Higher Education Textbook publishers are adapting to the growing need of eBooks as the textbook consumption has shifted from physical books to digital devices and hence an imperative need in the publishing process.

Designing an interactive and engaging eBook is always a tedious task and an extremely challenging one too, for publishers. In order to foster interactivity, design elements must be included in the higher education textbooks so as to make these engaging and relevant to the students.

Here is a checklist as a guideline for ePublishing higher education eBooks:

a) Layout – Choose the right one:

The visual appeal of a book is determined by its layout. Learners lose interest if quality content and better reading experiences are not provided. Digital Publishing has two layouts – Fixed and Reflowable. Depending on the content type, layout needs to be established.

Generally, books with a lot of content must go for reflowable content for ease of reading, adjusting to the screen size of the devices they read/learn from. A book with more images/diagrams must go for a fixed layout.

A right layout will really enhance the reading experience for students.

b) Format – Keep it extremely simple:

Students must be able to find the content they are looking for in an easy manner without having to spend lots of time zooming, panning the pages. The pages of the book must be clear, neat and non-cluttered providing easy access and navigation.

Since eBooks are accessed on smart devices an easy to locate menu will assist. The design must be visually appealing to the eye of the reader.

c) Thumbnail – Select the right cover page:

eBooks must have a visually attractive cover page/image which is relevant to the course subject as it is a customer attraction tool. Ensuring the thumbnail image is clear as much as possible, so that graphics and text are clearly readable.

d) Navigation – Ensure ease of access:

eBook is popular for a few good reasons – ease of access anytime anywhere, convenience. Apart from layout and design, ease of access is also very important.

Pages within the eBook must have a quick load time, zoomable, and have no difficulty traversing through different pages and links.

e) Interactivity – Include elements:

eBooks standout when you as a publisher incorporate graphics so that users get engaged and advanced features apart from external hyperlinks, explaining the concepts in a detailed manner.

Higher Education Ebook Publishers are to ensure that there are multimedia interactive elements included in the higher education textbooks fostering better engagement.

Further inclusion of audio and video in learning lessons will improve understanding of concepts for students. Other features such as AR/VR simulations, assessments, quizzes, slideshare etc, will make eBook alive.

f) Content – Ensure Relevancy:

The success of students’ learning experiences predominantly depends on the content that is presented and is consumed. Though the content across different publishers remains the same, the key differentiators is the incorporation of the interactive elements as discussed above that impress students in choosing one in comparison to your competitors.

g) Assessments – add for consistent improved performance:

Publishers must and should include assessments in their eBooks for impending assignments and assessments.

Online assessments in the eBooks are to be made available in various formats including drag and drop questions, brief answers, quizzes, MCQ’s etc, to help students to identify their mistakes instantaneously by the teacher for evaluation, so that students can improve their learning.

h) Anytime Anywhere Access – for ease of learning:

eBooks allow students to access learning material anytime anywhere on any device at their convenient time, both online and in offline modes.

Hence, publishers need to include the feature of 24X7 access.

i) Affordable Pricing – Set for maximising the Sales:

Unaffordable pricing with challenges in terms of Cost of Goods Procured/Sold for Publishers is one of the most difficult parts.

Publishers will do well by providing eBooks on subscription basis than their print counterparts where rentals and used textbooks were put into use. Digital Publishers can allow students to rent eBooks for a limited time and then renew the subscription later, based on need basis on a periodic basis, say monthly/yearly basis.

Publishers can also bundle up a few eBooks based on the grades of the students and offer them at incentivized rates, keeping a strong consumer base.

j) Right DIstribution Channels – Choose from and select the right one for maximising the ROI:

Distribution is always challenging when publishing eBooks is done. Either selling eBooks on already existing eStores or setting up your own eStore are the only two best options.

Renting or subscription based models are beneficial for both students and publishers.

Conclusion:

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