There is no doubt that there is a revolution under way in the way students in Higher Education access course content and learning materials. All over the world there is deep and growing resistance to buying the traditional printed textbook at what are perceived to be inflated prices.
For a number of years publishers have recognized that the future is online. The current analogue model is full of holes, and many would say collapsing under its own weight, and it is causing quite a bit of economic pain to publishers.
There is a real question mark, though, on just how fast this transition can happen and move beyond the ‘double overhead’ whammy of having to keep the analogue business going and competitive (because, while one’s wealthy parent might be dying, he is taking an awfully long time to do it!) and having to invest substantial sums in the new on-line models.
Thomson put their educational business up for sale last week precisely because of that.
Wiley’s eLearning offering in the Higher Ed marketplace is called
WileyPLUS. Fundamentally, it is an interactive platform enabling students and instructors to get on-line access to content, assessment and communication.
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Every university in Australia uses either BlackBoard, WebCT or their own proprietary brand of Course Management System
(CMS); only two universities use a proprietary system. Currently they are populated with more administrative than educational teaching and learning content.
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WileyPLUS is also a CMS loaded with Wiley content – the printed text and other student and lecturer resources. WileyPLUS can only be activated by a lecturer, and students can only get access to an activated WileyPLUS course by purchasing an access code either standalone or bundled with a print copy of the textbook.
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The major stumbling block we came up against immediately was that university regulations in Australia forbid a university to force a student into buying any ‘materials’ to study the course they are enrolled in (this includes textbook content). In fact, universities have faced legal challenges from students on this very point and the students have won. Unlike universities in the US, Australian universities (except two very small ones) are mostly publicly funded. The regulation is probably anachronistic in these times of mixed funding, however lecturers are prevented from insisting students buy a copy of WileyPLUS in order for the assessment part of the course to be managed through this vehicle.
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If lecturers wish to use online test functionality they either need to use their BlackBoard or WebCT environment where all students have free access or they will need to ensure all students buy a copy of WileyPLUS or equivalent. Or, as lecturers tried to do last year
(the first year we sold WileyPLUS into our market), they conducted a test in WileyPLUS, and then had to set up the same test in BlackBoard/WebCT for those students without WileyPLUS.
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Right now we are rolling out a new version of WileyPLUS that we are calling an ALA version – Assignment Lead Access. All students have free access to these modules, and only students who have purchased an access code can gain access to the content. A student undertaking a self-assessment or homework assignment set by the lecturer will see links to extra content provided by Wiley.
Authorised users get access, and non-authorised users are sent a message offering them access for the usual fee.
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The market is demanding far more multimedia in instructional resources at present – video, audio, animations, etc. These are hideously expensive, usually because of rapacious third party permissions costs, and are given away free to lecturers who don’t
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use them. They often don’t know how to use them effectively, and even if they did, they don’t have the time to sort through it all.
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Our challenge is to integrate these rich multimedia elements seamlessly into the online content component of our new
WileyPLUS version.
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Lecturers need to be convinced they will see an improvement in student motivation, and they also want to be assured this will not cost them anything in time – it must be easy to use and must not create any more administration. Even the slightest hint that more work is involved means your product is deficient.
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So the object is to present student-enabled content with lecturerenabled navigation that truly has integrated resources built around the text content. This has required a rethink of what the ‘text’ online should look like. It shouldn’t be flat HTML pages but an exciting learning environment where students truly experience learning. They may read a short bit of text, then take a test, run an animation, interact with that and then return to another activity.
The print book is no longer the base which we ‘add bits to’; we’re having to build from the very beginning a learning module with integrated student and lecturer resources.
 We recognise that what we’ve introduced to the market over the past three years has really only been a beginning. There is much about current interactive models from all publishers that is clunky in every respect: the production systems of constructing the products are constrained by their print-based origins; the administrative, transactional, accounting and distribution problems internally are a nightmare; ensuring failsafe hosting infrastructure has often been problematic; and the customer support apparatus deficient because students the world over always study at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning!
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We are working on delivering new models which will allow customer and publisher customisation of content, integration with other complementary platforms, self-directed (non-instructor mediated) learning, modular and flexible products to meet various
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price and service expectations, etc. For the student this will mean content can be purchased and used without instructor involvement and become a personalised experience based on their study needs and learning styles.
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Our prime focus will continue to be on constructing business models that offer rich functionality, customisation and support for individual learning styles. We believe this is the best way to minimise piracy and unauthorised content sharing. Focussing too much on DRM technology has major disadvantages for customers by introducing time and convenience burdens that undermine the very basis of the offering – flexible, modular content with full interoperability with other systems and platforms.
Peter Donoughue
30 October 2006
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