Practical Findings on Digital Content in Higher Education

1. DIGITAL CONTENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION – PRACTICAL FINDINGS David McCarthy Director of Digital Education at Barnes & Noble March 7, 2011

2. What is ? • is a free ereading platform with a focus on features critical to success in with digital textbooks and educational content. • Through faculty and student interviews, was developed from the ground up based on the needs of students. • More than simply an eBook reader, is an end-to-end solution for students to acquire, organize and study their assigned content.

3. Growth of etextbooks • Barnes and Noble has seen a significant increase in digital sales this past fall. • 14% of students have purchased a digital product as part of their studies. • The general acceptance of digital reading for pleasure is bleeding over to higher education content.

4. Reasons for Purchasing eBooks • Price is the primary factor • Only way to obtain the textbook [out of stock, preference by the professor, custom PDF type eBook that the professor created for sale]. • 18% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they enjoy the features. • 10% of students who purchased an eBook did so because they had never used one and were curious.

5. WHERE WE ARE HEADED…

6. …BUT IT WONT BE EASY.

7. Poll Question • Who believes that books will follow the path of music and convert to digital in the matter of a few years? • Yes • No

8. What is taking so long? What is taking Ebooks so long? Music went digital overnight. • Barnes & Noble had an ereader ten years ago.

9. What is taking so long? Ereading fundamentally changes the way users interact with content. Digital music only changed the distribution of content. Consumption was still done through speakers of some sort.

10. The book works very well

11. The book works very well

12. The book works really well • The book is a piece of hardware used for thousands of years. It is the ultimate “reader” • Inexpensive – You get free reader hardware with each physical book purchased • No batteries needed. • Very durable • So simple a three year old could use it • Replacing the physical book is not going to be easy.

13. And yes students love them • The digital dream is even more difficult for education content. • No other user interacts with the physical content more than students • Highlighting • Note taking • Bookmarking • Flipping • Multiple books a once

14. Three Layers of eReading Digital reading is accomplished through the lens of hardware and software. Hardware Reader Software Content

15. Digital Studying Realize, for students studying is much more important than reading. All layers have to be conducive to studying. Hardware Reading/Studying Software Content

16. Questions?

17. Hardware

18. Poll Question • Which device would make the best ereader/study platform for students. • Laptop • iPad or Other android tablet • Kindle • Nook Color

19. Why not Digital Readers B&N.com Company Confidential 11/7/2019 19

20. Why not Digital Readers B&N.com Company Confidential 11/7/2019 20

21. What hardware works for studying • The optimal requirements of an higher education ereading hardware solution : • 10 Inch screen or larger • Color • 8 hours or more of battery life • Decent input mechanism • Mouse and keyboard • Or/And • Touch • 32 gig or more of memory

22. Candidates in the market today • Nooks and Kindles – Not higher education appropriate. Nookcolor shows promise for as a satellite device. • Ipad – Meets the minimum requirements • Coming android tablets – Shows promise for higher education content. • PC/Mac – Currently the best study platform.

23. PC/Mac and Mobile Satellites S Reading on the go. Light studying Heavy duty studying Home/Library Sync through a common cloud (locker) Digital Content Ecosystem Cloud hosting digital locker

24. What hardware works for studying • Devices such as tablets will be used for studying as satellites to a central core of a PC/Mac. • The PC/Mac will still be the ultimate hardware for some time. • Almost all students have one so there is no incremental costs • It is currently the only platform that can handle all of the software needs of a student (word processing, specialized software…) • Any solution you review should contain an option for PC/Mac.

25. Questions?

26. eReading/Studying Software eReading software need to be conducive to studying

27. eReading/Studying Software • eReading/studying software - The reading platform that stands behind the physcialeReader. • Digital Locker – Where books are stored in the cloud • Distribution – How books get down to the hardware • Renderer – What actually displays the content • Reader – The tools that surround the reading experience including page turning, resizing and accessibility. • DRM – How content is protected from unauthorized distribution. • Study Tools – Tools that provide students ways to parse content in ways that is relevant to them. • Integrations – LMS integration, university systems…

28. Features Students Want • Based on several surveys related to digital textbooks, students are saying these features are most important: • Search within and across content • Annotation/highlight and sharing of notes • Downloaded texts over online access - Flexibility of where and when they can access their books. • Integration with other course content including lecture notes, professor guidance…

29. Poll Question • Who are students most interested in collaboration such as sharing notes, highlights and discussions. • With other students in their class • With students across the world using the same book • With an online study group • With their professor

30. Feature Drivers • Replicate real world use cases of print textbooks where appropriate. • Enhance study experience using features unique to etextbooks. • Create tools that allow students to manage and link all of their content including textbooks, notes, instructor provided content and study aids.

31. Students are “content pressured” Students need to deal with a myriad of content. Each is managed independently Textbooks Class/Study Notes Internet Instructor Supplied Study Aids/Other Books

32. A true reading/studying ecosystem Reader Platform Reader Textbooks Note Taking • Ecosystem • Commerce • Sharing • Messaging • Annotation Class/Study Notes Internet/Other Content Common Interface , Format and Smart Extracts Content Management Instructor Supplied Study Ad-ins Trade Books Periodicals Study Aids/Other Books

33. DRM • DRM is a necessary part of a full featured ereading solution. • Major education publishers require a proven system of DRM. • Due to content’s high price and students shared interest, higher education content is under greater risk of piracy • Components of DRM • Content distribution limitations • Print limitations • Copy/Paste limitations

34. 508 Accessibility Requirements • Accessibility issues have plagued some instances where reading solutions have been used. • “Read aloud” content does not mean 508 compliant. • Look for the following in 508 compliant platform: • Text to speech on content AND controls/navigation • Navigation without use of mouse • Defined focus/cursors • Each institutions’ needs are different so compare the platform features to the intended user base.

35. Questions?

36. Digital Content

37. Digital Content growth • Digital textbook growth is driven by several factors: • Content available • Students adoption of format • Growth of relevant technologies • Publisher cost structure and market efficiencies

38. Content is not just textbooks

39. Publishers are Torn on Digital Why Publishers Embrace Digital • Undercuts the Used Book market. • Reduces operating costs • Good PR around lower pricing Why Publishers Are Fearful of Digital • Reduced pricing control • Enables competitive products • Piracy, piracy, piracy The end results is that textbook content is moving to digital, but not as quickly as trade books.

40. Content Formats - Reflowable • Formatted as a single stream of text • No concept of page • Most common standard – epub • Most commonly used in trade content

41. Content Formats – Page Fidelity • Page Fidelity • Formatted exactly as the printed page. • Most common standard – PDF • Most commonly used in textbook content.

42. What about multimedia Publishers are only now creating digital versions of their flat content. Next steps will be to incorporate more interactive content but doing this at scale is some ways off due to costs. The major issue is there are no standards around mixing book and multimedia content. Students want the multimedia to be effective in their study. They would rather have the transcript of an hour video vs the video itself.

43. Content Management is Complex Barnes and Noble College bookstores by the numbers (2009) • Over 207,000 unique titles adopted • Over 201,000 of the 207,000 titles had demand of fewer than 1,000 units • Nearly 16 percent of these were custom titles • 26 percent of the titles used by faculty do not have ISBNs • Over 14,000 of these titles had a digital option • Only 7 percent of titles used by our faculty • Over 8,000 unique publishers represented • Online & in-store is expected

44. Questions?

45. A case study in eTextbooks • Goals • Collaborate with universities to learn more about digital content and eReader usage. • Test and inform the NOOKstudy application with design and functionality feedback from the pilot. • Methodology • Faculty and students received NOOKstudy and eTextbooks • Students completed two surveys during the program. • Participants and faculty received access to 24-hr technical and program support. • As possible, “First Day” presentations were given to participating classes. • Campus bookstores reserved physical copies of the textbook as back-up.

46. CONFIDENTIAL NOOKstudy Research Program: Participation • Participation • 6 universities • Harvard University • Pennsylvania State University • Rochester Institute of Technology • Texas A&M University • University of Pennsylvania • West Virginia University

47. CONFIDENTIAL Application: Contribution to Performance and Efficiency • 91% of students said that ereading platform either improved their class performance or had no negative impact. • Improved Performance or Efficiency: • Being able to search for a particular word or phrase in the textbook has improved my efficiency in studying. • I use my laptop extensively and take notes on it, so having a copy of the book on my laptop at all times helped me work on my class work whenever I want without having to worry about whether or not I have the book with me. • No 10-lb book to carry around = epic win. • It really helped me with the tests.

48. CONFIDENTIAL Application: Student Experience • Student Experience • Slightly less than half of students brought their laptop to class (48%) • 60% of students used NOOKstudy once a week or more often

49. CONFIDENTIAL The Top 5 Current Features, as rated on usefulness by students • Reading Controls (paging, zoom…) • Finding terms in a book • Creating Highlights and Annotations • Reviewing previously created Highlight and Annotations • Managing your Digital Library

50. CONFIDENTIAL DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM) • Many students objected to DRM (copying, printing, downloading to 2 devices) on philosophical reasons. • Non-philosophical reasons for objecting to the limits: • Wants to download the eTextbook to 3 computers (home, work and school.) • Desires access to the eTextbook on a lab (shared) computer. Students' Views on DRM