Future Think

A big benefit Courseload provides to faculty and institutions, says Callicoat, is analytics. "We can provide data on all of the students and how they're interacting with the text. Who's opening, who's reading, and in what ways are the students engaged? Are they taking notes? Highlighting? … If there are areas that students aren't grasping, or that they're not reading, instructors can modify the way they teach."

Courseload realizes that it must also solve problems that publishers face in the evolving higher-ed landscape. "We address their pain points which we believe are around piracy of content and used book markets," says Callicoat. "And in many cases, students just aren't buying the content. We allow institutions to make the content as relevant as possible."

Because publishers can see 100-percent sell through when a text is used through Courseload, they can reduce prices due to greater volume, which is a bonus for all involved.

"We know we're not going to be successful if we're not creating win-win scenarios," says Callicoat. "It needs to be a win for content providers as well as institutions."

—Brian G. Howard