McGraw-Hill Education, a division of the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., US, has announced the creation of its Digital Learning Partnership Program, which encourages colleges and universities to transition to digital in ways that promote deeper learning, better pass rates and higher rates of retention. The new programme, which builds upon the experience and results from e-book pilots that the company has developed with Indiana University, the University of Minnesota and other institutions, works by enabling institutions across the country to purchase solutions and services at affordable rates and in customisable ways. The programme is launching at this week's 2012 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Denver and is open to universities now for implementation in fall 2013.
Under the new initiative, instructors at partnering institutions have the option of providing all of their students with McGraw-Hill Education e-books – which contain tools for searching, sharing content, annotating and highlighting – as well as any other McGraw-Hill Education digital solutions they choose to add to the course. These products and services, which seek to improve student performance and instructor effectiveness, include McGraw-Hill Connect (teaching and learning platform), LearnSmart (adaptive study tool), Tegrity Campus(lecture capture) and ALEKS (adaptive math programme).
The Digital Learning Partnership Program is designed so that institutions can collaborate with McGraw-Hill Education to customise all aspects of the programme, including selecting a preferred e-book vendor, determining the pricing model and setting subscription length, which can now extend far beyond the duration of a course. Likewise, the programme is optional at the instructor level to maintain academic freedom, and students who prefer print can order a print-on-demand copy of the e-book.
Because the programme is based on partnership and collaboration with participating institutions, McGraw-Hill Education expects to work closely with colleges to provide e-books and digital solutions with the ability to improve student performance at prices that are competitive with rental and used book prices. Additionally, these digital materials are delivered to students through their institution's LMS and are available from the first day of class or before. The programme also includes adaptive learning tools to identify areas of academic strength, remediate areas of weakness and create individualized learning plans that often help students move up a full letter grade in their classes.
From a technology perspective, the Digital Learning Partnership Program integrates with any learning management system through seamless single sign on and is available on any laptop or virtually any mobile device. Institutions have the ability to choose their desired e-book provider, which can include any of McGraw-Hill Education's e-book partners: CourseSmart, Courseload, and Vital Source.
