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 market segments. This generally includes textbooks and course materials such as course packs, supplementary reading, and games and activities. In addition, this sector also provides materials for testing and assessment, materials for teachers, such as teachers guides, and materials under the articulation and evaluation groups.

Actors providing these materials are private companies, such as publishers which control the textbook and complementary materials market; global media companies focused in the family-based market - here Discovery Chanel is an example; universities providing closed and open educational materials and public institutions, such as national public radio.

"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)." (Iiyoshi and Kumar 2008, 149)

History

See History of US Textbook Publishing

"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." (Watt 2007, 4)

"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 analyze 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, 5)

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

Study of the field

Analyses of the EM sector based on the Field Research Methodology at:

Resources

Bibliographies Addressing Research Outline

Bibliography for Item 1 in EM
Bibliography for Item 2 in EM
Bibliography for Item 3 in EM
Bibliography for Item 4 in EM
Bibliography for Item 5 in EM
Bibliography for Item 6 in EM
Bibliography for Item 7 in EM
Bibliography for Item 8 in EM
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 Contacts for EM for full list of potential interviewees.

Already Conducted

• 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
  • E-mailed on 05/05/09

• Ahrash Bissell
  • Executive Director, ccLearn
  • Email: ahrash [at] creativecommons [dot] org
  • Sent list of formal interview questions on 04/30/09
    • Ahrash Bissell Interview Notes

• 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

• Joel Thierstein
  • Executive Director, Connexions
  • Email: joel [dot] thierstein [at] cnx [dot] org
  • Alt Email: joel [dot] thierstein [at] rice [dot] edu
  • Proposed interview/call for week of 04/13/09
    • Joel Thierstein Interview Notes

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