Combating the Higher-Ed Used Book Market
Following is a summary of the three leading industry strategies currently in place to transition students from used books to digital formats, along with the barriers these strategies face in reaching widespread adoption.
1. Top down, "built into tuition" model
In this model, students receive significant discounts on required materials by automatically purchasing content through fees embedded into the tuition for a given course. These prices are negotiated at the institutional level. From a pure cost perspective, this model presents a strong value proposition for both students and learning companies. Learning companies are able to provide steep discounts on course materials given that 100% sell-through rate is guaranteed in the course. When properly implemented, the students win because they are benefitting from low prices on content in a course where the professor is presumably heavily reliant upon that content. Learning companies also win because they are eliminating the used book market threat while gaining revenue, and far more importantly, engagement, from 100% of the students.
- Companies:
- McGraw-Hill Companies
- Sage Publications