Textbook companies have long sought to breathe life into their books via technology. First they tried packaging CD-ROM’s full of multimedia extras with traditional textbooks. Students were less than enthusiastic, and most of the discs never reached computers. More recently many textbook companies started putting such bonus materials on Web sites. That, too, hasn’t been a raging success. "It’s tough to get students there, short of the instructor making some sort of requirement," says Scott Criswell, product manager for online-distribution platforms at McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
To capitalize on the iPod craze, McGraw-Hill is trying a new tack. This month it announced a pilot project in which it puts bonus material for three textbooks on iTunesU, the educational section of Apple Computer’s popular music store. The pilot is taking place at the University of Wisconsin at Madison – it actually started during the summer semester – and officials say they will expand the program if it goes well.
The results are promising, says Mr. Criswell. "Students were more engaged with the content served up in this platform," he says, even though it was the same multimedia material that had flopped on a supplementary Web site. He says he is not sure whether to credit the "wow factor" of using iTunes, or whether using the music store just "fits the way students learn better."
McGraw-Hill is not planning to put the full text of its books in a format that can be delivered on an iPod, says Mr. Criswell. "Just taking the textbook and putting it on there doesn’t really seem like the right use," he says. "It didn’t seem that students would use the device as an e-reader."
By Jeffrey R. Young
This article was taken from the Chronicle of Higher Education