CROATIAN ONLINE EDUBOOKSTORE CARNet Branka Vuk, Nino Ćosić, Mirta Janeš, Andrijana Prskalo-Maček, Marijana Pezelj Digital textbooks from the 1st grade to post-doc

eduBookstore Providing the education system in Croatia with an alternative to printed textbooks (e-textbooks) Modernising the education system (flexible and adaptable), cheaper books, easier publishing + modernising teaching methods = raising the QUALITY of education

Past? Heavy schoolbags, small circulations, expensive or non-existent textbooks on all levels (K-12, HE, VET) Current textbook standard: Focused on paper editions (content, design and technical specifications) Digital content as supplement to printed books (only optical media - CD-ROM, CD-DA, DVD- ROM, DVD-VIDEO, Blu-ray)

Present (eduBookstore) Converting all available and already approved school and university textbooks by any interested educational publisher into a digital format (ePub + pdf) AND offering them via an online/mobile platform

The good thing is… New government focused on ICT use in education Mention e-textbooks as one of the prominent projects – we expect support in changing the regulations (BUT also slowed us down)

eduBookstore Platform Based on existing platform – online and mobile app for Android and iOS (sales and use) Purchased book available on up to 6 devices (Adobe DRM) Further develop to adapt to the Croatian educational community and the specific characteristics of textbooks Proprietary but available to all edu institutions

eduBookstore Platform - adaptation

eduBookstore Platform – Phase I Web site – adapted for different levels of education (K- 12, HE, student, professor) login (+ local account) Personalised view according to role (student, professor, publisher) Notes, highlights Basic search options on web platform Mobile app - adaptable user interface (font size, background, display etc.) Hypelinks to external content

eduBookstore Platform - Phase II Advanced search options (title, author, keywords, root words, publisher and type of publication) Recommendation for further purchase based on profile Notes, highlights – sync and sharing abilities Page sorting based on user annotations for easier use of annotations (grouping, viewing, deleting…) Self-publishing options Accessibility features – web site, mobile app

Geography (junior year)

Business model Publishers (content) CARNet (infrastructure, end users) Platform developer (platform, mobile app) Book sales margin

Also… Communicating with stakeholders: Ministry od Education and relevant bodies Publishers (small and big) Authors, universities … to adapt regulations and standards …SLOW (iterative) PROCESS

Bottlenecks so far… Some publishers reluctant to invest (smaller publishing houses) Regulations need to be adapted (change of government good, but also hindering) Achieving all functionalities envisaged takes time in this business model Copyright and protection issues (DRM enough? self-publishing etc.)

Future “E-textbooks are defined as content that is delivered electronically on user devices. Unlike traditional print materials, e-textbooks can be edited to include up-to-date information, be assembled or disassembled to rearrange the sequence or to include content from other sources, offer multimedia representation of information and instructional exercises, and allow users to insert personal notes or diagrams as study aids.” (Bill Rust & Jan-Martin Lowendahl, Gartner)

Future Develop eduBookstore and app to allow for interactive multimedia e-textbooks Develop a tool for creation of interactive multimedia e-textbooks for the Croatian edu community + E-notebook for students (tool for integration of digital notes, materials, videos, multimedia etc.)

Contacts