Follett Higher Education Group Leads Movement to Integrate Digital Textbooks Into Campus Systems
Poster: SySAdmin
Posted on May 19, 2010 at 11:42:01 AM
Follett Higher Education Group Leads Movement to Integrate Digital Textbooks Into Campus Systems
LONG BEACH, Calif., May 19 -- A college student's textbook should be at the heart of his or her learning experience.
That is why Follett Higher Education Group, the leading college bookstore operator and a digital textbook pioneer, is leading an effort to make e-textbooks fully interoperable with learning management systems (LMS). Today at the Learning Impact 2010 conference, Follett became the first to demonstrate this interoperability by sharing professors' textbook notes through the Moodle standards-based LMS.
"Instructors can now make notes in our CafeScribe® digital textbooks and click to place the notes in a learning management system for students' immediate access," said Bryce Johnson, Follett's director of eTextbook solutions. "When students view these notes, hyperlinks bring them to the relevant spot in the eBook, automatically placing the notes in the context of the eBook and vice versa. Students will not experience this as two software environments, but instead as one learning experience."
Learning management systems are the default electronic classroom environment for higher education. Students and instructors use an LMS to share course materials, calendars, notes, links, syllabi, opinions, assignments and now, textbook content.
To affect the interoperability between notes and digital textbooks, Follett developers modified CafeScribe to support the IMS Global Learning Consortium's Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. Learning management system vendors that support the standard include Blackboard Inc., Desire2Learn Inc., eCollege and Sakai Foundation. CafeScribe is the first eBook platform to support LTI.
"Traditional bound books are to classrooms as e-textbooks are to learning management systems," said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Higher education institutions need to integrate these resources to create a seamless educational experience for students. Through CafeScribe, Follett is helping us realize this vision."
About CafeScribe
The CafeScribe eBook platform is an e-textbook and social networking platform for students and educators. The platform is the latest addition to Follett's broad portfolio of course material options for students, available online and at more than 850 college bookstores operated by Follett in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit http://www.cafescribe.com.
About Follett Higher Education Group
Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, Illinois, is the leading provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North America. Follett services five million students and over 400,000 faculty members through more than 850 stores. Follett also services more than 1,600 independent campus stores with its wholesale services, and has the most visited ecommerce collegiate website, efollett.com, that provides services and products through a network of more than 900 campus stores.
About Follett
Follett Corporation is a $2.7 billion, privately held company that provides products, services and solutions to the educational marketplace.
Source: Follett Higher Education Group
CONTACT: Isabella Hinds, Follett Higher Education Group,
+1-617-232-4320, ihinds@fheg.follett.com, or Darby Johnson, Beaupre & Co.
Public Relations, +1-603-559-5809, djohnson@beaupre.com
Web Site: http://www.follett.com/
LONG BEACH, Calif., May 19 -- A college student's textbook should be at the heart of his or her learning experience.
That is why Follett Higher Education Group, the leading college bookstore operator and a digital textbook pioneer, is leading an effort to make e-textbooks fully interoperable with learning management systems (LMS). Today at the Learning Impact 2010 conference, Follett became the first to demonstrate this interoperability by sharing professors' textbook notes through the Moodle standards-based LMS.
"Instructors can now make notes in our CafeScribe® digital textbooks and click to place the notes in a learning management system for students' immediate access," said Bryce Johnson, Follett's director of eTextbook solutions. "When students view these notes, hyperlinks bring them to the relevant spot in the eBook, automatically placing the notes in the context of the eBook and vice versa. Students will not experience this as two software environments, but instead as one learning experience."
Learning management systems are the default electronic classroom environment for higher education. Students and instructors use an LMS to share course materials, calendars, notes, links, syllabi, opinions, assignments and now, textbook content.
To affect the interoperability between notes and digital textbooks, Follett developers modified CafeScribe to support the IMS Global Learning Consortium's Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. Learning management system vendors that support the standard include Blackboard Inc., Desire2Learn Inc., eCollege and Sakai Foundation. CafeScribe is the first eBook platform to support LTI.
"Traditional bound books are to classrooms as e-textbooks are to learning management systems," said Dr. Rob Abel, CEO of IMS Global Learning Consortium. "Higher education institutions need to integrate these resources to create a seamless educational experience for students. Through CafeScribe, Follett is helping us realize this vision."
About CafeScribe
The CafeScribe eBook platform is an e-textbook and social networking platform for students and educators. The platform is the latest addition to Follett's broad portfolio of course material options for students, available online and at more than 850 college bookstores operated by Follett in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit http://www.cafescribe.com.
About Follett Higher Education Group
Follett Higher Education Group of Oak Brook, Illinois, is the leading provider of bookstore services and the foremost supplier of used books in North America. Follett services five million students and over 400,000 faculty members through more than 850 stores. Follett also services more than 1,600 independent campus stores with its wholesale services, and has the most visited ecommerce collegiate website, efollett.com, that provides services and products through a network of more than 900 campus stores.
About Follett
Follett Corporation is a $2.7 billion, privately held company that provides products, services and solutions to the educational marketplace.
Source: Follett Higher Education Group
CONTACT: Isabella Hinds, Follett Higher Education Group,
+1-617-232-4320, ihinds@fheg.follett.com, or Darby Johnson, Beaupre & Co.
Public Relations, +1-603-559-5809, djohnson@beaupre.com
Web Site: http://www.follett.com/