Report May 2009

Status Report, ICP Project

Educational Materials

General Status

• Between late April and early May, the EM section of the wiki has enjoyed significant expansion, while undergoing a necessary restructuring
  • The textbook market was chosen as a major focus for the current stage EM research
  • Using the textbook market as a model the Field Research Methodology questions were split between two sectors of EM: The K-12 Level and The Higher Education Level to represent the different actors and market forces that determine the trends toward regulation/deregulation, openness/closedness
  • We now have a much stronger sense of the traditional publishing business strategies as compared with OER and a variety of alternative business models
• The anecdotal mapping of actors and outputs in Higher Ed reported on in the April Report, has become clearer in our quadrant mapping tool
• We are still learning about the K-12 market and need to explore both the market and social barriers that seem to be complicating this sector even more than the Higher Ed sector
• Our extensive bibliography has grown significantly; additional contemporary research and market news continue to become available and prove enlightening
• Our list of useful contacts is still expanding as well; and new interviews have been conducted and continue to be scheduled
• Finally, the Executive Summary on EM was successfully drafted for the report to the Ford Foundation in June 2009

Work Completed

• Our research in these areas is particularly strong:
  • Overall Picture of the EM field / Overall Picture of the EM-K12 field
  • Alternative Business Models in EM / Alternative Business Models in EM-K12
  • IP Profile of Biggest for-profit companies in EM
    • Pearson
    • Cengage Learning
    • McGraw-Hill
    • Wiley
    • Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck
• Our research in these areas is growing:
  • Overview of Economics of Intellectual Property in EM

    Need to expand economic analysis beyond copying issues

  • IP Profile of Universities working in EM
  • Commons-based Cases in EM / Commons-based Cases in EM-K12

    Some examples have been found and profiled briefly but analysis needs to go as deep as for for-profit companies

Work Remaining

• Our research in these areas needs to be expanded:
  • Outputs and Products of the field: Data, narratives and tools produced by the EM field
  • IP in EM / IP in EM-K12

    Still building list of important cases of copyright and patents

  • Competitive advantages in EM / Competitive advantages in EM-K12

    Some of this material can be extracted from other sections of the wiki

  • IP Profile of non-profit companies in EM
  • IP Profile of Associations in EM / IP Profile of Associations in EM-K12

    Need to expand profiles of each associations advocacy for IP and particular business practicies

  • IP Profile of Biggest for-profit companies in EM-K12
    • McGraw-Hill (Higher Ed sector profile is strong)
    • Pearson (Higher Ed sector profile is strong)
    • Houghton Mifflin / Harcourt Education
    • Reed Elsevier

Research Methodology in use

• Literature review (ongoing)
• Business School Cases review (awaiting reply from HBS staff)
• Media review: Area Specific Blogs and News (ongoing)
• Market databases and reports review
  • MarketResearch.com has been a key resource for K-12 and College market analysis
  • The ORBIS database has been useful in profiling individual companies
• Interviews, see Contacts for EM
  • Nicole Allen, Campaign Director for Make Textbooks Affordable - followed up in May 2009
  • Ahrash Bissell, Executive Director of ccLearn - interviewed by e-mail in May 2009
  • Joel Thierstein, Executive Director Connexions - contact in April 2009

Problems and Considerations

• Having focused mainly on textbooks thus far, how broad do we extend our research?
  • Supplementary materials often blur into the textbook market through the business strategy of bundling (including educational software)
• Arguments criticizing the high cost of textbooks in the US often point toward lower prices in foreign markets (the UK particularly), is there a place for a comparative study of reasons for lower prices for identical textbooks and greater price elasticity of those markets?
• Splitting The K-12 Level and The Higher Education Level has helped analysis and organization, however we find a number of orphaned, duplicated research question-based pages; there is a need to consolidate relevant information for each sub-sector and glean superfluous pages/questions.
  • i.e.: which are valid as having specific purposes for K-12 versus Higher Education concerns?: Overview of Economics of Intellectual Property in EM-K12, Data, narratives and tools produced by the EM-K12 field, IP in EM-K12, IP Profile of Universities working in EM-K12

Next Steps

• Continue literature review
  • Expand policy analysis
  • Keep abreast of latest news and trends on OER and company blogs
• Need to better understand both the economic/political and various social barriers to innovation
  • Do professors trust certain forms of EM over others, affecting OER adoption?
  • Do state's require mandates like California's to legitimize OER and peer produced EM at the K-12 level?
• Conduct a survey of K-12 teachers and higher education professors to look at social barriers
• Use California as a potential paradigmatic case in public policy pressure on business trends
• Expand descriptive research exercise to the remainder of the EM field, as defined:
  • More on higher education upper-level course EM, including University Press practices
  • More on supplementary materials (digital and non-digital)
  • Study educational software as market vs. sub-market