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Are Digital Textbooks More Effective for K-12 Curriculum | Kitaboo

The K-12 curriculum is increasingly being dominated by digital textbooks as educational institutes are adopting this new form of study material to teach school students. The K-12 curriculum usually comprises of courses with varying difficulty levels and complexity. As students gradually move from K to 12, their learning needs also increase. While traditional textbooks are still a part of the educational curriculum, eBooks are rapidly becoming the preferred learning partner for students. And rightfully so, for an eBook provides much more interaction and engagement than a paperback textbook. Hence, publishers are making a move towards digital publishing to meet this growing need.

But what makes digital textbooks preferable over paperback textbooks? Surely, students must have demonstrated a liking towards eBooks or there must have been statistical evidence of students scoring better grades when learning from digital textbooks. There are many reasons as to why K-12 students must leverage digital textbooks in their learning journey; portability and cost-effectiveness being two of the major factors inspiring this change.

Related: Are etextbooks More Affordable Than Textbooks

Let us have a look at why digital textbooks are more effective for K-12 curriculum:

1. Wide Range of Digital Learning Material on a Single Device:

We know that students require more than just one textbook to prepare for their exams. Earlier, publishers used to distribute extra learning resources which students can buy and refer in order to make notes. But now, instead of providing those extra learning materials in the print format, publishers are embedding them into the eBook itself. There are K-12 content libraries which consists of thousands of titles for students to choose from. Students can refer to the content that they feel will help them understand the concept better and score well in their tests. So, instead of buying multiple books for the same subject, students can buy just one eBook. Moreover, a digital textbook can present content in different styles, such as infographics, videos, click and reveal images and texts etc., making learning an enriching experience.

2. Etextbooks Link to External Resources

Today, any assignment is incomplete without a little help from search engines like Google. Students need more information. And that information is available on the web. While it is not possible to incorporate every possible information into a printed textbook, digital publishers can include links to relevant sites from where students can find additional information. This proves helpful as students don’t have to spend time on the search engine browsing for relevant data.

3. Short Nuggets Help in Information Retention:

Bite-sized knowledge nuggets are created to help students to refresh their memory. Students have a lot of notes and study materials to go through in an academic year. Instead of going through entire chapters all over again, these short bursts of information will help them remember the key takeaways from each chapter. They can review the lessons just-in-time before a class test or an examination.

4. Always Accessible:

Students access smartphones for around five hours a day. They spend their hours watching, reading and listening to content, or learning new stuff over the internet. By creating digital textbooks for K-12 students, you can ensure that they access their course materials anytime during the day, just like their smartphone content. This allows them to access notes and complete assignments anywhere. Even if they forget or lose their device, they can still access the eBook by logging in from another device. Millennial students belong to the instant gratification generation, and hence, providing them with materials which they can view at their convenience leads to a better learning experience.

Related: How to Improve Student Learning Outcomes with Digital Learning

5. Cost Effective:

Students usually spend nearly $1000 per semester on textbooks. etextbooks are available at a much cheaper price than their print versions, making them affordable for students. With publishers now offering eBooks on rental subscription basis, the demand for etextbooks has risen exponentially. As for publishers, they don’t have to face losses due to unsold physical books anymore. And with the subscription model in place, they can ensure a steady stream of revenue as students renew their subscriptions every few months or on an annual basis. Thus, digital textbooks are cost-effective not only for students but also for publishers.

Click here to know more about digital textbooks in k-12 curriculum

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8 Workplace Safety Mistakes You Must Avoid | Kitaboo

An accidental fall could cause a grievous injury. And if this fall occurs at the workplace, the employer has to take responsibility for the employee’s well-being and recovery. The outcome of the fall could be anything; the employee might fully recover while the organization bears the treatment expenses, or it could lead to something worse, in which case the company could face legal charges, along with a setback on its reputation. So, isn’t it better to take precautions and preventive measures to reduce avoidable mistakes and ensure workplace safety?

Accidents can happen anywhere and anytime in spite of the best safety programs in place. Undertaking certain strategic measures can help prevent these workplace injuries and illnesses. In this blog we will look at some common workplace safety mistakes which should be avoided in order to maintain a safe working environment.

Listed below are some key mistakes to avoid in order to ensure workplace safety :

1. Lack of Effective Training

Employees must be well trained in handling tools and equipment. Lack of proper training could lead to risks in the future. For example, if an employee is not well aware of how to operate a machine, s/he could end up causing damage to the equipment or to him/herself. Such kind of occupational hazards can be easily avoided by delivering timely training and conducting tests and assessments to gauge their understanding. With online safety training modules, it becomes easier to deliver training to your employees, as they can access the courses any time they want.

Related: [Guide] How to Deliver Workplace Safety Training on Mobile Devices

2. Incorrect Posture:

Observe the people around you, most of them tend to slouch while sitting and are intently staring at their laptops or mobile devices. The most common problem that people face in corporate offices are back, neck and eye related complaints. Constantly sitting in front of the laptop causes eye strain, leading to vision related problems. For people with desk jobs where they have to sit for long hours, posture plays an important role. There are certain ideal postures for desk-job employees, where they must sit with their shoulders and back straight, feet resting on the ground and arms at a certain angle while working on a computer. But people hardly tend to follow these rules, which eventually affects them in the long run. To ensure that employees are maintaining the right posture while working, you can roll out emails emphasizing the importance of correct posture and the health problems that it could avoid.

3. Content Spilled on the Floor:

Wet floors cause people to fall more often than you’d like to think. At times, there could be some form of liquid spilled on the floor which might go unnoticed. So, your admin team must ensure that the floor is cleaned every few hours. Routine floor cleaning process will help keep the surroundings clean and prevent any unfortunate accidents.

4. Workplace Stress:

Stress often leads to many additional health risks. Workplace stress is usually caused due to long working hours, conflicts with coworkers or managers, too much work pressure etc. These work-related problems often affect an employee’s mental well-being. Workplace stress also demotivates employees, resulting in high turnovers. To tackle this issue, you must encourage employees to come forth and inform the HR or managers about work-related stress, if any. If you cannot provide an immediate solution to their problem, assure them that you will help them as soon as possible. Try to create a balanced work environment to keep your employees happy and stress-free.

Click here to continue reading about workplace safety mistakes

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7 Reasons Why You Should Revamp Your Old eLearning Courses

With evolving technology and knowledge, it becomes imperative for organizations to revamp their eLearning courses to make them relevant to their employees and the current digital environment. Revamping or updating eLearning course content is relatively simple in case you are using a Learning Management System (LMS) to design and update your content.

But first let us see why you should revamp your old eLearning courses:

1. Make the Content More Relevant to the Times

We are living in an era where technology is constantly evolving, necessitating the need to update eLearning courses in tune with new formats. For example, it was just a few years ago that publishers would transform their prints books into PDF files. But the coming of age of media formats such as graphics, animations, virtual reality/augmented reality, audio and video files has taken designing of eLearning courses to a whole new level. With the aim to make them more engaging, relevant, and immersive.

2. Make Learning a Real-time Experience

Taking the above point forward, the addition of rich media to existing eLearning courses not only makes learning a multi-sensory experience but also more contextual to real-life situations. This provides learners the opportunity to learn and practice concepts in an enhanced or simulated environment. To illustrate this with an example, you may have an eLearning course on the human anatomy. You can add life-like 3D models of the heart to your lesson on blood circulation to enable learners to experience how the heart really functions. Adding features such as these to your existing eLearning courses will make them more exciting and real-time for the learners. And the bonus is that since you already have existing eLearning content, you don’t have to start from the scratch – you can revamp the courses to add a simulated environment, providing the end-learners with a first-hand learning experience.

3. Make Learning Possible Anywhere and Anytime

When eLearning courses were first introduced, they were mainly designed for laptops and desktops. However, with the increasing penetration of the Internet and easy availability of smartphones and tablets, more and more people are accessing information on their mobile devices. While on the move or in the comfort of their own space. For digital publishers this means that they now have to revamp their existing courses in tune with the new modes of access. With desktops, eLearning was mainly restricted to an enclosed space with special time earmarked for learning and training. However, mobile learning necessitates eLearning content to be in the form of micro-nuggets or small bites, such that each bite is complete in itself and is ready for consumption anywhere and at any time. Micro-learning is also in sync with today’s learners’ needs. The millennial generation is bombarded with a plethora of choices which means that their attention span is very limited. To capture and retain interest it becomes important to design eLearning courses in the form of small nuggets that can provide them all the information they want at the time when they need it the most without wading through a sea of information. This made the publishers redesign their existing courses and break them down into micro-bites that can be accessed on mobile phones.

Related: Supercharge Your Employee Training Program with Bite Sized Learning

4. Make Content Accessible on All Devices

As said above, learners are now accessing content on their laptops and also on their mobile devices. Most of the earlier eLearning courses were designed for desktops and laptops implying that if the same content was accessed on mobile devices then learners would have to scroll horizontally and vertically to read a sentence or paragraph, which needless to say, would be a tiring experience. Since most people now access their content on their mobile phones, it has become necessary for digital publishers and trainers to revamp their eLearning courses in a format that works with all devices, and reflowable content is the answer. With an LMS, you can choose between a fixed layout, which is an exact rendition of a printed page, implying that every aspect of the layout will remain the same on all viewing devices; or a reflowable layout in case your content is fluid and needs to fit with the size of the screen by text-wrapping and rescaling.

Related: Things You Must Consider Before Selecting an eLearning Company

5. De-clutter your eLearning Course Design

Your present eLearning course may be bogged down with irrelevant images and ideas. Revamping existing content is a cost-effective way to enhance the value of your eLearning course such that your employees don’t have to wade through irrelevant materials and outdated facts, figures and visuals that were updated months ago. By revamping your existing eLearning course, you can prevent a cognitive overload and allow the learners to retain the takeaways without having to sieve through information that is not relevant to their job duties and responsibilities.

Click here to continue reading about why you should revamp your elearning courses

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How to Create Digital Textbooks in 5 Easy Steps | Kitaboo (https://kitaboo.com/create-digital-textbooks/)

eBooks do not want an creation in nowadays’s age. maximum colleges and academic institutes have followed eBooks or digital textbooks as part of their courseware. college students are also no stranger to digital textbooks and its a couple of benefits, way to regular phone usage. even though eBooks had been around for nearly a decade, it has handiest been a few years since it has picked up the pace and been fully integrated into the current schooling system. And it's miles glaring from the fact that nowadays there are numerous software program gear to be had to create digital textbooks.

With capabilities so easy that there’s now not a need for multiple teams to handle the ebook production manner, teachers can themselves create a compelling virtual textbook with all of the required features and functions that they deem suitable for a pupil’s mastering enjoy. It has eased work for publishers as properly by disposing of a variety of steps and making e-book introduction a value-effective and time-saving manner.

Also read: How to Create an Interactive eBook (Simple Step-by-Step Guide)

Now allow us to take a look at the way to create digital textbooks: Step 1: pick out the layout Template The layout of a digital textbook relies upon on the grade for which it's far being made and the situation of the e-book. So, whether or not you're designing digital etextbooks for k-12 or higher training students, the first component you need to determine is what type of e-book do you need to create? Is it going to be textual content heavy with pics used sparingly? Or is it going to contain plenty of diagrams and charts? based totally on this, you can determine which format you need to move for- fixed or reflowable.

additionally, right here you may decide upon other aesthetics of your virtual textbook. The font fashion, font length, color, page border, and so forth. With an ebook introduction software, all this may be completed in a very green and simple manner. It’s as smooth as drag and drop. At the click of a button, you will have your format geared up. ebook introduction software program has lots of built in templates which you can select from, and which you may tweak as in keeping with your liking.

Also read: Finding the Best ebook Creator | 8 Best eBook Creation Software

Step 2: choose the quilt picture the duvet photo is always essential as it’s the primary component that attracts the reader to a book. Even inside the case of educational books, you need to provide importance to the cover picture as there are many other virtual textbooks to be had on the eStore for college students to browse via. Make the quilt picture applicable and interesting. you can either upload a layout of your very own choice or cross for an existing template, if available.

To compete with the huge publishers, you want to make a function-rich virtual textbook that covers all the relevant topics that a scholar requires. cover picture/thumbnail picture is just some thing that offers out the primary impression of your e-book. ensure that the thumbnail photograph is obvious sufficient to be visible on a small display screen tool.

Also read: 12 Mistakes Almost Every Publisher Makes while Creating an eBook

Step 3: add content material and Interactivity you can both upload a PDF or doc report to the software, as a way to then be transformed to an ePUB report. Or you could begin writing directly at the e-book introduction software program, whichever fits you. a number of the digital e-book advent systems have the authoring function which lets in the consumer to jot down content material immediately at the software program and then decorate it further. once the ePUB record is ready, you can now start enriching the digital textbook.

Related:How to Identify the Best eBook Conversion Services

Interactive functions are what units digital textbooks other than printed paperback textbooks. So, add interactivities to maintain the readers engaged. apart from multimedia elements like audio, video, and images, you can embed the content with augmented reality to create an immersive mastering enjoy. online tests can be delivered which consist of more than one assessment strategies to screen students’ knowledge retention capability and examine their understanding.

Also read: 9 Benefits of Interactive eBooks

Step four: upload table of Contents And subsequently, once everything is achieved, you create the table of contents. this is to be executed ultimate. In digital textbook introduction system, the TOC is routinely created with all the topics corresponding to the suitable page numbers. as soon as it is created, make sure that it links to the right pages.

Step 5: put up After making sure that the whole thing’s in place, hit post. Your virtual textbook is now equipped to be distributed. The licensing and distribution bit is looked after in this degree. It’s as much as the writer and academic institute whether or not they need to create a set license or an individual license.

while you’re developing the digital textbooks, you furthermore mght need to devise on the way to make the virtual eBooks to be had to the students. Publishers are adopting diverse means to make profitable offers out of digital textbook income. they're not handiest selling books on eStores, however are also renting out eBooks on subscription foundation.

but the first issue you require to create virtual textbooks is an ebook creation platform. deciding on the right e-book creation platform is extraordinarily vital as with out the proper platform you may not be capable of create a e book which you intended for. right here are some matters to do not forget before selecting an ebook introduction software.

make sure that it has an easy-to-use interface check whether or not the software accepts one of a kind input codecs The software program have to make certain cozy introduction and delivery of content material The software program ought to be like minded with multiple running systems test the types and codecs of interactive elements that the tool supports With the help of e-book creation software equipment and applications, it has turn out to be very easy for educational publishers to create and publish eBooks. although the print book income are dwindling, ebook is a secure investment as human beings are certainly going for a digital future.

With smartphones and pills turning into nearly a need, it's miles handy to leverage those mediums to create and deliver interactive eBooks for students. the usage of digital textbooks will help publishers to create cost-powerful eBooks and promote them to college students at an inexpensive price; at the same time as students get get admission to to pleasant mastering materials, whole with interactivities and engaging content, presenting them a better getting to know revel in.

Related: Top Trends Higher Education Textbook Publishers Must Follow

Must read: 8 Trends in Education Technology That Will Have A Major Impact | 2019

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How to Make Workplace Safety Training Modules Future Ready

Safety training is an indispensable part of organizational training. Every employee who joins an organization has to undertake health and safety training in order to understand the safety practices and protocol of that place. And just like we future proof everything else in business, workplace safety training modules too, must be made in a way that is always future ready. Future proofing means creating software or product in such a way that future technological advances do not render it useless or less effective.

Every employer is liable to provide a safe working environment for their employees, and the rules and precautions to maintain these safe working conditions should be communicated effectively to the workforce. And what better way to do that than use a mobile platform? A workplace safety training module is best delivered on a mobile platform as we will see further in this post.

Also read: [Guide] How to Deliver Workplace Safety Training on Mobile Devices

Here’s how you can make workplace safety training modules future-ready:

1. Ensure Cloud Storage:

More than half the world has their data saved on the cloud. Because it is reliable and easily accessible. Storing data on local systems and hard drives have become passé, as they could easily get corrupted or worse- crash, leaving you with no choice, but to create everything from scratch, unless you have a backup. Cloud is the most reliable and secure backup you can have.

Data stored on the cloud can be accessed from any location, any device and anytime. If your employee wants to know how to safely handle an equipment, they can look up for information and quickly find an answer. Organizations are heavily relying on cloud-based storage these days to keep their data secure.

Also read: BYOD and its Impact on Enterprise Content Delivery

2. Create Mobile-First Content:

This is yet another way to make your safety training module future-ready. As the world is busy devouring content on mobile devices, you can’t be stuck up with old-school techniques such as classroom-based training or desktop-based training. In fact, you can club the two and deliver blended training if needed. But if not blended, going for mobile training is a no-brainer. Delivering training on mobile devices has numerous benefits- portability, anytime access, monitoring performance, tracking progress etc. Learners can access the learning material regardless of time, pace, or place.

Must read: 7 Most Effective Ways to Deliver Training Content on Mobile

Also download: HOW TO GUIDE: How to Create Mobile-Friendly Training Content

3. Create Interactivity with HTML5:

Adobe’s Flash Player will become obsolete by next year, as the company has announced that it will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020. So, content creators now have to migrate to open formats such as HTML5. After this announcement, organizations around the globe are hurrying to convert all their Flash-based content to HTML5. This is being done so that the browsers can support the pieces of content that were earlier supported by Flash.

This means that the web games and videos that were earlier supported by Flash have to be moved to an HTML5 platform. If you have an existing Flash-based training module, you would have to migrate to HTML5 to keep it running in the post-Flash era. This is an important step to take while you are planning to future proof your safety training modules.

Click here on online workplace safety training modules to read more.

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Trends for higher education textbook publishers

The growing demand for online learning resources has led the higher education textbook publishers to stay updated. Here are the top trends that Higher Education Textbook Publishers must know.

The condition of the US advanced education advertise looks marginally quelled by virtue of the way that the administration has diminished subsidizing for advanced education. The spending proposition for the 2020 financial year mentioned an estimated $7.1 billion cut in subsidizing for the training office, contrasted with a 10% decline in 2019. Along these lines, the colleges are thinking that it's hard to deal with their working expenses.

This has prompted advanced education reading material distributers confronting the brunt as that is the main territory where understudies and foundations can lessen their spends, by settling on computerized course books. Understudies have respected this change as they currently have a huge number of decision in the advanced learning space. A couple of creative computerized distributers are putting forth eBooks at a small amount of the cost charged by print distributers.

This drove advanced education course book distributers to move towards computerized distributing, though reluctantly as they discovered that advanced is the main path forward. In any case, they before long discovered that contending with officially existing eBook distributers is a significant test. Enormous names in the distributing business like Cengage and Pearsons have effectively moved to computerized distributing and have constructed their reliable client base. For the individuals who are recently investigating the advanced market, staying aware of the patterns which change quickly is troublesome. With new innovation always developing with new and upgraded highlights to improve the understudy learning knowledge, course book distributers expected to stay aware of them. So as to offer the most recent and refreshed course material to advanced education understudies. On the whole, they expected to manufacture a client base by giving better arrangements and high caliber and significant learning materials.

Here are a portion of the top patterns that advanced education course reading distributers must pursue to expand their computerized deals:

1. Change to Digital Publishing:

There's no getting away from the computerized transformation. Notwithstanding declining print deals, a few distributers are as yet hesitant to make the move. A great deal of huge names in the distributing business have needed to rebuild business tasks because of the diminishing number of print book deals. In such a situation, advanced distributing is the main down to earth decision accessible. As the client base is for the most part commanded by advanced locals, giving them seminars on a computerized stage will enable you to adjust to the changing condition and get advanced education understudies to use your eBooks. A few distributors like to have computerized just as print organizations running all the while, with more spotlight on advanced obviously. This could be viewed as a move to keep the incomes rolling in from the two sides. Changing over to advanced distributing will likewise diminish the misfortune from unsold books. Distributors can pick to print duplicates of reading material just if there is an interest, along these lines sparing expenses.

2. Enable Students to Customize Course Materials:

Enable them to pick and pick the parts that they accept will enable them to adapt better. Giving this alternative gives them the opportunity to choose and purchase parts from eBooks that they require. Instead of giving out a default gathering of sections in each eBook, let them pick their very own learning assets and make customized learning materials. This part based substance determination will empower advanced education understudies to take and consolidate explicit learning content that suits their adapting needs.

3. Team up with Industry Experts:

There is by all accounts a gigantic crisscross between boss needs and understudy abilities. Bosses feel that the abilities picked up by graduating understudies are not industry arranged. For instance, understudies graduating with a software engineering certificate probably won't know to code, all things considered. It is hard to connect the aptitude hole with obsolete courses being educated at colleges. Thus, so as to handle this issue, the advanced education course reading distributors need to tie up with businesses. The businesses would then be able to manage them into curating content that is industry-applicable. This will assist the understudies with being talented in territories which are really required by businesses. Distributors, instructive establishments and endeavors would all be able to team up and structure an educational modules which will enable understudies to pick up information about different abilities required in the present place of employment showcase.

Click here to continue reading about top trends for higher education textbook publishers