annotations Managing your Digital Library
CONFIDENTIAL
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Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Many students objected to DRM (copying, printing, downloading to 2 devices) on philosophical reasons.
Non-philosophical reasons for objecting to the limits: Wants to download the eTextbook to 3 computers (home, work and school.) Desires access to the eTextbook on a lab (shared) computer.
CONFIDENTIAL
Students' Views on DRM
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Overall research conclusions
Given the opportunity, students are willing to experiment with reading and studying digitally.
When students do read and study digitally, results indicate that they find it as effective or more effective than studying with the physical book.
When students do read and study digitally, their responses to usability of features shows that their expectations are high. Expect basic features to be as good as print experience (e.g., notes and
annotations.) Also, expect that there are compelling features that go beyond what is feasible
in the physical book experience (e.g., tags across notes, organizational capabilities.)
CONFIDENTIAL
23-Nov-2010
Impact on Campus
The roles of these entities will be redefined– Bookstore – Library– Colleges themselves
Issues of eReading on Campus– Classes will have a mixture of physical and digital students– Digital students could have a mixture of formats– Students allowed to bring laptops and readers to class– Accessiblity
CONFIDENTIAL
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Digital textbook players
Specific Digital Textbook Providers– Follet - Cafescribe– Coursesmart – Partnership of major textbook publishers (Cengage,
Mcgraw Hill, Pearson…) Ebook Retailers
– Amazon (HW,SW,Content)– Barnes & Noble (HW,SW,Content)– Apple (HW,SW,Content– Google (SW,Content
Publishers College/Institutions LMS – Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai…
CONFIDENTIAL
23-Nov-2010
Future Trends
As portable and tablets capabilities improve they will be better candidates for etextbook platforms.
Content trends– Increase in smaller and specialized content – Increase in multimedia content– New distribution models including subscriptions, open
source content, and institution mandated. There will be a blurring of lines between ereaders, LMS, and
internet resources.
CONFIDENTIAL
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Wrap up Themes
eReading in higher education is more about estudying than ereading.
Evaluate solutions on the entire ecosystem – Hardware , eReading/Study Software– Available Content
Tablets and portable devices are currently satellites to a PC/Mac base. This will change over time.
Constantly poll your students and faculty. Don’t over commit. This is going to be a longer transition than
other digital media.
CONFIDENTIAL
23-Nov-2010
Q&A
Q&A