McGraw-Hill Education Takes Important Step in Open Technology, Enabling Educators to Build Personalized Learning Experiences

McGraw-Hill Education plans to launch this new capability beginning in the fall of 2015 with a library of compound learning object available to educators. Compound learning objects will serve as the basis for all of the company's K-12 products going forward starting next year, with its higher education portfolio soon to follow. McGraw-Hill Education is reorganizing its development models around learning objects in order to:

Create smaller chunks of content that can be more easily revised, updated, found, reused and assembled to meet changing needs
Generate data to support analytics-driven instruction and personalized learning
Increase its ability to build repositories of aggregated content that can be deployed nimbly and efficiently

"We don't see the learning ecosystem just in terms of what we bring to the table. In the new learning ecosystem, we all contribute what we do best in service of learners and educators," said Stephen Laster, chief digital officer of McGraw-Hill Education. "The education landscape is constantly evolving, but one thing we can predict is the continued focus on authentic digital products used to achieve learning outcomes. Compound learning objects are our path to this goal."

McGraw-Hill Education is also working with the New York University's Polytechnic School of Engineering and Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development to explore the adaptive possibilities around these learning objects, providing an even greater degree of personalization.

"When teachers and students are given the chance to engage with compound objects in adaptive learning environments, they personalize how and what they learn, resulting in active experiences shown to deliver superior outcomes," said Robert N. Ubell, vice dean of online learning at New York University's Polytechnic School of Engineering.

McGraw-Hill Education at the ASU+GSV Summit
CEO David Levin will speak about McGraw-Hill Education's commitment to open at the ASU+GSV Summit on Wednesday, April 8 at 2:30 p.m. MST in Scottsdale, Ariz. The session, entitled "The Future Will Be Different. Here's How," will discuss the key trends shaping education and the implications of "open" on the company's future.