Indiana University Chooses Courseload Platform for Digital Textbooks and Course Materials

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Indiana University announced it has chosen Courseload Inc. as its platform for providing students and faculty with access to digital textbooks and course materials. The leading innovator in the aggregation, delivery and use of e-textbooks and course materials, Courseload's device and content source-neutral platform is now available to more than 150,000 students at partner colleges and universities in multiple states making the transition to digital.

IU also announced agreements with a number of textbook publishers, meaning students and faculty at all IU campuses will have access to a wide range of texts through Courseload's platform. Integrating directly with IU's Oncourse Learning Management System (Sakai), Courseload will support not only digital access to textbooks, but also facilitate online collaboration, provide a full suite of interactive study tools, and allow the digital integration of other academic materials into the teaching and study process.

"IU's model ensures that students will benefit from the cost savings and educational possibilities of eTexts and other online materials as their preferences shift to a blend of digital and print," IU Vice President for Information Technology and Kelley School of Business professor Brad Wheeler said, adding that this agreement gives IU faculty new options for lower-cost, high-quality course materials.

This 3-1/2-year agreement gives IU faculty another choice for delivering teaching and learning materials.  Faculty can choose to deliver materials through Courseload and under the IU eText Fee Model, and IU students will be informed before registering for classes whether a particular section will use digital materials and charge a fee.  

"Leaders in higher education are experimenting with multiple ways to harness the cost and educational benefits of digital course materials," said Mickey Levitan, Courseload CEO.  "Courseload concurs that IU's approach works best."  

Academic institutions across the country are seeing the advantages of adopting Courseload's business model in which the cost of textbooks and e-materials are bundled with tuition. Through this approach, Courseload increases the ease of integration, helps lower costs to students, and also protects publishers from lost revenue resulting from piracy and secondary markets.

"After delivering version 2 of Courseload in June, the first HTML 5-based platform for delivery and use of digital course materials, it is gratifying to hear on every campus we visit that our platform is better than any others," said Jason O'Brien, Courseload CTO."  According to Michael Burton, Courseload's Director of University Partnerships, students, faculty and administrators at IU and elsewhere who continually help shape the Courseload platform have been very enthusiastic about the features, reliability, collaboration and support they get with Courseload.  

Courseload founders Mickey Levitan and IU Professor Alan Dennis launched Courseload in 2000, aiming to accelerate the use of digital course materials and help schools lower the cost of education while helping to improve educational outcomes. As it turns out, they were about 10 years ahead of their time. Fortunately, the premises on which Courseload's model was based more than a decade ago still hold true today.

"The transition to digital course materials in higher education is accelerating," said Levitan. "IU is proactively shaping that transition to favor its students and faculty."  

To learn more, visit http://www.courseload.com.

SOURCE Courseload