How Education Publishers Are Adjusting to Remote Learning

A noticeable effect of the pandemic has been the move to remote learning for the majority of students. With this move, students have had to adapt to learning via video and being more independent in their studies. Many have also had to use digital textbooks as opposed to print books.

As a result, education publishers have been facing challenges and having to adapt also. Even before the pandemic, education publishers were seeing drops in demand for print textbooks. They were also having to deal with the challenges that textbook rental and resale markets bring. 

In this blog, we will discuss the effects of Covid-19 on the textbook industry, how education publishers are adapting to remote learning, and what changes are here for the long term. 

The Education Publishing Climate Before Covid-19

For most education publishers, the climate before covid-19 wasn’t great. Demand for new print textbooks was steadily decreasing, and previously stable sales prices were beginning to fall.

The following is an overview of the education publishing climate before the pandemic began.

Textbook Prices

Until around 2017/2018, textbook prices had been consistently increasing each year. However, print textbook sales have been declining over the last few years, like sales of most print media have been.

This trend is especially evident in higher education. A move to digital resources and the ease of buying second-hand books has resulted in lower demand for new print textbooks. This has consequently resulted in a necessary drop in the retail price of textbooks to keep sales as stable as possible.

With the price of a new print textbook averaging $150 to $250, students are actively looking for more affordable alternatives. This has been made easier thanks to university bookstores offering rentals and used books. In addition, social media groups and resell websites have made it easy for students to sell textbooks between themselves at lower than retail prices. 

A rise in digital versions of textbooks, which are often sold for less than their print equivalent, has additionally damaged the sales of new print textbooks.

A move to using digital resources and second-hand books has resulted in lower demand for new print textbooks.

The Rental and Resell Market

As briefly mentioned above, along with the move to a preference for digital books, education publishers have been challenged by increases in second-hand and rental textbook sales. 

Many university bookstores now offer textbook rentals. Additionally, students can sell their books to others at a cheaper price than in store.

There are also a lot of platforms enabling this second-hand market. This includes marketplace websites like Amazon and eBay as well as social media platforms and second-hand sale websites like craigslist.

These changes mean that textbook publishers are seeing just one sale for two or more students instead of one sale per student that needs the book.

Challenges and Changes Accelerated by the Pandemic

The pandemic has affected education publishers quite drastically. A main issue has been the move to remote learning. The back-to-school period is a highly important time for textbook publishers. However, that has been disrupted due to Covid-19. 

In higher education, some students have postponed starting or continuing their degree during the pandemic. International student numbers have dropped also. This has resulted in a smaller number of students needing textbooks. 

Additionally, K - 12 students that have been learning at home have been using more digital resources. This includes digital textbooks, and replacements for books such as digital worksheets, especially for younger students.

Remote learning has disrupted the sale of textbooks and eliminated the important back-to-school period.

As already discussed, major textbook publishers were seeing decreased revenues and even experiencing debt before the pandemic. This has been accelerated somewhat by the pandemic. 

For many, the reduced sales price of digital textbooks isn’t enough to cover costs. That’s even after the elimination of printing and distribution costs. 

The challenges being encountered by textbook publishers were shown when an anticipated merger between major players Cengage and McGraw-Hill was dropped in 2020 amid the pandemic. 

The Move to Digital

Even before the pandemic, more and more publications were moving from print to digital, including textbooks. The pandemic led to at-home learning for the vast majority of school age and college pupils. This has accelerated the trend of moving from print to digital drastically.  

Those publishers that don’t offer a digital version of the textbooks they publish will become more and more at a disadvantage. When choosing the textbook to teach from, teachers and other education board members will more likely opt for books that have a print and digital version. Or some may opt for only using a digital version.

Increased Interactivity

Ideally, textbook publishers should be using this opportunity to create a more interactive experience too. Those that simply upload a digital version of the book to an online publishing platform miss out on making their offerings more helpful and engaging. 

For example, publishers should be including end of chapter quizzes that mark themselves instead of students having to go to an answers page. Adding a feature that allows students to scroll over  keywords for definitions is another helpful addition that can set publishers’ digital offerings apart.

As many students like to highlight important sections of textbooks, having the option to highlight text digitally is something that should definitely be added as well.

These elements are important for higher education students and high school students. They can be useful for younger students too though, especially while they are being taught at home. 

If these students are not in class, they miss out on the interaction and interactivity that is offered there. Therefore, publishers should think about adding things to digital products to make them more exciting and enticing to younger students. 

The pandemic has accelerated the trend of moving from print books to digital books drastically.  

Create a Book Specifically for Digital 

As mentioned, those that just upload the textbook copy and images in digital format will lag behind those that create versions optimized for digital. 

Along with adding interactive elements, the text should be edited to work for digital. This includes condensing the text where possible. It can be more difficult to read a lot of text on a screen than from a print book. Therefore splitting up digital text with more images and headings is also important. 

The Removal of The Resale Market 

A benefit of digital is the removal of the second-hand market. Education publishers can add one-time use codes or sell access that only lasts a semester (or the length of the class corresponding to the book.) 

This means that licenses will need to be purchased from the publisher by each student. Those who retake classes will need to repurchase too whereas they could reuse their printed textbook, assuming the syllabus had not changed between semesters.

Sharing of Digital Resources

While the resale market is predominantly eliminated with digital textbooks, there are still ways in which multiple students can use one digital textbook. 

Unless digital copies are designed to be used with one device only, students could share the access code to one book. Therefore, publishers may lose out on revenue from a large proportion of students that need and are using their textbooks.

While the resale market is somewhat eliminated with digital textbooks, students can easily share these books.

Problems with Digital Textbooks

While many may think digital textbooks are the future and will completely eliminate the use of print textbooks, especially in higher education, there are drawbacks.

Firstly, not all students have access to a device to view digital textbooks. This is especially true for K-12 students. In addition, students have to deal with common issues associated with digital devices.

For example, the device's battery will need to be fully charged. Battery issues can cause delays in studying and disruption to a student’s most productive study periods. This is of course not an issue with print textbooks which can be used whenever and wherever.

There are also issues like the storage capacity of devices if books are downloaded and wifi-connectivity issues if books are reviewed online.

Increased Use of Free Resources

Along with increased use of digital textbooks, the pandemic has accelerated the trend of more free education resources. Companies like OpenStax now offer free access to digital textbooks which are accessed by millions of students a year.  

This is a big concern to education publishers that sell their textbooks, whether those books are print or digital. Unless publishers can offer a highly advanced version of the materials needed, students will likely opt for free resources wherever possible.

Are These Changes to Education Publishing Here to Stay?

Ultimately, yes, a lot of the changes caused by the pandemic will be here to stay. In fact, many changes will continue to grow in popularity, such as the use of digital and free textbooks and resources.

The most long-lasting effects will be seen in higher education where students have more of a say in how they consume education resources. This is a major issue to education publishers as higher education students are a large part of their market. 

Grade schools will tend to purchase books once and keep using them until the syllabus changes or the print books degrade so much that they need replacing. Whereas higher education students each need to buy books every semester.  

K - 12 will see a variation in how many changes caused by the pandemic become the norm. You’re more likely to see digital textbooks become the main medium used as you move through the grades. 

For example, elementary students perform better with physical textbooks but as they get older, digital versions may be preferred. 

Many schools will also not have the budget to provide a device to every student to view digital textbooks. Therefore, print textbooks will still be favored.