itcss-instructionalsupport

"The QlikView Business Discovery platform delivers true self-service BI that empowers business users and drives innovative decision making."

Business intelligence and learning analytics have a lot in common. Just sharing a product that was mentioned in an EDUCAUSE list.

"Our application provides real-time copyright clearance and an ever-expanding content library along with the ability to add your own materials and articles from the web. And - peer recommendations from colleagues in your discipline can present new possibilities to enrich your courses. "

This is basically a course pack builder. It takes care of copyright clearance and offers the option for students to download as a digital file or get a print-on-demand.

"Textbooks on ScienceDirect offer today's libraries an exciting opportunity to provide new and highly valuable service to their patrons. Faculty can finally assign a textbook and/or various text/references and provide all students with easy access, giving them equal chance at succeeding because they have the assigned and recommended course content with no financial pressure to find or buy!"

"MindTap is well beyond an eBook, a homework solution or digital supplement, a resource center website, a course delivery platform or a Learning Management System. More than 70% of students surveyed said it was unlike anything they have seen before. MindTap is a new personal learning experience that combines all your digital assets - readings, multimedia, activities, and assessments- into a singular learning path to improve student outcomes."

"The LMS needs to become a mixing panel for all the other platforms, where the teacher as a DJ for learning, can direct learning activities and community interactions. "

This blog post touches on some of the missing social aspects of the LMS.

Hi-Fi, Stereo, Speakerphone & more

A potential tool to connect classrooms with Skype/Google Hangouts? The microphone might be better than most laptop built-in ones, it supports conference calls. Can also connect with mobile devices.

At Indiana University, eTexts are more than just digital copies of textbooks. They represent multiple forms of digital learning materials. IU's eTexts initiative focuses on delivering eTexts to students at a reduced cost, while providing faculty with new tools for teaching and learning.

Etext initiative at Indiana. Uses a third party vendor called Courseload.

In 2009, JISC Collections commenced a new study to explore in more detail the e-textbook landscape in the UK and to work collaboratively with publishers and libraries to identify and pilot four potential e-textbook business models. The results and reports of this study are available to all. In addition to the reports, there are a number of case studies available from the university libraries that participated in the e-textbook trials which make excellent reading.

Academic libraries are increasingly collecting e-books, but little research has investigated how students use e-books compared to print texts. This study used a prompted think-aloud method to gain an understanding of the information retrieval behavior of students in both formats. Qualitative analysis identified themes that will inform instruction and collection practices.

Last month at the Digital Book World conference in New York, Kelly Gallagher, VP, publishing services at R.R. Bowker, revealed that 74% of book buyers have never bought an eBook. To help make the transition smoother, we've put together a list together to demystify eReaders.

"Readium, a project of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and supporters, is an open source reference system and rendering engine for EPUB publications. EPUB is the industry-standard open format for eBooks and digital publications. The latest version, EPUB 3, is based on Web Standard technologies such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, SVG, and the DOM. The overall aim of the Readium project is to ensure that open source software for handling EPUB 3 publications is readily available, to accelerate adoption of EPUB 3 as the universal, accessible, global digital publishing format. Readium is built on WebKit , the embeddable open source Web content engine."

An open source rendering app to promote epub as an ebook standard. Works as a Google Chrome extension.

The new company, named Rafter, has also introduced a free online database that provides real-time and historical views on economic trends, adoption patterns, and reviews for more than 11 million textbooks. 

Making an e-book can be easy-almost trivially easy-using Pandoc, a tool I've written about earlier on ProfHacker. Of course, Pandoc isn't the only way to do this. Mark has used Sigil and written about it, and another good option is Anthologize, which Julie wrote about.

In this session, we'll briefly describe Indiana University's e-text agreements with five publishers and with Courseload, the provider of the e-text e-reader software. These agreements are resulting in substantial cost savings for students and providing them with new tools for teaching and learning. The IU agreements evolved from two years of pilot testing and in response to substantial input from students, faculty, textbook publishers, and authors. We will also discuss how these agreements can be extended to other institutions through short- and long-term pilot programs, which will allow them to gather valuable data about student and faculty use of e-texts.

As virtually every form of media from newspapers to television shows becomes more socially aware, the book remains stubbornly anti-social. Despite the rapid growth in e-books and the launch of a number of services designed to add social features to books, the act of reading is still a fairly solitary thing.

"Logically, e-textbooks should be much cheaper than the print options available to students--but they're not. CT looks at the rationale behind their pricing, and the market factors at play."

Why don't students like electronic textbooks if they like ebooks? The two differ. Ebooks typically often have a narrative structure,  they are usually pretty easy to read, and we read them for pleasure. Textbooks in contrast, have a hierarchical structure, the material is difficult and unfamiliar, and we read them for learning and retention. Students likely interact with textbooks differently than books they read for pleasure.

"Let's look at some of the current e-textbook providers and how they compare on key points."

The bigger issue is the breakdown in the process that led to this problem. If we don't fix this, then we will experience another breakdown in the future. It's virtually guaranteed. As the philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

"If you don't have DRM, it opens up strategies that aren't available to you if you insist on DRM," says Shatzkin. "The question is: Is the fear of piracy greater than the fear of Amazon?"