Experiential eLearning

The Digital Revolution and Higher Education

The Pew Research Center issued a report entitled The Digital Revolution and Higher Education (report available online and in PDF format here), with the tagline "College Presidents, Public Differ on Value of Online Learning".  The Center is a non-partisan 'fact tank' that does not make policy recommendations, but rather "collects information and disseminates it in an understandable and analytical way, rather than producing expert opinion on policy subjects".  Here's a brief overview of the report's Executive Summary.

The Convergence of Content Providers and Learning Platforms

As an academic content provider, Harvard Business Publishing's Higher Education group distributes business content to educators who then post that material on learning platforms.  But often times our content and other publishers' content is distributed by 3rd party content aggregators who then sell directly to educators.  Historically there was a clear distinction between content providers (publishers and aggregators) and the learning platforms on which their content was distributed/used.  That's no longer the case -- there has been a massive convergence of these entities across both web and devices.  Here's some that piqued our interest.

The Future of Textbooks

The textbook landscape is changing so rapidly that it's hard to pinpoint current state in order to benchmark it against possible evolutionary paths.  But in general we who deal in fairly-priced, atomized pieces of content have long benefited from an industry that welded content to the ultimate unwieldy platform - the overpriced, bloated textbook -- and then embarked on a forced-upgrade revision cycle that ultimately drew Congressional wrath.   But that industry is fast-reforming and the reforms are worth noting for both consumers and competitors alike.  Here's a brief recap of some of the activity.

'Guerrila Publishing' Options

The post-Web 2.0 world has a lot to offer those seeking channels and tools to publish and distribute their content.  As I work for a small-to-mid-sized, 'official' publishing house, I'm biased at some of the content, services,  and options that we can still offer that smaller players and systems can't always match.  But the quality and quantity of self-publishing options is still impressive and growing.  Here is a quick recap of a few options for 'small industrial' distribution and beyond.

Tools of Change for Publishing

Last month some colleagues and I attended the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York.  This conference explores new business models for publishers, new avenues for digital distribution, evolving content workflow models, etc. Here's a recap of a few of the sessions.

Publishing for Kindle, eReaders and eBooks: A Landscape Survey

It's an exciting time for consumers of digital content as a variety of eReader and eBook formats and channels are becoming available -- the market is clearly growing (although perhaps not yet cannibalizing print).  That makes it a challenging time for content providers and publishers since there is obviously no one standard or channel or device for reaching content consumers.  Here's a high-level snapshot overview of some of the key players at this time -- this will quickly change but hopefully the details should provide some insights that endure for a bit longer.

This post is divided into:

• Technical Formats
• Content Creation Tools
• Content Conversion Vendors
• Hardware Device-Based eReaders/Channels
• Software-Based eReaders/Channels
• Additional Resources

In reality these categories can quickly become blurred -- Kindle is simultaneously a device and a format and has its own channel.  So you'll see some names repeat across categories. But approaching it from this perspective is helpful and is one of the only ways you can maintain some clarity when exploring this complicated environment.