Comments on: McGraw-Hill: We don’t need no education publishers http://www.teleread.com/textbooks/mcgraw-hill-we-dont-need-no-education-publishers/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 22 May 2013 23:52:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Frank Lowney http://www.teleread.com/textbooks/mcgraw-hill-we-dont-need-no-education-publishers/comment-page-1/#comment-1221755 Frank Lowney Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:08:05 +0000 http://www.teleread.com/?p=75147#comment-1221755 Lots of good insights here but I would not be as optimistic about the prospects for rejuvenation in commercial academic publishing. The Netflix analogy evidences a fundamental misunderstanding. Not everyone can make and distribute even a B grade movie, let alone a blockbuster. Digital textbooks, OTOH, can be made and distributed by anyone who has the content expertise. Just today, Rice University's OpenStax College imprint announced College Physics for $4.99 in the iBookstore. Here's the URL: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/college-physics/id575595601?mt=13 The idea behind LearnSmart is not really new. It' s a vendor lock-in scheme similar to bundling paper textbooks with Learning Management System (LMS) access codes that expire at the end of the term. It just flips the formula from pTextbook with an LMS lock-in to an LMS with an eTextbook lock-in. Most of these enhancements are to make teaching easier and thus to convince the professor to adopt the textbook, now LMS with textbook built-in. The professor selects, the student pays. It's the same old broken market that has contributed so much to driving up the cost of a college education, raised questions about the ROI of college and now threatens to endanger any institutions that persist in this exploitation. Alternatives with credentialing are on the rise. Unless they come up with better ideas than these, Apollo shareholders are not going to be happy campers. Lots of good insights here but I would not be as optimistic about the prospects for rejuvenation in commercial academic publishing. The Netflix analogy evidences a fundamental misunderstanding. Not everyone can make and distribute even a B grade movie, let alone a blockbuster. Digital textbooks, OTOH, can be made and distributed by anyone who has the content expertise. Just today, Rice University’s OpenStax College imprint announced College Physics for $4.99 in the iBookstore. Here’s the URL:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/college-physics/id575595601?mt=13

The idea behind LearnSmart is not really new. It’ s a vendor lock-in scheme similar to bundling paper textbooks with Learning Management System (LMS) access codes that expire at the end of the term. It just flips the formula from pTextbook with an LMS lock-in to an LMS with an eTextbook lock-in. Most of these enhancements are to make teaching easier and thus to convince the professor to adopt the textbook, now LMS with textbook built-in.

The professor selects, the student pays. It’s the same old broken market that has contributed so much to driving up the cost of a college education, raised questions about the ROI of college and now threatens to endanger any institutions that persist in this exploitation. Alternatives with credentialing are on the rise.

Unless they come up with better ideas than these, Apollo shareholders are not going to be happy campers.

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