Digital on the Minds of CAMEX Attendees

Digital course materials was among the hot topics—if not the hottest topic—for campus bookstore attendees at the 2016 Campus Market Expo (CAMEX) in Houston, TX. (Produced by NACS, CAMEX opened last Friday, March 4, and continues through March 8.)

For campus stores, “digital” covers the gamut: PDFs, e-books, electronic coursepacks, access codes, online labs, content delivered through the school’s learning management system, adaptive learning products, and more. Nearly all stores sell the access codes if their faculty have chosen those materials for their classes, but it’s a mixed bag for other forms of digital materials.

While some stores said they’re experimenting with the course-fee model for selected classes—which enables stores to negotiate a much lower cost for digital materials with publishers in exchange for 100% sell-through in the class—others said they are running into some roadblocks. Among the hurdles to more widespread adoption of digital course materials are:

Many textbook titles aren’t available in digital format, especially older titles. Publishers are reluctant to invest in converting backlist titles that only a few faculty are still using, preferring to put money into developing new materials that can incorporate the best features of digital technology.

Providers of digital works are not fully compatible with all of the major point-of-sale (POS) systems used by campus stores, hampering stores’ ability to sell and distribute digital materials to students. Most providers are working with publishers and POS manufacturers to resolve this, but it’s taking time.

Many faculty and students are still not entirely comfortable using solely digital materials. A growing number of students prefer to have both print and digital forms of the same textbook, so that they can easily study in their dorm or home from the print but access the digital in class on their laptop. Students will buy or rent just the digital if it’s cheaper than other options. Faculty are more willing to try digital materials if they see students will save money.

Digital is not always cheaper to produce than print. In addition, for many textbooks, the cost to rent a print copy for the term is less than the digital option.

Some digital materials must be acquired directly from the publisher, creating problems for students on financial aid or who don’t have credit cards.

NACSCORP, OpenStax Launch ACCES

NACSCORP, a subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores, and the Rice University-based publisher OpenStax has expanded their partnership by launching the Affordable Custom Content Enhancement System (ACCES) on the eve of CAMEX 2016 in Houston, TX. The online platform allows faculty to create open educational resources (OER) and offer them through their campus store.

OpenStax has released 16 college titles that are used by nearly 400,000 students this year. The number of instructors using OpenStax titles increased by more than 100% in 2015 because of its partnership with NACSCORP, which provides low-cost print versions of the textbooks.

With ACCES, faculty will be able to reorganize chapters and add their own content. In addition, educational publisher Dover Publications is making its catalog of anthologies of classic literature, poetry, plays, music scores, and other publications available for faculty to insert into ACCES content.

"The OpenStax-NACSCORP custom print partnership is a direct response to faculty requests for customized print versions of OpenStax textbooks that will provide students with useful and affordable course materials," David Harris, editor-in-chief of OpenStax, said in a press release. "Many faculty want to use technology to tailor materials for their students, but they don't want to sacrifice quality. They want to start with a rock-solid, peer-reviewed textbook--preferably one with full-color illustrations and a full suite of homework and testing modules--and they want to make only the changes that are relevant to their teaching."

To make it easier for faculty to track the cost of the books they are working on, ACCES will display associated print costs in real time. ACCES will also automatically format pages and create a new index.

"We are committed to providing our campus store partners with the textbooks their faculty demand, including OER titles and customized materials," said Kurt Schoen, president and chief operating officer of NACSCORP.

The CITE Goes to CAMEX

The CITE’s writing and research team is heading for NACS’s Campus Market Expo (CAMEX) in Atlanta, GA, to cover presentations on digital content platforms and distribution, mobile and web commerce, retail and educational technologies, open educational resources, data mining, academic content licensing, and course materials affordability, among others.

Watch The CITE for upcoming posts on what retail experts, academic leaders, and campus store professionals had to say about these topics.

If you’re also attending CAMEX sessions, be sure to share your own thoughts and observations in the comments.

Campus Stores Scoping Out Texts and Tech

Collectively, campus bookstores still remain the dominant purveyor of course materials for college and university students. Making those materials available is becoming increasingly complex, with new formats for textbooks and new options for providing them.

On Feb. 20-24, campus bookstores will gather in Atlanta, GA, for the annual Campus Market Expo (CAMEX), a combined professional conference and trade show put on by NACS for collegiate retailers. The stores’ course materials managers and coordinators will be focusing on the ConTEXT track, designed to explore new trends in textbooks and supporting technologies and allow stores to share what’s working.

This year, ConTEXT will discuss the preliminary results of a six-month study of digital course materials, sponsored by the NACS Foundation. Other educational sessions will examine mobile course materials; parsing textbook sales data to help keep prices affordable to students; new software tools for course materials management; how to get started in selling digital content; open educational resources; providing publishing services for faculty-created materials; academic content licensing; research data on student and faculty attitudes toward course materials; trends in health-science textbooks; purchasing habits of students; how adaptive content fits in with print and digital books; sourcing textbooks more efficiently; and what stores can learn from Amazon’s sales tactics and its new campus program.

The Course Content Technology Fair will allow stores to see some of the latest offerings in course materials and related technologies from publishers, digital content platform providers, and textbook management systems. More demonstrations will take place in the designated ConTEXT Pavilion during the trade-show portion of CAMEX.

Since students can’t take advantage of digital tools and content without the necessary hardware, software, and accessories, stores that provide technology products will also head for CAMEX for the related CCRA (Campus Computer Resellers Alliance) Conference. Tech sellers will learn how to better meet the needs of students and faculty, as well as campus IT and other departments.

CAMEX Digs into Tech, Content, Commerce

College and university campuses are possibly the only places where consumer technologies, higher learning, new media, electronic and mobile commerce, libraries, retail technologies, and digital content intersect. Educational sessions coming up March 7-8 at the 2014 Campus Market Expo (CAMEX) in Dallas, TX, will address just about all of those areas.

Among the presenters for the Thought Leader series will be Charles Key, director of adoptions, grants, and the College Open Textbooks project for the Open DoorsGroup in San Jose, CA, a coalition of organizations working together to make education more accessible, and Mark Milliron, chancellor of the WesternGovernors University-Texas, a nonprofit institution providing online and blended degree programs.

Key will address Open Educational Resources and the Economies of Sale on Friday morning while Milliron’s Saturday session will discuss Technology, Education, and the Road Ahead.

Concurrent CAMEX educational sessions will explore new retail technologies for campus textbook sellers, how campus stores can work with other entities to support student retention and success, updates on the Higher Education Act and Department of Education regulations, how faculty and students are using technology for their studies, digital content pilots on college campuses, mobile commerce developments, connecting with students through social media, trends in higher education course materials, and integrating e-commerce and digital content platforms.

Flash Sessions (shorter takes on topics) will look at how campus stores can support student learning outcomes, helping students understand interactive digital homework solutions, selling textbooks online, using Google Analytics to track web traffic, what technology products students are buying, licensing course content, and where massive open online courses (MOOCs) could be headed.

Watch The CITE for reports from several of these sessions.

Following the session days, CAMEX will continue March 9-11 with its trade show for retailers serving students at higher education institutions and prep schools. CAMEX is owned and produced by the National Association of College Stores.

New Role for Hi-Ed Campuses? Just Ask

In the Internet age, the role of colleges and universities as bastions of knowledge and education may be in jeopardy, unless they adapt.

“We are awash in information,” said Michael Wesch in his Thought Leader educational session, The End of Wonder and the Age of Whatever, at CAMEX 2013 in Kansas City, MO. Wesch—associate professor of cultural anthropology, Coffman Chair for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, Kansas State University, Manhattan, and U.S. Professor of the Year—thinks higher education can no longer be a place just for the collection and exchange of information.

“We have to redefine college campuses as more than just information flow,” he said. “If we define them as information, we’re going to get beat.” He pointed to the vast array of information available on the web, online learning systems that interact and respond to students’ individual learning needs, and social media that enable students to connect with almost anyone.

A more critical role for hi-ed campuses, Wesch said, might be to encourage people to come together to raise and explore questions. “What if we redefined the university around questions?” he asked.

Questions, he added, generate cycles of curiosity and discovery to “create a life of wonder.” Too often, though, students focus on the administrative side of education. Wesch said he once stopped midway through a lecture and invited questions from his students about the topic. Instead, they wanted to know the deadline for papers and how much a test counted toward their final grade.

To take on this new role, campuses need to create an environment that nurtures questions and gives students the courage to speak up. “We need this space to be a place of awe and wonder,” Wesch said. “When you give students a sense of wonder, they start to see connections.”

In Spring, Students' Fancy Turns to E-Texts

Come late spring, an interesting thing happens on college and university campuses, and it’s not related to romance or spring-break shenanigans: Students suddenly start buying more e-textbooks.

The number of purchasers isn’t huge, but it’s enough to create a noticeable spike, according to Kirk Bodick, vice president of sales for Akademos, Norwalk, CT, in his Flash session on the Akademos-TextbookX Online Bookstore Trends Report at CAMEX 2013 in Kansas City. The trends report tracked student book purchases for the last three years.

Late-spring e-book sales to students “reach the highest percentage of total book sales” for the academic year, Bodick said.

Bodick speculated the uptick came from students who had tried to avoid buying course materials for class and then found themselves needing the book to study for exams. Campus store attendees in the audience confirmed their print stock levels are low late in the semester, which might leave digital books as the only fast option for students. Bodick noted online book marketplaces such as Akademos do still have used copies available at that time “but it’s a question of the quality of condition.”

But if spring e-book sales go largely to procrastinators, why isn’t there a corresponding bump in sales late in the fall term?

Bodick said early purchases by summer-term students may be augmenting the spring numbers. Another audience member suggested students may be receiving iPads or other reading devices as holiday gifts, providing a ready backup for students hoping to get by without any book.

Another possibility is the start of the third term at quarter schools may be tipping spring e-book sales.

College Stores Can Help With Digital Output

Frank Lowney returned from CAMEX 2013 with a fresh appreciation for campus bookstore, but he has a key piece of advice for them.

Lowney,  project coordinator of the Digital Innovation Group, an initiative of the University System of Georgia and Georgia College & State University, went to Kansas City as a Thought Leader presenter at CAMEX, discussing course materials in a digital age.

He saw firsthand at the CAMEX trade show that collegiate retailers are diversifying their product mix, but wonders if that will be enough if students no longer go to the store to obtain required course materials. And, as he wrote in his TeleRead blog post, that day may be getting closer.

In the end, Lowney’s best advice for college stores is to explore every possible avenue to help institutions create and distribute their own digital course material.

“Campus bookstores, libraries, and university presses (where they exist) are natural allies in this kind of effort,” he wrote. “Faculty creating e-textbooks may have the content expertise, but they will need lots of help in all the other aspect of book production.”

NACS' indiCo to Help Independent Stores

The news coming out of Kansas City during CAMEX 2013 Friday was about the new NACS subsidiary, indiCo, created to help independent college stores. It was also announced that NACS Inc. had signed a letter of intent to purchase the assets of Connect2One from Nebraska Book Co.

IndiCo, expected to officially launch on April 1, joins together NACS Media Solutions (NMS), OnCampus Research, and NACS Business Development with the goal of encouraging solutions and partnerships in support of independent college stores. In addition, the company will conduct more extensive research, data mining, and benchmarking for the industry.

Initially, indiCo will strive to gain deeper insights into the demands and preferences of student consumers. Many of the initiatives already under way, such as Grow Custom and Regional Print-on-Demand from NMS and studies conducted by OnCampus Research, will continue.

Connect2One would be integrated into indiCo to provide new ways for NACS to fulfill its mission to help independent college stores evolve.

"The alignment of Connect2One and indiCo demonstrates an exciting and renewed commitment by NACS and Nebraska Book Co. to the independent college store," said Brian Cartier, CEO of NACS. "We know that the expertise and reputation of Connect2One and its 25-year history of success will have a positive impact on college stores."

More details on indiCo will be available after its launch.

CAMEX follow-up

I apologize for the absence of blog posts in the past week. CAMEX was even busier than usual, and I will likely be digging out for the next few weeks yet.  Much continues to happen though, and as I promised some attendees, I will put together a brief, 1-page summary of highlights from my CAMEX digital update session. 

NMS had a lot of activity at CAMEX around our three major initiatives:  Regional POD, Community-based self-publishing, and Grow Custom.  More information on each of those initiatives for members is available on the NMS website and will be forthcoming in the months ahead.

CAMEX 2012 is past, but plans are already in the work for CAMEX 2013.  We are planning a highlight around the future of course materials -- so if you are interested or involved with course materials, plan to be in Kansas City for CAMEX 2013!  Much more news to come... but for now, back to regular posts.

CAMEX and digital course materials

Publisher's Weekly had an article this week on CAMEX and the emphasis on a future of online business, including digital course materials. The article briefly captures some of the current initiatives underway within NACS Media Solutions and its partners.

CAMEX 2011 continues...

For the past few days, I have been at CAMEX. Yesterday wrapped up the educational sessions -- there were some great sessions and speakers. The next few days of CAMEX will be focused more on the trade show. Among the educational sessions there were a number related to digital this year -- sending many of the same messages we are hearing in the publishing conferences. Digital is coming (if not already here) and stores must work together as a channel. More of the sessions provided stores with specific action items to think about -- with developing strategy (and some suggestions on how to do so) a core underlying theme.

In the next few weeks I will have some follow-up postings from CAMEX -- talking about certain sessions, for example. In addition, in my session this year, one of the things I did was ask participants to write down questions they had which they would like answered. Over the next few weeks, I will have several postings that respond to some of these questions from bookstores about digital, so please look forward to those. The first one will likly appear in the middle to end of the upcoming week.

To the readers of this blog, if you have questions you would like me to address, please submit them along or drop me a note and I will include those in the list for response. Thank you again for your continued attention to the CITE.

Marketing to students...

Here is a site some might find interesting -- "Big Brand On Campus" has a set of videos on entrepreneurship and marketing to students or in colleges. A recent video featured Mary Adler-Kozak from NACS talking about the upcoming CAMEX 2011.

Shelf Awareness article about CAMEX

Today, Shelf Awareness featured a nice write-up about the efforts of NACS Media Solutions and Mark’s digital content presentation at CAMEX. The article provides good coverage of the presentation and is worth reading especially for those that could not attend however it incorrectly states a few statistics. It explains that “only 38.1% of college stores are selling digital materials” but this statistic is misleading because it only includes independent and private stores and does not represent the industry as a whole. If contract managed stores were added to the statistic, the number would be higher. Additionally, the article explains that at Taylor & Francis, “direct sales to consumers are at a 50/50 ratio of print to digital format.” This statistic actually represents several publishers and not just Taylor & Francis. A correction notice has been submitted to Shelf Awareness.

CAMEX 2009

CAMEX, one of NACS biggest events of the year and the industry’s largest trade show and educational event begins today. Some digital sessions to take note of include, Mark’s presentation this afternoon entitled NACS 2009 Digital Update: Moving Beyond Mousing Around. Mark will be discussing the many recent signals of change occurring in the industry and the choices that college stores are faced with as we prepare for the transition to digital.

On Saturday afternoon there will be a few other digital sessions. The session: Re-defining the Future of Your Health Science Store: Incorporating Digital Content will feature a panel of health science publishers and booksellers to discuss the types of digital content that students in the medical fields are using and how stores can incorporate digital content into selling strategies. Another session entitled Exploring E-books will discuss how some universities are piloting e-book initiatives on campus. The session will be given by college store managers and directors Jennifer Berry (BYU Bookstore), Todd Summer (San Diego State University Aztec Shops), and Jason Katzman (Colorado University Book Store) and will be a great opportunity to gain ideas for how to pilot e-books on your campus.

We look forward to seeing many of you at CAMEX!

Return from CAMEX

Well, the trip to CAMEX was informative and fun as always. Much has happened in the past week and as I dig out through the many e-mails and follow-ups that come from a week of travel I have several items to post to the blog. Watch in the coming days for some posts about CAMEX itself (and some of the interesting sessions I attended), an update on our strategic vision document for the digital content area (most of which I will post here), news on the Amazon initiative in higher education, news on other initiatives including OhioLink and CourseSmart, a discussion on open access e-textbooks, and much more.

I am glad too to see interest in this blog growing. I received a few good e-mails over the past two weeks and some requests for future topics. I also received messages from folks on three other continents and it is interesting to see how these topics play out on an international level. In the past six months I have now spoken with individuals in nine different countries about digital content. I will see if I can create a future posting that captures some of these discussions. I am starting to see how some folks say blogging can be a full-time job, as I have a long list of items I think would be useful to post here, but not so much time to get them all in.

More posts to follow...

Upcoming at CAMEX

Next week one of the biggest NACS event of the year begins -- CAMEX. There will be plenty there to whet your digital appetite.

There will be a great catalyst session on Friday morning with Michael Wesch. Michael is an Anthropology professor in Kansas. He has become well known in the Internet/YouTube world for his videos on students and technology. Check out some of his videos: The Machine is Us/ing Us, Information R/evolution, and A Vision of Students Today. Along related lines, also check out Academia 2.0 and the "are we relevant" videos.

I will have the digital update session: Fighting Fire With Fire: Understanding Opportunities for College Stores in the New Digital Landscape. The title was set about a year ago and many things have happened since, but it should be a lively session this time. Among discussing some important new developments, we will also be laying out some of the elements and proposals put forth by the Digital Content Strategic Planning Taskforce, which will be discussed by the NACS Board the day before. Some of you have seen earlier drafts of that report, but we have some new action items in response to developments within the past two weeks.

At the same time as my session, the NACS General Business Meeting will take place. The general meeting is expected to run longer to allow for questions and recent developments are sure to engender some discussion.

On Saturday morning Todd Anderson will be giving a presentation on Print-on-demand (POD) entitled Espresso Books: Print-on-demand in the College Store . This should be a great session and one I hope many stores will attend. POD will be a big part of our strategy for stores this year, so here is an opportunity to learn from one of the most innovative stores in North America.

On Saturday afternoon there will be the E-books, Custom Books, and Print-on-demand - Idea Exchange . I am scheduled to be on a panel for health science stores at that time, but I am looking to hear what comes out of the discussion. I will be attempting to sit in for part of the discussion.

Of course there are many other sessions that are covering digital and retail technologies. I plan to make my CAMEX talk a bit different from earlier talks, and also different from the talks for PSG and LSG coming up in April. There always needs to be a bit of overlap, but I will do my best to provide new content -- this time around that should be easy as there are many new things to discuss.

Hope to see many of you at CAMEX!