This week we’re joined by my friend and partner Curtiss Barnes. You may have seen his posts on e-Literate, including his most popular (so far), “The Billion-Dollar EdTech Platform Hole.”
This Blursday, we’re going to start by talking about where the textbook market is headed. Having done several tours of duty at major publishers—including running a digital platform portfolio at Pearson that, if it were a separate company, would have bigger than Instructure—he has some unique insights.
As is the case with just about everything else in higher education, COVID has accelerated and amplified existing trends. Textbook publishers, who were not doing well before, are still not doing well now. That said, there is undeniable increasing interest in digital curricular materials and in inclusive access (the latter of which Phil Hill wrote about recently). OER use is growing, as is faculty interest in questions of equity and efficacy (though not necessarily at the same pace). The explosion of interest around cheating on the one hand and making up for the COVID-caused education gap on the other are driving folks to think about digital curricular experiences in new ways.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts about both where you see the market going and where you think it should go. Please join us this Blursday, 3/4, at 4 PM ET.
RSVP.
(BYOB.)
