Education

Today education, journal, and professional publisher John Wiley & Sons released its Q1 results for the 2017 fiscal year. While the publisher experienced growth in its journal and professional development businesses, its education division saw significant revenue declines, thanks to low-performing textbooks. Wiley’s overall revenue decreased 4% from Q1 2016, declining from $423 million to…

When associate history professor Robert Ingram announced to his Western Civilization class that there would be no textbook required, he said he was met with a sigh of relief. Instead, Ingram said he would scan documents for his students to read, rather than have them pay out of pocket for expensive college textbooks. The average undergraduate student at a…

Walk through a bookstore and you can see $5.99 paperbacks along one wall and omg-how-much? college textbooks along the other. E-textbook company RedShelf today announced it raised a $4 million Series B from Coniston Capital, with participation from existing investors, including the National Association of College Stores. The company tells me it will use the funding to drive…

As a consultant whose primary business focus is educational publishing, I try to read as widely as I can about developments in K-12 education and educational technology. Three articles I read recently, addressing seemingly unrelated topics, led me to draw some conclusions about the future of K-12 education publishing. The headlines of these articles (which…

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt continues to expand its digital products portfolio, which provides interactive, educational content directly to consumers. Book Business interviewed head of HMH consumer brands and strategy CJ Kettler in April to discuss the launch of the Curious World platform. The subscription service provides educational ebooks, videos, and games to children ages three to…

Educational technology is booming. Technology is helping to redefine how we learn, obtain skills, and get credentialed. That value proposition has captured public attention and attracted record amounts of venture capital funding. But the vision for edtech is, and should be, much broader. After all, the education market serves not only to instruct but also…

Of late, much of my time (and that of others) has been spent thinking through the evolution of ebooks. Yesterday, a colleague I work with, Peter Krautzberger — who heads up the MathJax initiative — pointed me to an informative, if poorly written, post by Robin Good. It was entitled Textbooks Show Aging Signs: Curated…

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. & HOUSTON — August 9, 2016 — Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE:BNED), one of the largest contract operators of bookstores on college and university campuses across the United States and a leading provider of digital education services, today announced it will extend its current relationship with OpenStax, a Rice University-based nonprofit…

BOSTON — August 9, 2016 — Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) and BenchPrep, a digital learning platform company, today announced the availability of new personalized digital learning solutions for the iconic CliffsNotes®study guide series. Leveraging CliffsNotes’® trusted content and BenchPrep’s dynamic platform experience, HMH will now provide test preparation and subject review guides…

ST. LOUIS — July 28, 2016 — Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, has launched Sherpath, a first-of-its-kind nursing and allied health, adaptive and mobile-first education platform focused on improving student outcomes. "As digital learners, healthcare students now require shorter and more targeted, media-rich content accessible on their…