22.08.2015 Views

Contents

The Global eBook Report - Rüdiger Wischenbart, Content ...

The Global eBook Report - Rüdiger Wischenbart, Content ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

The increasing use of computers in classrooms in thecourse of the last decade has enabled the private educationsector (in K–12, higher education, academic) to developand adopt elearning content. In the K–12 segment,publishers like Pearson and S. Chand Harcourt have a strongpresence in producing elearning materials and teachingaids, alongside educational companies like Educomp Solutions,iDiscoveri, Everonn, CORE, and IL&FS etc. Softwareservice providers like Tata Interactive Systems and HCL Infosystemshave also entered the school elearning spacethrough partnerships with content providers.The bundling of educational content with tablets is agrowing trend. Micromax Funbook tablet has partnershipswith publishers like McGraw Hill and Pearson, and with educationalcompanies like Everonn Education and Vriti Education.On the other hand, publishers are also launching tabletswith content bundling. Pearson Education India recentlylaunched MX Touch, a tablet-based education solution forIndian schools, in November 2012. Available in three variants,the MX Touch tablets host interactive activities andworksheets compliant with the school syllabi for grades 3–8. One of India’s largest educational publishers, the S.Chand Group, has launched Intellitab, a tablet that workson Android 4.0, which packs in curriculum-based contentfor each grade. The content is based on S. Chand Harcourt’sDestination Success curriculum-based interactive productportfolio. Over 500 schools, according to a company release,are using the Destination Success software suite.The entry of MOOCs (massive online open course) is creatingaccess to other forms of elearning content. The notfor-profitEdX, a MOOC platform founded by MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and Harvard University, says that itgets a large fraction of traffic from India. In a recent interview,its CEO Anant Agarwal said that India consistentlyrepresents the second highest enrolments in EdX courses,after the US. The platform has partnered with Indian Instituteof Technology, Bombay to make the latter’s coursesavailable to a global audience.Ebook publishingE-textbooksThe government in India dominates the K–10 textbooksegment by publishing textbooks for schools. The NationalCouncil of Educational Resources and Training (NCERT), providesits entire textbook range for download, as PDF filesonline.Over 90% of all e-textbooks available for higher educationin the country originate outside India, and are in theEnglish language. [N5] Springer leads the list of ebook providers,with nearly 74,000 titles in the catalogue. Publisherslisted once above, Taylor & Francis, Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, aswell as Tata McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Cambridge UniversityPress and Oxford University Press are selling ebooks in Indianow. Not just for STM, but ebooks on subjects like Law,Management, Social Sciences and the Humanities are beingproduced in digital formats, and being made availablethrough the publishers’ websites. However, individualsales are very few, and most e-textbooks sell through librarysuppliers. Many publishers offer ebooks at discountedrates from their international prices, up to 50% in somecases, for bulk purchase by Indian institutional libraries.Some online stores like Attano and SkoolShop are retailinga sizeable list of educational ebooks by Indian publishers,showcasing the early phase of indigenous ebook productionin the education space. Attano hosts about 1500books and 7500 educational videos for K–12, along withexam preparation materials, question banks and materialsfor college test preparation. It launched a new servicecalled ChapterBuy in June 2013, to sell individual chaptersfrom reference books for higher education in an ebookformat. Attano will make available over 10,000 chapters,priced Rs 3 ($0.05) onwards, for engineering, managementand commerce students. The company has partnered withMumbai-based Sheth Publishers and Pearson for this initiative.Exam preparation materials, especially for entranceexams are also available through Vriti and The Digital Library.Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile network operator, introducedtest preparations and English-learning moduleson mobile through its mEducation platform, which itlaunched in early January 2013. The service enables Airtelmobile customers to access courses for language skills,entrance exam preparation and career counseling for aslittle as Rs 2 ($0.02) per day.More and more Indian publishers of educational books aredigitizing their backlists and creating digital products fromtheir frontlist. PHI Learning_’s list of ebooks (about 700 digitisedtitles) is available directly from their website. Medicalbooks publisher, _Jaypee Brothers have published nearly1215 ebooks, as well as produced 2250 videos on surgicalprocedures, available through their websites. Anmol Publications,a publisher of pure sciences, humanities and socialsciences books is digitizing 6000 and more titles andoffering those as ebooks. Publisher of Physical Sciences74 The Global eBook Report

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!