Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally
Readers can modify content on the Web, so why not in books? — In a kind of Wikipedia of textbooks, Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks …
Context & Ripple Effects
Digital textbooks were already being positioned around richer reading devices in coverage of devices pushing textbooks beyond print, while publishers had begun striking iPad e-textbook deals. Macmillan’s move adds a different layer: adaptation by the instructor, rather than distribution on a new screen.
That matters because a textbook can become a course-specific digital product instead of a single fixed edition. The value shifts toward the software controls that govern what faculty can alter and how those changes are delivered.
First-order effects
- Macmillan gives professors a way to tailor DynamicBooks textbook content for their own classes, producing instructor-specific versions of a publisher’s title.
- Macmillan must operate DynamicBooks as more than an e-book format: its product now needs clear boundaries between the publisher’s source material and faculty edits.
Second-order effects
- Textbook publishers pursuing iPad distribution face pressure to compete on editability as well as device access, since faculty customization becomes part of the product proposition.
- Students and instructors gain a tighter link between assigned material and a particular course, reducing the importance of a one-size-fits-all edition for participating classes.
Third-order effects
- If instructor editing becomes standard, textbook publishing shifts from periodic fixed editions toward software-mediated course materials, with version control and editorial governance becoming durable parts of the publisher’s role.
The trend: Educational publishing is moving from static, device-delivered texts toward configurable digital materials shaped by the instructor using them.