National Geographic Learning Enters Higher Education and Career Markets via New Reader Series

By Press Release

Belmont, Calif. – May 14, 2012 – National Geographic Learning (NGL), part of Cengage Learning and a provider of quality educational materials for the K‐12, higher education, adult education and ELT markets, today announced its entrance into the academic higher education and career markets with the release of a new series of educational readers. The National Geographic Learning Reader Series was created by experienced subject matter experts using the distinguished, multimedia-rich content of the National Geographic Society.

“As a result of our ongoing relationship with the National Geographic Society, we are excited to introduce this new series of educational materials to our core academic higher education and career markets,” said Sean W. Wakely, executive vice president, Cengage Learning. “As our relationship progresses, we will make even greater use of the world-renowned and respected National Geographic content through the introduction of new NGL and Cengage Learning solutions and by incorporating the content into revisions of existing popular titles. We believe that National Geographic Society assets greatly enhance teaching and learning when paired with our leading pedagogy and authoritative content, resulting in greater levels of student engagement stimulated by real-world applications of the presented topics.”

"These readers are a natural extension of the mission of the National Geographic Society – to inspire people to care about the planet,” said Mark Bauman, senior vice president, content development, Mission Programs, National Geographic Society. “Our world-class explorers and scientists remind students that exploration begins in the classroom. This new National Geographic Learning Reader Series will provide students with expanded views of the world around them while helping to ensure that topics discussed in class can easily relate to many aspects of everyday life.”

The National Geographic Learning Reader Series is the product of an exclusive relationship between Cengage Learning and the National Geographic Society, an organization that represents a tradition of amazing stories, exceptional research, firsthand accounts of exploration, rich content and authentic materials. The series brings learning to life through the combination of compelling images, media and text from National Geographic, and content created by experienced subject matter experts. The engaging material within the National Geographic Learning Reader Series helps students to develop a clearer understanding of the world around them and connects key topics in each discipline to important, real-world examples.

Published on a variety of topics, the readers can be used in conjunction with most standard textbooks or online materials. Readers in the series include Archaeology, Architecture and Construction, Biological Anthropology, Climate Change, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Identity in America, Gender Roles: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Green, Sustainability, Travel and Tourism, and Water: Global Challenges and Policy of Freshwater Use. Several titles are currently available, and others will be released over the coming months. Each new book purchased features complimentary one-semester access to the media-rich eBook version.

Beyond the new National Geographic Learning Reader Series, NGL plans to integrate National Geographic content into several existing, best-selling Cengage Learning academic higher education and career textbooks. In the coming years, these titles will be enhanced to include articles, photos, videos, interviews and profiles. Additionally, NGL will create several new, core learning solutions for academic higher education courses to be co-branded with respected Cengage Learning sub-brands such as Wadsworth, Heinle, Brooks-Cole and Delmar. These new print and digital learning solutions will be built from the ground up with National Geographic content leveraged from the start of the product development process, providing the ability to maximize the integration of National Geographic and Cengage author content throughout the resulting learning solutions.

For more information on the new National Geographic Learning Reader Series, visit www.cengage.com/community/natgeo.