Publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., US, and the Indiana University (IU) recently announced a new institutional licensing agreement. The aim is to use a new model to deliver more engaging learning materials at a lower cost to students across all eight IU campuses. For the first time on this scale, a leading research university will license access to course materials for its students via a per-section fee model. This model is expected to reduce costs to students while expanding access to those learning materials proven to engage students and improve their learning more effectively.
This agreement, which will begin implementation in the upcoming Spring 2012 semester, follows a two-year e-book pilot (of which Wiley was an original participant) and a subsequent e-textbook RFP.
IU instructors who choose to participate in the initiative can select from a variety of Wiley course materials delivered through the Courseload eBook platform. IU students will retain access to their Courseload eBooks for as long as they are enrolled in IU. They can print sections of their e-books, and they will have the option to purchase print-on-demand copies for most participating Wiley titles.
Instructors will also have the option to select WileyPLUS, an online teaching and learning environment that a 2010 University of Tennessee study found improves students’ learning outcomes by half a letter grade or more. WileyPLUS integrates with students’ learning workflows and provides the company’s content integrated around key teaching and learning activities, such as class preparation, lectures, students’ study time outside of class, and homework completion and grading. In addition, participating instructors will be able to customise their learning materials through Wiley Custom Select, where they can easily add or remove chapters, upload their own material, and even edit some titles at the word level.
Through its libraries and IU’s participation in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, IU already has a content licensing relationship with Wiley-Blackwell to access its content through Wiley Online Library. The library hosts an extensive multidisciplinary collection of online resources, covering the life, health and physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. It is projected to deliver seamless, integrated access to more than 4 million articles from 1,500 journals, 10,000 books and hundreds of multi-volume reference works, laboratory protocols and databases.
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