End of Day Links for September 30th, 2011

Some articles that caught our eyes this week regarding higher education:

ProfHacker talks about getting students to write for more than an audience of [n]one.

Inside Higher Ed realizes that "zombies are a good way to get people's attentions" in academic publishing.

Princeton goes open access, stops staff from handing all copyright to journals.

CollegeBound reflects on a report that finds that part-time college students rarely graduate.

And finally, Historiann wonders about college vs. "the real world."

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @AcademicPub and on Facebook too!

Tweet Roundup for September 23, 2011

A roundup of a number of our tweets from the week for our blog readers:

• Giving each lesson its own theme song as a way to raise student engagement from @facultyfocus http://t.co/0qrvx6CW #highered #teaching
•  Trends in College Spending 1999-2009 from the Delta Cost Project: http://t.co/oqAAqP7P (.pdf) #highered 
• Instructional Spending Not Keeping Up with Raises in Net Tuition @theCCAP notes http://t.co/kkcM9l83 #highered #college #university 
• 10 things that college students waste money on from @forbes http://t.co/llNEfyZy #campuschat #highered 
• Why #highered should care about the recent moves by #netflix / #qwickster http://t.co/qUvs5HFD #edtech

Be sure to follow us @academicpub, like us on Facebook, and visit us on the web at www.academicpub.com.

End of Day Links for September 20th, 2011

A few education related articles that have piqued our interest lately:

HackedEducation talks about Facebook and GPAs.

USNews notes that business schools are increasingly requiring students to study ethics.

An examination of what lessons can be learned in higher education from Netflix's recent flubs at Inside HigherEd.

And finally the NY Times has an interesting piece about football at the University of Chicago.

Want a constant stream of the most informative article about education? Follow @academicpub on Twitter. Be sure to also like us on Facebook!

End of Day Links for September 15th, 2011

Some education links that have caught our eye recently:

Mind/Shift notes that IBM Has Started its Own High School in New York City.

ELearnSpace discusses the "Duplication Theory" of Educational Value.

Higher Ed Costs Are Rising Faster Than Inflation according to the Commonfund Institute. (.pdf file)

The NY Times wonders What If the Secret to Success is Failure?

Community Colleges Can Expect Budget Cuts, Higher Tuition according to a study out of the University of Alabama. (.pdf file)

Be sure to follow us on twitter @AcademicPub for a stream of always up to date notes and thoughts on the world of education.

Who Can Benefit From Custom Text Books?

We're often asked by professors if custom publishing is right for them. While we steadfastly believe that it is right for every type of instructor we have noticed that certain disciplines lend themselves particularly well to services like AcademicPub.

First are those involved with Politics, Current Affairs, or Government; subjects that require consistently updated textbooks. Often professors in these fields complain that textbooks get old quickly; that they have to switch books entirely all too often between years or be caught teaching now irrelevant content. In some extreme cases this has pushed those instructors away from textbooks entirely, but for many there is a great attractiveness in the concept of being able to simply switch out a few chapters each year while retaining the same general form of a textbook.

Then there are professors in Media, Marketing, and Advertising. Many of these instructors find themselves consistently providing their own material and relying more on scholarly articles plucked from multiple sources. The ability to pull from multiple sources into a single text can be extraordinary attractive to academics in that situation.

The third type of instructor teaches TOEFL/ESL/ESOL. Often we hear complaints about finding books that truly teach conversational English (particularly localized conversational English). This dilemma forces these teachers to look elsewhere for materials. Often they express a desire to create their own workbook.

Have you published a custom book? What's your field and how has it helped you? Tell us all about it in the comments.

If you're interested in learning more about AcademicPub we suggest you take one of our webinars or explore our website.

And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Cambridge University Press and ecch Headline Ten New Partnerships For AcademicPub

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS AND ECCH HEADLINE TEN NEW PARTNERSHIPS FOR ACADEMICPUB New York, NY, September 13th, 2011. Cambridge University Press and ecch (The European Case Clearing House) are among a global group of partners who have just signed deals to present their world-class content to college and graduate school faculty users of AcademicPubTM, the higher education unit of SharedBook Inc. Cambridge University Press, a unit of Cambridge University in the United Kingdom (UK), publishes some of the finest academic and educational writing from around the world. The world's oldest publisher, its stated purpose is to "further the University's objective of advancing knowledge, education, learning and research." By signing with ecch, AcademicPub gains access to materials from 50 more content providers - including Babson, INSEAD, London Business School, Stanford and Thunderbird — as ecch houses the "largest collection of management case study materials to be found in the world." Dedicated to promoting case study-based learning in the management discipline, ecch facilitates the exchange of these materials on behalf of its member schools; its addition effectively doubles the number of partners providing content to AcademicPub. Element K and Vanderbilt University Press have also agreed to be part of the AcademicPub platform, as have Florida Institute of Government; Global Professional Publishing; Information Age Publishers; the International Monetary Fund (IMF); LFB Scholarly Publishing; and strategy+business magazine, published by Booz & Company. AcademicPub has been steadily adding publishers since its April 2011 launch. Princeton University Press and CRC Press, a division of Taylor and Francis, were among a group of partners announced last month. A complete list of all AcademicPub publishing partners can be found here. Today's announcement was made by Caroline Vanderlip, CEO, SharedBook Inc., who has spearheaded an AcademicPub-led revolution in how content is assembled and distributed to college students in the U.S. and, eventually, around the globe. "Our original idea was simple: to leverage our technology platform at SharedBook Inc., which we have used for more than seven years in consumer and enterprise publishing, and make it work for faculty members who want to provide students the very best content at the lowest possible price," said Vanderlip. Added Vanderlip: "What we've found is that simple ideas can also be profound — and potentially game-changing — especially in a market that is searching for quality materials to be delivered in real-time, copyright-cleared, easy-to-use formats, at affordable prices. We are thrilled with the embrace of our product across the entire chain, from content publishers to faculty users to students." The highly sophisticated uses of the AcademicPub search engine by faculty members have spurred SharedBook Inc. to accelerate a new release of its search engine, as more instructors demonstrate an inclination not only to search across platform and discipline, but also to incorporate timely Web materials and relevant content from their peers. With the breadth of materials now available in the Content Library, the new search engine's abilities to sort and filter by type adds speed and even more usability to the platform. It is now faster and easier for educators to explore and identify exactly what is most relevant for their students. About AcademicPub AcademicPub, Sharedbook Inc.'s technology platform for higher education, assembles, composes, prices and delivers custom textbooks - in e-book and/or print format. AcademicPub allows for immediate creation and inclusion of copyright-cleared content from anywhere, such as web articles, self-generated lectures or from the AcademicPub Content Library. Digital or print distribution generates a fast and easy way for educators to provide an engaging educational experience, with lower prices and up-to-the-minute materials for students. More information and free registration for faculty is available at www.academicpub.com. Headquartered in New York since 2004, SharedBook Inc. is privately held and can be found at www.sharedbook.com. Contact: James A. Boyle Boyle Public Affairs jim@boylepublicaffairs.com 571-213-3979 Permalink: http://academicpub.com/academicpub/press/cambridgeuniversityetc.html

End of Day Links for September 12th, 2011

A roundup of the education news and essays that we've been reading:

The Quick & The Ed Notes that the Student Loan Default Problem is Even Worse Than it Seems.

The College Solution looks at college cost calculators and notes wildly different answers.

10 Ideas to Lower University Press Book Prices from Insider Higher Ed's Blog U.

There's a new study out from the Pew Research Center surveying both adults in general and presidents of colleges about the digital revolution and higher education.

For all the best in breaking news in the world of #highered be sure to follow us on twitter @AcademicPub.

End of Day Links for September 7th, 2011

Some notable articles about the world of education that have caught our eye recently:

Katie Bachmeier at the Dakota Student writes that As Textbook Costs Increase, Students Find Other Alternatives to Acquire Books and Save.

Wired Campus reports that JSTOP has opened up U.S. Journal Content From Before 1923.

The issues of English as the Academic Lingua Franca are explored by Anamaria Dutceac Segesten in Inside Higher Ed.

Lynn O'Shaugnessy gives us 20 Surprising Higher Education Facts.

Finally, the Innovative Educator lists 25 Incredible Assistive Technologies.

Be sure to follow us on twitter @AcademicPub for a consistently updated stream of the latest and most important education news.

And if you're interested in learning more about AcademicPub we suggest you sign up for one of our Webinars, which will guide you through the entire process of how to create custom books for your classes.