News for and about the Internet2 community

[Todd Sedmak <>]

Internet2, McGraw-Hill, Courseload, and Five Universities Implement eText 
Pilot in Spring 2012
UC-Berkeley; Cornell; Minnesota; Virginia; and Wisconsin Participating in 
Pilot

Ann Arbor, MI—Jan. 18, 2012—As textbooks continue shifting to digital, 
Internet2, McGraw-Hill and Courseload today announced implementation of an 
eText Pilot Trial Pack to students and faculty at five universities for the 
Spring 2012 semester. The five institutions, also Internet2 members, include: 
University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; University of 
Minnesota; University of Virginia; and the University of Wisconsin.

The pilot, which is based on Indiana University's eText model 
(http://etexts.iu.edu), provides a timely and simple way for universities to 
quickly assess a new model for digital course materials. While an increasing 
number of eTexts are already available at retail prices, eTexts can cost less 
when institutions negotiate attractive volume price deals to dramatically 
reduce costs to students while efficiently paying authors and publishers 
fairly for each use of their digital work.

Participating universities in the pilot get McGraw-Hill eTexts, the 
Courseload reader and annotation platform integrated with their Learning 
Management System, and can be part of a joint research study of eText use and 
perceptions. Through the Courseload software, students can print, use social 
annotation with classmates and instructors, and access their eTexts on any 
HTML5-capable tablet, smartphone, or computer. Students will receive their 
eTexts at no cost as the institutions are subsidizing the study, and students 
who prefer a full hardcopy book may optionally order a print-on-demand 
version of the eText for a $28 fee. Faculty interest at the pilot 
institutions has been very strong.

"McGraw-Hill is pleased to be a partner in this pioneering effort to open 
digital access to course materials in a substantive way across all higher 
education institutions," said Tom Malek, McGraw-Hill higher education vice 
president, learning solutions and services. "We believe 2012 will be the year 
digital access of eTexts becomes mainstream."

"We have seven instructors with 8 sections and more than 400 students 
enrolled in the program at UVA," said James L. Hilton, vice president and 
chief information officer, University of Virginia. "Enthusiasm is quite high. 
Our effort grew by word of mouth and we had 11 volunteers within a day of 
announcing at an advisory committee meeting, which is really remarkable."

"Cornell is exploring how new digital publishing models will be advantageous 
to our students, and potentially lower textbook costs," said Ted Dodds, chief 
information officer and vice president, Cornell University. "This pilot is 
timely, building on faculty experiences, and will explore how new publishing 
models and technologies can be leveraged for student learning."

"Our academic community has been very positive about our eText pilot," said 
Bruce Maas, vice provost for information technology and chief information 
officer, University of Wisconsin - Madison. "Combining services on a national 
scale thru Internet2's NET+ Services enables the higher education community 
to influence publishers and the eText offering. This influence helps us to 
better represent the interests of our students and faculty, and better 
address important areas such as accessibility. The result of this national 
partnership benefits all of us."

"We have benefited significantly from the strong sense of collaboration from 
all of our participating units, said Billie Wahlstrom, vice provost, 
University of Minnesota. "The university-owned bookstore has been a very 
progressive partner helping us in the recruitment of faculty and management 
of logistics with the publisher. We have also benefited from a great 
implementation team which included representatives from Undergraduate 
Education, Student Affairs, IT, Faculty Senate, Office of the General 
Counsel, Faculty Affairs, Disability Services, and Libraries. We are very 
interested in collaborating with the other participating universities in the 
evaluation of this project."

"Courseload is delighted to be a pilot partner working with these innovative 
universities as they proactively shape effective models for digital course 
materials," said Mickey Levitan, Co-Founder and CEO of Courseload.

"Efficient markets have informed buyers and sellers, and this 
multi-university pilot is a big leap forward for institutions to better 
understand how they can shape the market during the transition to digital," 
said Brad Wheeler, vice president for information technology and chief 
information officer, Indiana University. "This pilot would not have been 
possible without Internet2's NET+ Services, as it went from first thought to 
real implementation on campuses in less than 60 days. It's a great example of 
how universities can have greater influence when we learn fast and engage 
early."

Internet2 NET+ Services and program aggregate the IT needs of university 
members and efficiently contract with leading commercial firms for services 
tailored to that community. Recent NET+ opportunities for Internet2 members 
include cloud storage services from Box.Com, 
http://www.internet2.edu/netplus/box.html, and cloud computing from Hewlett 
Packard and SHI, http://www.internet2.edu/netplus/hp-cloud.html.

Media contacts:

Nik Osborne, Indiana University, 812-855-5487 or 


Todd Sedmak, Internet2, 202-331-5373 or 


Tom Stanton, McGraw-Hill, 212-904-3214, 


Erin Wray, Courseload, 317-602-1427 or 


Todd Sedmak
Internet2
Communications Manager
202-331-5373