An update to the college textbook was among the new
innovations introduced at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. McGraw-Hill
Education launched SmartBooks, an adaptive approach to textbooks that acts as a
virtual tutor to focus on the individual student’s area of study needs.
“This is about breaking a model that isn’t really
working,” Brian Kibby, president of McGraw Hill Higher Education, told The Wall Street Journal.
Available for PCs, Macs, and iOS and Android mobile
devices, SmartBook give students an overview of the content in a preview of each chapter. Students
then answer a series of questions presented by the software and the textbook
recommends material to study, tracks the student’s progress, and continues to
update material to view.
SmartBook is part of the LearnSmart Advantage software suite from McGraw-Hill and will be available in the spring for more than 90 courses.
Prices for SmartBook were not announced, but the LearnSmart suite starts at
$19.99 and can be purchased or rented semester.
