Data-driven decisions are important in the course material landscape. Data helps campus stores explain their business to administrators and enables you to explain how key school initiatives like affordability, digital, and inclusive access change the college store landscape. When preparing for these conversations, one key metric that can help campus stores shape strategy and strengthen campus partnerships is calculating your store’s digital sales mix.
MBS Field Marketing Territory Manager Cathy Slane had the honor of presenting a session at the CACS 2021 Course Materials Virtual Summit. In her presentation, How Course Material Distribution Is Changing, she covered how bookstores adapted distribution methods during 2020 and the growing demand for digital course materials. Today, we will take a brief look at how college stores can help improve digital accessibility.
Topics: digital content, print
Although current surveys show faculty have no preference about whether students buy digital or print books, that could change in light of new research from a pair of reading experts at the University of Maryland.
Topics: digital content, print, course materials
“Print is dead.”
“Digital will never last.”
Everyone has an opinion about the print vs. digital debate. Facts and figures can be quoted for both sides, making a compelling argument for each. The cost of print can be too much for students to shoulder. Retention is harder to achieve with digital. Back and forth, the argument can go on forever because the truth is neither platform is inherently bad or good. Both have unique pros and cons that make the decision about which one to choose nearly impossible.
Topics: digital content, college bookstore
When the iPad® first appeared in 2010, I was among those who believed print texts were going the way of vinyl. Print might fulfill the longings of future collectors and fetishists, I thought, but for those of us whose profession relied on books, the practical attractions of a digital library would trump any sentimental attachment to the gleam of a paperback spine.
Topics: digital content, print, college stores
When digital publishing became widely available, the major publishers ignored it. Then eBooks started making headlines, and the industry began to grow at incredible rates. Still, traditional publishers were slow to react. The consensus was that publishers had “five years” to get in front of the issue even though they were already five years behind.
Topics: digital content, print, course materials
In the print vs. digital debate, it is easy to take sides based on personal preference. I love books: the smell, the feel, the experience, etc. However, over the last few years, my personal reading habits have shifted. Most of my reading now happens digitally. It doesn’t make me love books less, but it has given me an appreciation for the convenience of digital. When it comes to the print vs digital debate, I tend to be of the mind that the reader should choose. However, research has demonstrated that reading comprehension improves with print texts.
Topics: digital content, OER, OER Trends
Open Educational Resources are a hot topic in education. Students need ways to lower costs. Naturally, they look to schools to provide them with better solutions. In turn, many schools look to OER to help accomplish that goal. However, these no-cost options are just a piece of the course materials puzzle.
University of New Mexico Bookstore Director Carrie Mitchell jokes that sometimes she thinks her state is a little behind the curve of textbook trends. When sales started to stagnate and decline for stores nationwide five or six years ago, as students flocked toward perceived better deals online, the UNM Bookstore remained steady.
An interesting new statistic is reassuring news for private higher ed institutions that saw their "inevitable downfall" being forecast a few months ago: Distance learners are on the rise at institutions nationally, and it's proving to be a major revenue stream.
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