Blockchain a Potential New Publishing Model

Blockchain is best known for underpinning the bitcoin cryptocurrency, but the technology is still in its infancy and may grow to be adapted to a vast array of other applications.

Information recorded on “blocks” is linked on a shared, public, and continually reconciled database that isn’t stored in a central location that would be vulnerable to hacking. The data in any block can’t be modified without altering every subsequent block, which would require a consensus of the majority of users on the network.

“The blockchain lets people who have no particular confidence in each other collaborate without having to go through a neutral central authority,” observed The Economist. “Simply put, it is a machine for creating trust.”

In a post updating a 2016 prediction on his Personanondata blog, business strategy consultant Michael Cairns noted that one area where blockchain could be applied is publishing, where it might be employed to identify copyright information and form a new method for buying, selling, and licensing intellectual content.

“Once a transaction occurs,” he wrote, “the user is supplied with a unique key for accessing the content. If the user subsequently wants to sell or lend the item, they pass their unique key to the next person for their use. This process eliminates the ‘residual’ copy issue which arises when someone tries to sell a secondhand e-file.”

He went on to list a host of companies and organizations that are already developing solutions for applying blockchain to publishing, peer review, licensing, royalty accounting, and micro-transaction payments. One of these is Publica, a platform that uses blockchain and cryptocurrency tech to facilitate direct transactions between authors and readers and enable any author, publisher, store, institution, or business to use digital keys to buy, sell, trade, or lend digital books or print on demand locally.

Such a solution could certainly be used for academic course materials, including obvious intersections with the open educational resources movement.

Students Need Slower Pace for Digital Reads

A number of recent surveys indicated that college students would rather read print course materials, not digital. A new study which delved more deeply into reading comprehension both confirmed and contradicted those earlier surveys.

In a report for Business Insider, researchers Patricia A. Alexander and Lauren M. Singer said they first asked students which medium they preferred, then had the students read two items—one in print, the other online. Afterward, students had to identify the main ideas in the texts and describe key points. At the end, students were asked to rate their comprehension of the materials.

Alexander and Singer said students “overwhelmingly” claimed to prefer reading digital materials. Students did finish reading their digital assignment sooner than the printed one. They also said their comprehension of the online material was “better” than print. That didn’t hold up under closer scrutiny, though.

In analyzing students’ answers about the reading content, the researchers found their understanding of the main points was about the same for either medium. When it came to recalling more detailed information, however, students’ comprehension improved considerably with the printed materials in comparison to the digital.

But there was an interesting side note: Some students performed equally well regardless of the medium. It turns out this group took their time in reading online, allowing them to absorb the information.

That led Alexander and Singer to recommend that instructors keep educational goals in mind when choosing formats for course materials. If students are expected to retain more detailed concepts, then instructors should stick with printed works or encourage students to slow down their screen reading.

Students Aren't Spending as Much on Books

The news is full of reports on textbook costs in higher education. OnCampus Research, the research arm of the NACS, found student spending on course materials actually decreased during the 2016-17 academic year.

Student Watch, Attitudes & Behaviors toward CourseMaterials, a survey of more than 20,000 college students, noted that average spending on 10 required courses was $579 per student, down $23 from the previous year and $122 from 2007-08. Students also said they spent another $500 on technology and school supplies.

The report found an increasing number of students cut their course materials costs by borrowing, sharing, or downloading free information needed for class, and by using formats such as open educational resources. A quarter of the students reported using free course materials, up from 19% in spring 2016 and 15% from spring 2015.

When obtaining course materials, 82% of students purchased and 57% rented from their campus store. Nearly three-quarters bought new textbooks and 70% said they purchased used copies. Just 23% bought digital, but that was an increase of 8% over fall 2015. On average, the campus store was the main source for students' course materials.

The cost of the Student Watch report is $199 for NACS store members and $999 for everyone else, and includes the final report along with data tables from both fall 2016 and spring 2017 surveys. To purchase, email mmeyer@nacs.org or go to the Insights link at oncampusresearch.com. 

New Standards Rate E-Books’ Accessibility

Benetech, a nonprofit social enterprise that focuses on scalable technology solutions to improve accessibility and human rights, has rolled out a third-party verification program that lets schools and colleges determine how well e-textbooks meet the needs of visually impaired or dyslexic students or those with other print disabilities.

Called Global Certified Accessible (GCA), the program was developed in conjunction with the U.K.’s Royal Institute for the Blind, Vision Australia, and Dedicon, a Dutch creator of accessibility products and services, and underwent a six-month pilot. GCA is a standardized ratings system for evaluating digital titles based on more than 100 accessibility features. It can be used by publishers as well as school districts and higher-ed institutions, and recommends remediation where content falls short of its standards.

“We find that files improve significantly after first-round reviews and that subsequent files reflect the insights gained from our feedback,” said a Benetech release.

Accessibility is a key issue for schools, both to serve students better and to avoid legal action for falling short. A Blackboard study earlier this year indicated that the average overall accessibility score for college and university campuses hasn’t improved greatly over the past five years, inching up from 27.5% to just 30.6%.

On the publishing side, Ingram Content Group will incorporate GCA into its VitalSource and CoreSource platforms. Elsevier, HarperCollins, Harvard Business Publishing, Macmillan Learning, and Penguin Random House are among GCA’s other early supporters, although the system is now open to all publishers.

“Every publisher should strive to make their content as accessible as possible,” Denis Saulnier, managing director of product design and delivery, higher education, for Harvard Business Publishing, said in a Benetech blog post. “The first step is getting an accurate snapshot of compliance. Benetech’s process is invaluable in identifying areas of improvement and helping to prioritize work.”

Teacher Buy-In Not Top Digital Priority

In a piece for eSchool News, a Discovery Education executive lays out her case for school districts not to let a lack of instructor buy-in stifle efforts to transition to digital learning materials.

Karen Beerer, vice president of learning and development for the provider of digital content and assessment tools, writes that waiting to get teachers aboard on new education technology can stall innovation and do a disservice to students by not preparing them properly for an increasingly digital world.

She acknowledges legitimate barriers, such as some students lacking digital access at home or tight budgets that may prohibit a 1:1 device rollout. “No matter our concerns,” Beerer says, “we need to recognize that our students are ready—they want to engage with textbooks that are replete with immersive and interactive experiences. They want access to up-to-date information and they want opportunities not only to consume content but to create content as well.”

Her suggestions include integrating digital approaches with traditional teaching strategies, and using new technologies—whether apps, virtual reality, or digital personal assistants such as Siri or Alexa—to help students discover new ways to learn.

Students will also help transition the classroom, she notes, "because when it comes to buy-in with digital, they are leading the charge."

Mobile Moves Digital Educational Content

A new report on the use of digital devices and content in education predicts a big jump over the next five years, but doesn’t see print materials going away any time soon.

The report, Digital Education Publishing Market in the U.S. 2017-2021, anticipates growth of 10.68% in the U.S. across all academic sectors, including K-12, higher education, and corporate learning. All are largely fueled by the proliferation of mobile devices.

“Notebooks and desktops are being substituted by mobile devices like e-readers, smartphones, and tablets as the medium of digitized knowledge delivery in the academic sector,” according to the report’s executive summary. “They make information accessible anywhere and anytime, making the learning process more flexible, which is one of the reasons for their growing popularity.”

The report stressed that print textbooks are likely to continue for the foreseeable future despite the growth of digital content. Among the reasons, it said, is that print causes less eyestrain and readers are able to focus on a printed page better than a screen. The report also noted that the U.S. Department of Health has issued recommendations to limit the amount of time children spend utilizing electronic screens.

Digital Use Trails Awareness

The vast majority of students, faculty, and administrators say they believe digital course materials will play an important role in meeting systemic challenges faced by higher education, according to the report Digital appetite vs. what’s on the table: Student attitudes toward digital course materials in 2016, derived from a recent Pearson Education survey.

More than 80% of both students and faculty view digital materials and courseware as the future of education. In addition, 78% of faculty realize that digital courseware benefits students and 70% see the migration from print to digital content as important to themselves personally. However, implementation and use has some catching up to do, as only 56% of students and instructors said half or more of their courses had used digital materials in the past six months.

“Educators’ appetites for digital course materials and courseware are growing, the capabilities are available, but the stark reality is that they—and their students—just aren’t biting,” the report said.

Forty-four percent of students said they still prefer to have all their learning materials available in a print format. Almost 60% declared that it’s the learning institution’s responsibility to help them shift from a reliance on print to greater use of digital content.

Disability Focus Shifts to Digital Barriers

While it’s now routine for higher-education institutions to provide physical accommodations to ensure disabled access, such as ramps and automatic doors, new barriers are being found in digital course materials, websites, and learning platforms, leading to lawsuits brought by disability groups and remedial actions ordered by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Advocacy groups are working to ensure that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and similar antidiscrimination laws are interpreted to apply to learning technologies that didn’t exist when the law was signed more than a quarter century ago. They’re also hoping for movement on proposed new DOJ rules governing how all public entities, including public colleges and universities, offer their services online.

The University of California, Berkeley, was found in violation of the ADA because much of its free audio and video content posted online lacked captions that would make it accessible to deaf students. Last month, Miami University, Oxford, OH, agreed to retool its accessibility policies as part of a settlement with a blind student who’d sued over inaccessible course materials and a lack of trained assistants.

Those and similar cases exemplify what the National Federation of the Blind characterizes as a school-by-school approach to protecting students with disabilities from being left behind by the digitization of higher ed.

Students' E-Preferences Depend on Content

A new survey on e-book use in academic libraries not only confirmed there are more college students who would rather study textbooks and monographs in print rather than digital, but also determined the percentage who prefer print is growing as more students encounter problems with electronic learning materials.

However, when students need to consult reference materials, they more frequently opt to use electronic versions. In part, this appears to be due to the speed and ease of looking up information digitally while working on a paper or project.

The survey, Ebook Usage in U.S. Academic Libraries 2016, a follow-up to a similar one in 2012, was conducted by Library Journal magazine and publisher Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage Learning. The rising preference for print was something of a surprise to researchers, as it was assumed more students would choose digital when they became more familiar with the format.

Librarians who took the survey, though, noted students had difficulties with accessing e-books and sustained reading on-screen. Students also didn’t like limitations on printing or downloading.

A separate survey, conducted by Hanover Research for publisher McGraw-Hill Education, revealed a different reaction from students to digital materials. The 2016 Digital Study Trends Survey queried students who had used adaptive learning technology—digital content that had been specifically created for on-screen access, with built-in interactive and responsive elements to help students master academic concepts.

Eighty-one percent of student respondents thought the technology helped improve their grades, especially the adaptive functions and the online quizzes, and 69% said they were able to focus better on the material.

Study Looks at Classroom Tech

A new survey from Campus Technology found that traditional laptops and desktops are the most common forms of instructional technology used in the classroom. Both devices were used in 82% of the time, according to a poll of faculty members from across the country.

More than 500 instructors participated in the study, including 49% who worked in the field of higher education for 21 years or longer. Nearly 70% of the respondents worked at public institutions, with another 23% teaching at private, not-for-profit colleges.

Laptops were ranked as either “essential” or “valuable” by 95%, followed by high-end computers with faster processors, more storage, and dedicated graphic cards by 76% of the respondents. Instructors said they used tech for instruction about 62% of the time, while one in 10 reported using it all the time. A quarter said they used it at least 75% of the time.

Instructors are less thrilled with mobile phones in the classroom. About one-fifth allow their use and 57% allow them with limitations. Another 22% forbid the devices completely.

When it came to use of digital course materials, 74% reported using a mix of digital and paper-based textbooks. A similar number said they used open educational resources to take advantage of free and low-cost content.

Benefits of Digital Course Materials

A survey by publisher Pearson found that most faculty members view digital course materials as beneficial for their students. Nearly 80% of educators reported that students were helped by using more digital in the classroom, while 70% said the switch from print to digital was important or very important to them personally.

The report also noted that 87% of instructors and 86% of administrators said they believe digital learning is “important in resolving challenges facing the education system.” In the survey, 56% of educators said that more than half of the course materials they now use are digital and 82% have used at least one digital learning product in the past six months.

The majority of students (57%) continue to report they prefer using printed materials to study, but nearly the same amount said they would like to be able to access learning materials online. Most students (57%) said it’s the responsibility of the institution to help them make the shift to digital.

“There is growing recognition of the broad-range benefits—for students, faculty, and institutions—provided by digital learning,” Tom Malek, senior vice president of partnerships at Pearson, said in a news release. “Institutional leaders have an opportunity to further explore how digital can provide a rich, more personalized learning experience for students, while lowering the cost of course materials and providing new insights and data for faculty.”

Digital Teaching Tools Need Support

Digital technologies, when designed and used properly, can help enhance college students’ learning and faculty are often encouraged to adopt such tools for their courses. That flies out the window when the institution doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the digital technologies selected by instructors.

At George Washington University, for instance, there aren’t enough smart rooms—classrooms wired for multimedia—to house all of the foreign-language courses that need them this term, according to The Hatchet campus publication. Most of the language instructors use electronic course materials and teaching aids intended to assist students in practicing speaking and verbal comprehension.

Bumped out of some smart rooms by higher-enrollment courses, smaller language classes ended up in rooms where electronic equipment was missing or malfunctioning. A German instructor said she had to repeatedly cancel classes because her assigned room didn’t have the right technology.

“That is just the way language learning is in the 21st century, and it is really tough when you don’t have those tools,” the instructor said.

Some courses had no assigned classroom at all, forcing the instructor to find an empty room or even an unoccupied lounge space.

The head of the Spanish language program suggested dividing larger lecture halls into smaller rooms that could handle technology needs. “And the lecture mode of teaching is kind of dissipating a little bit, and so as that happens, you need to accommodate the space to the new reality of teaching,” she said.

Online Students Really Don't Want to Cheat

A new study shows that most students don’t want to cheat. Research by the University of California, Riverside, found that the majority of college students will make a legitimate attempt to answer online homework questions, even when shortcuts are available.

Students in the study were asked to complete short-answer homework questions using digital textbooks that provided both “Check” and “Show Answer” buttons. The “Show Answer” button disclosed the correct answer without a grade penalty, but 84% of the students still used the “Check” button first. Just 1% of the students “blatantly cheated the system.”

“We created the material under the assumption that, fundamentally, students want to learn,” Frank Vahid, UC Riverside professor, said in an article for eCampus News. “We believed they would challenge themselves to answer questions if those questions really help them learn. We were delighted that the study confirmed our assumption. Such data not only guides us in creating and improving learning material, but can really change how teachers view and interact with students.”

Digital Reading Gains a Bit with Students

College students still lean toward print formats for their course materials, but they’re using more digital materials these days.

The newly released survey analysis from NACS OnCampus Research, Student Watch: Attitudes and Behaviors toward Course Materials: 2015-2016 Report, showed the largest block of students still prefer to study from traditional print books. However, there was a slight uptick in students—26% in the last academic year, as opposed to 24% the previous year—who would rather use a print/digital bundle. Bundles usually include a print textbook plus online access to a digital version of the book in addition to other materials and study aids.

About 17% of students say they could go either way when it comes to print or digital, depending on the nature of the particular course. Approximately three-quarters of survey respondents had experienced digital course materials for at least one class, sometimes because the instructor required its use to fulfill online assignments.

When students have a choice between digital materials or print, paper wins out as being easier for studying, including being able to flip back and forth as needed and causing less eye strain than a computer screen. The main advantage of digital is convenience—not having to haul a heavy book around campus—but 45% of students said they purchased digital because it was cheaper.

Finding a Way Around E-Textbooks

Some tout digital media as the answer to reducing the cost of print textbooks, but students aren’t all that thrilled with the available e-book alternatives. Joanna Cabot, a senior writer for TeleRead, has an idea.

In a recent column, she suggested that the current textbook models should be replaced with a pay-for-access model where students are charged a fee to use digital content from the college’s or university’s library database.

“It’s almost like Kindle Unlimited for academic articles, in a way,” she wrote. “In the Kindle Unlimited model, I can access every byte of the available library, as much as I want to, while I am paying.” Cabot is currently taking a course which uses library materials instead of a textbook.

In this model, course materials would be replaced by articles available through a library’s subscription service. Instructors list suggested readings on the syllabus with a reference code that is pasted into the search bar to access a PDF of the article. The library database can also be used to research information by subject or keyword, as long as the student paid the subscription fee.

“I think this is a surprisingly elegant model,” Cabot continued. “Now that I’m doing my ‘work’ on a proper computer instead of a tablet, it doesn’t bother me to have multiple browser tabs open. It’s easy to fire up the course message board, open a second tab, and load the library database. I like not having to buy a paper textbook and not having to be ripped off by an overpriced and DRM-hobbled digital effort to copy one. I feel that we are getting more current information by not limiting ourselves to one book source, and since these are not free articles we’re using—the university pays for its various subscriptions—nobody is getting cheated out of their fair due here.”

New Concept for Digital Textbooks

Concept maps, which represent topics that are connected in a circle or square, are normally used as a study or review tool. An assistant professor of engineering at Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto, decided to put the map to use as a primary course resource.

Jacob Moore created the Adaptive Map Digital Textbook, which shows the topics covered as points on map. Each topic is connected with related themes and when students click on the point, they are taken to a content page that includes video lectures, example problems, and diagrams.

“A lot of people focus on students making concept maps at the end of semesters to review what they know,” Moore said in an article on Penn State News. “But another way you can use them is as a guide to help students fit smaller topics into the big picture of the course.”

The digital textbook is available on all devices and it’s free. Moore uses a Creative Commons noncommercial license to keep all code and content open-source.

“It’s not uncommon to see students skip buying textbooks just because they don’t have the money, or they split the cost with a roommate and they have to pass it back and forth all the time,” he said. “If you remove those cost barriers, everyone will have better access to these tools. With the Adaptive Map Digital Textbook, as long as students have access to a computer, they have their textbook.”

K-12 Digital Use May Prompt Hi-Ed Change

K-12 institutions are continuing to shift from paper-based instructional materials to using more digital resources, according to the fall 2015 Speak Up research findings from Project Tomorrow, released on May 5. The move may ultimately impact higher education as well, as these students head into college.

“Many more schools are demonstrating greater use of digital content, tools, and resources today than six years ago and we believe that the increasing adoption of interactive, visual media in the classroom by teachers is the driver for much of that change,” said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow. “The explosion in teacher interest and usage of videos and game-based learning could be a harbinger of a new awakening for digital learning.”

Although 30% of teachers report using online textbooks for their classes, up from 21% in 2012, the biggest jumps have been with videos and gaming. Some 68% of teachers showed videos they discovered online (47% in 2012), while 48% of teachers used some type of gaming environment in their classes (just 30% in 2012). Videos were more common in middle- and high-school grades, while gaming was more prevalent in lower elementary classes.

The role of videos and animations in the classroom was somewhat surprising. While teachers often chose these materials to help explain more complicated concepts or instigate class discussion, they were more apt to use videos as a means to introduce a new lesson topic or to review concepts learned in the past—especially for science and math subjects.

The Speak Up survey report, From Print to Pixel, also determined that younger teachers tended to make use of digital materials more often than their older colleagues, although across the board teachers said they need more help in learning the best ways to use digital content in the classroom.

Webinar to Decipher Creative Commons Licensing

Many higher education institutions are encouraging their faculty to explore open educational resources as a means to reduce costs for students. Some online resources have a Creative Commons license, and faculty considering creating their own class materials may also want to attach a license to deter commercial poaching.

With six different types of Creative Commons licenses available, determining appropriate usage for each may be a little confusing, especially for educational purposes. To help clarify, NACS is hosting a free webinar on Thursday, May 19, at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Course Materials: Exploring Creative Commons’ Licenses in Higher Education will explain the six kinds of licenses, along with the two public-domain tools creators can use. The presentation will also cover misperceptions about Creative Commons licensing, as well as ways the campus store and other campus partners can apply licensing to develop options for students, such as print versions of online materials.

Presenting the webinar will be Cable Green, director of open education for Creative Commons.

Although the webinar is free, thanks to support from the NACS Foundation, advance registration is required. Registrants who do not already have a NACS web login will need to create a free account before registering.

Students OK with Digital When It's the Right Kind

Yes, a majority of college students still say they prefer to study from print textbooks rather than digital, often due to the ease of flipping back and forth or marking up pages. But sometimes their opinion depends on the type of digital materials.

Digital course materials can include pages scanned (complete with streaks and cut-off paragraphs) and converted into PDFs that are posted in the learning management system. At the other end of the spectrum, digital materials may feature an array of interactive, multimedia tools designed to help students master the content. And then there’s everything in between.

Which type of digital materials do students like best? The answer is obvious: the interactive, multimedia kind. When that’s the type of course content faculty assign, students’ opinion of digital materials becomes more favorable.

OnCampus Research, in its monthly survey of college students conducted last February, found that “55% of students are finding particular value in the electronic study tools being incorporated into some digital platforms,” according to a summary of findings. When step-by-step homework assistance was available as part of digital course materials, 85% of the students actively used it and 66% rated the tools as extremely valuable. Sixty-one percent gave the same rating to searchability (being able to search the materials by keyword or topic).

However, those capabilities don’t seem to boost purchases of digital. “Not surprisingly, though, the primary reason students choose digital isn’t the features, but because they feel it’s less expensive than print (59%),” according to OnCampus Research.

Digital Sales Are No. 1

Some of the largest education publishers say that most of their sales and revenues are from digital products. Both McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Learning are releasing financial information for 2015 that backs up that claim.

This shift to digital would represent a major milestone for the industry, but there are questions about how publishers define “digital sales.”

According to Carl Straumsheim of Inside HigherEducation, digital sales at Cengage can mean selling access to a digital product, but also selling an e-book, a textbook bundled with online components, or digital supplementary material. McGraw-Hill also counts bundles, but only reports the portion of the sales value of the digital component. Pearson does not differentiate between digital and print sales.

Publishers have even started promoting themselves as providers of digital course material because it sounds better than saying the firms are still driven by print, according to management consultant Joseph J. Esposito. He added that digital course materials give publishers a way to sell directly to students, lowering their costs and subsequently textbook prices.

“No college publisher likes to talk about this because they don’t want to alienate the retail channel, which they need right now,” Esposito wrote in an email to Straumsheim.