Student Loophole or Opportunity for Publishers to Create A New Textbook Model

Currently, there are subscription-based electronic databases that legally house 1000's of complete textbook titles that can be accessed by both students and faculty. One example is Books 24x7, which mainly focuses on business and IT discipline titles.

Out of curiosity, I have worked with library faculty to develop embedded links to this database to offer students a textbook option that delivers high-quality textbook content electronically... At no cost to them. With a clear course plan of key terms and concepts that students need to achieve course objectives, we mapped each key term and concepts, via embedded links, back to no less than 16 textbooks housed in the Books 24x7 ebook database.

This exercise has been an amazing learning experience for me as an instructor and as a consumer of textbooks.

For many faculty, textbook reps show up individually, present us with updated editions of textbooks that are accompanied with any number of course supplements that include, companion websites, test banks, power points, videos, sample syllabi, etc., etc.

In general, this model has worked... Faculty receive vetted content to share and distribute to students and student expectations are met because they receive a syllabus, a required textbook and marching orders for the course.

This is not a poor model, but it is difficult for me not to only question this model but to challenge it by providing students with an option that satisfies or exceeds course objectives, becomes a "click away" for users, requires no additional money from students and takes advantage of an existing electronic library resource.

It's silly to even say, "things have changed." Available high-quality content for numerous disciplines is not only readily available but can be fed to us based on individual interests via RSS feeds and simple permanent URLs.

Linking students to key terms and concepts in my current Introduction to Marketing course may be a short-term loophole that only current and near-future students can benefit from.  Surely, publishers who contribute licensed content to Books24x7 did not envision their texts being accessed in such a way, and my fear is that, as much as I would love this model to catch on, if it does, publishers may be less willing to participate in these ebook aggregators.  In the meantime,  I will continue to improve this model with colleagues to maximize the potential for sharing relevant content from existing ebook databases.

However, I realize there is still a large market of my colleagues that benefit the traditional textbook model. My challenge would be for publishers to reevaluate their model to identify how they can develop and sustain a system where electronic textbooks from multiple publishers that support multiple disciplines can be available to students and accessed in this manner without the loophole closing.

I'm Using 16 Books for My Marketing Course and I Didn't Pay for One of Them! Ebook Databases Enable Students to Turn Page on Traditional Textbook Options. Can Publishers Keep Up

Yes, you read correctly...

Using existing electronic library database resources, students are linked to sixteen (16) high-quality ebook sources that support 100% of their Introduction to Marketing course at Southern New Hampshire University.

Embedded Ebook Link Model
Instead of looking for THE textbook that matches with a course, we have taken the course Key Terms and Concepts and have mapped those back to relevant content available via an ebook database (Books 24x7). For this particular course, that means students are seamlessly drawing on 16 different titles via embedded links they can access via a course ebook (PDF file) or via the Blackboard course site.

Using embedded links to this database, students can access the specific content relating to Key Terms and Concepts; decreasing the time spent on wading through chapters of traditional textbook delivered content and increase the time they apply essential content to a variety of activities throughout the course.

Ingredients for the Model
We are in the second semester of this developing model, but we are basically utilizing these existing resources to delivery course content that helps students exceed course learning outcomes without purchasing a textbook.

1. Teaching and Library Faculty
2. Library ebook database - Books 24x7,
3. Blackboard Learning Management System
4. Syllabus

Results
Over 90% of the 130+ students enrolled in my Introduction to Marketing sections have opted for the embedded link model vs. the traditional textbook. In addition, that same percentage of students using the embedded link option enjoyed the opportunity to access has indicated high levels of satisfaction with the embedded ebook links and

Looking Ahead...
Technology has created the opportunity for faculty to provide high-quality relevant content to students in any discipline with very little effort and without relying on a traditional textbook model.

It's difficult to say if this model will gain traction and expand to other courses and disciplines, but it continues to be an exciting project to pursue as publishers scramble to monetize an increasingly challenging environment.

How are you using existing resources to deliver content to your students?

CASE STUDY
Southern New Hampshire University | Forging New Ground by Going Digital