June 14th 2009 - Two important things about custom course ware

Author: Craig Schoen

In the world of digital publishing on a large or small scale really comes down to two things, what is the distribution set up and who controls price. Distribution in many cases is defined for reasons such as where the information will be accessed, who is purchasing, where are the demand drivers (Professors and Courses Located), How much effort is required to assemble and copyright clear the content and most importantly how much of a core asset is the content to the organization?

There are different models, some of the most interesting to me are found in the education sector, this is one of the reasons I wanted to start a tech company in this field. Some of the content used to supplement or be the course material comes in the form of a course pack. This is a collection of works that a professor can request to be made custom just for his or her class. It saves students money, makes for better learning, and gives the professor more control over course management. It is fascinating to think of the possibilities of this model without paper.

Back to Main Page