McGraw-Hill Education announced plans to make its
LearnSmart adaptive learning program available directly to students in time for
fall 2012 classes. The plan, an effort to open new revenue streams for the
company, is the first time MHE has marketed and sold technology directly to
students.
“Making these study tools available directly to
students—and their parents who want to help them succeed—signals a new era for
our business as we work to ensure that more students are getting the most out
of their college education,” Brian Kibby, president, McGraw-Hill Education,
said in a press release.
Use of LearnSmart has grown to more than 40
introductory courses since it was introduced in 2007, with MHE reporting more
than 800,000 students use it to answer questions each day. But many college
store professionals view publishers bypassing them in favor of selling directly
to students as a threat instead of just “good business” on the part of the
publisher, according to Mark Nelson, chief information officer of NACS and vice
president of NACS Media Solutions.
“On one level, it is a threat, but if stores were
providing sufficient value to publishers, particularly on the digital side, the
publishers would have no need to go around the stores,” he said. “Stores have
good mechanisms when it comes to print, but their mechanisms for handling new
business models and technologies are inadequate.”
Another issue is that MHE plans to continue to sell the
product in campus stores as part of the McGraw-Hill Connect online course-management
platform, which combines digital learning with class materials. But rather than
a call to arms, Nelson sees the news as an opportunity for stores to work with
publishers to define better solutions.
“Publishers themselves would be stronger working with
us,” he said. “If stores want it to stop, then they must more effectively
demonstrate value. Complaining or continuing to do things the way they have
always done them or resisting change does not do a whole lot to get the
publishers to alter their practices.”
