Educational Materials

Field Definition

Basic Definition

The Field of Educational Materials refers to a subset of the book, internet, and software publishing industries that is focused on providing resources to a variety of educational markets. This generally includes textbooks and course materials like course packs, supplementary reading, and games and activities.

"A significant feature of most educational resources is that they are restricted to many and can cost a lot to gain access to. This is largely because of a market economy around educational resources. They are copyrighted and packaged up as objects—books, journals, videos—that have to be bought from a store or accessed through course fees or university repositories (libraries in most cases). Even if this copyrighted material is available in public libraries, it is then effectively rationed by the numbers of copies available and the costs and opportunity costs involved in people traveling to the library to use them (with that use being further restricted by the all rights reserved copyright applied to them)." (Opening Up Education, pg 149)

History

"The development of modern practices in textbook publishing in the USA was concomitant with the rise of mass education, characterized by graded organization of formal schooling into classes." (Michael G. Watt, Research on the Textbook Publishing Industry in the United States of America)

"Several surveys conducted in association with a report on textbooks issued in 1931 indicated that procedures for selecting authors, their role, and the methods they applied were well defined at this time. Commentators reporting on textbook publishing in the 1950s and 1960s depicted an industry in which the publishing process and the roles of authors, editors and sales people had been institutionalized for many years. However, the textbook publishing industry of that time was faced by the challenges of integrating new technologies in printing and new media for presenting materials. Commentators writing in the 1990s were more concerned to analyse changes in the textbook publishing industry occurring in response to globalization. Mergers and takeovers, resulting from reductions in profit margins faced by many textbook publishing companies, led to the incorporation of textbook publishing activities within multinational media, communications and entertainment conglomerates, whilst small emerging textbook publishing companies filled a vacuum in the marketplace as niche publishers." (Watt 2007, p 5)

1880s Pointed as the year when the publishing industry arose in the USA in response "to greater uniformity in local education systems resulting from immigration and industrialisation." (Watt 2007, p 9)

until 30s

"Within a decade, McGuffey's Eclectic Readers had penetrated this market, selling at a rate of two million copies each year, and eventually exceeded sales of over 122 million copies before their use declined in the 1920s. In 1841, Smith brought out the partnership, and the company’s name changed several times before it merged with other publishers in 1890 to form the American Book Company, which established a monopoly controlling most of the textbook market across the USA in the first decades of the twentieth century. This monopoly prevailed until rivalry from smaller companies opened up the publishing industry to greater competition after World War I and sales of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers declined because of changing values and new curricular demands." (Watt 2007, p 4)

National Society for the Study of Education in 1931 elicited that publishers "selected manuscripts for textbooks by applying three main criteria: judging whether there was a need for a new material; judging whether the material was innovative; and judging whether the author was competent."(Watt 2007,p 5)

40-50s

"The textbook publishing industry was characterized by being almost entirely controlled by private enterprise, small-scale in its operations, modest in its growth, limited to approximately 75 companies, general rather than specialized, and subject to constant changes resulting from interactions between authors, publishers and teachers. An analysis of data published by the American Textbook Publishers Institute for the years 1939, and 1946 to 1952 indicated that approximately half of the income from sales was expended on production costs, and the prevailing low margins were decreasing. The economics during this period shifted with a decline in the market for college textbooks and an increase in the market for elementary school books. This shift increased the costs involved in marketing, because a greater number of sales people needed to be employed, and depositories had to be maintained in some states. The greatest cost in marketing, however, was that lost in capital tied up in unsold books, although this may have been lessened by the seasonal nature of sales over a period of several years." (Watt 2007, p. 7)

"Bierstedt (1955) discussed the role of textbook authors in transmitting knowledge and culture. Financial benefits, rather than associational involvement or increased status, offered by publishers to prestigious members of the education community should be recognized as the main reason why authors write textbooks." (Watt 2007, p. 6)

"Innovations were unlikely to increase, unless brought about by new technological advances in printing or diversification in the media of products. The main technological factor affecting production in the 1950s was the widespread use of machine typesetting, which was cost effective for large runs suitable for national editions, but inefficient for producing small editions, or presenting illustrations and color." (Watt 2007, p 7)

"An important problem that confronted the publisher of the time related to determining the best ways of integrating different media within the publishing enterprise to produce multimedia materials." (Watt 2007, p 7)

"Brammer (1957), managing editor of the American Book Company, reported on the textbook publishing industry in the USA in the 1950s. It was competitive, and required large expenditures on editorial departments and promotional staffs for servicing schools. (...) Authors were usually chosen by publishers, and offered contracts stipulating royalties in exchange for all other rights. Writing involved a cooperative process between publishers, authors and editors. Greater attention to production techniques at that time had increased the costs of producing materials, and led publishers to employ designers, art editors and production experts. Publishers also maintained large forces of promotional staff for selling, distributing and demonstrating new materials, although their activities were controlled by regulations governing adoption at the state and local levels. Brammer concluded that textbook publishing in the USA, in contrast to many other countries, was controlled almost entirely by private publishing enterprise with little involvement by federal and state governments." (Watt 2007, p 8)

60s

Curriculum Reform Movement and changes in technology has main challenges to publishers: "The federal government funded curriculum development projects to produce materials in a range of media, which influenced publishers to match this change by producing products using various media. Technological improvements in printing, such as the introduction of rotary presses, offset printing, new techniques in binding paperback books, setting type photographically or electronically, and electrostatic printing, stimulated publishers into producing high quality products in terms of design." (Watt 2007, p 9)

Taxonomy of Educational Materials Industries

Focus Market Segments

• K-12 Level

The Educational Materials Sector for K-12 in the USA can be divided into non-digital and digital solutions. Digital Solutions is a general term that describes a range of technologies used to enhance the delivery and the administration of K-12 education, including data management systems, web-based course and assessment materials, and online tutoring and professional development. While under the non-digital solutions for K-12 education we find textbooks, course-materials and other products, such as educative toys and games.

• Higher Education Level
  • College Textbooks and Course Materials
  • University Press
    • i.e. Non-textbook academic and professional works used in college courses

Deprioritized Market Segments

• Educational Software
  • Internet-based activities (in Flash, Java, etc.)
  • Educational Games

Excluded from Field Definition

• Encyclopedias
• Periodicals
• Non-digital Educational Games
• Any resource not overtly produced for educational purposes
  • i.e. Flickr photos and YouTube videos used in media education
• YouTube EDU

Resources

Bibliographies Addressing Research Outline

Bibliography for Item 1 in EM
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Bibliography for Item 4 in EM
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Bibliography for Item 9 in EM
Bibliography for Item 10 in EM
Bibliography for Item 11 in EM

Links

Links on EM

Blogs and news from the field

Blogs to watch on EM

Interviews

See the full list of potential interviews on the Contacts for EM page.

Already Conducted:

1. Nicole Allen
   • Textbooks Advocate for The Student PIRGs and Campaign Director for Make Textbooks Affordable
   • Phone: (617) 747 - 4409
   • Email: nicole [at] studentpirgs [dot] org
2. Jonathan Emmons
   • Community Development Specialist, Connexions
   • Phone: (713) 348 - 2392
   • Email: jonathan [dot] emmons [at] cnx [dot] org
   • Conference Call Scheduled for 10am EDT on Monday, 03/25/09
     • Jonathan Emmons Interview Notes

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