The change of business model – when will digital education master the print?
That’s the question that educational publishers have most often asked themselves recently, closely observing the changing world of education. Digital learning becomes a popular method in many schools worldwide. More and more MoE subsidizes digital solutions, just as more and more world-famous publishers include digital methods in their offers (see examples). To what level will the change reach?
The last few years increased market demand for digital products and decreased the practicality of paper textbooks. Remote learning visibly exposed its disadvantages, such as inefficiency. The paper book is not adaptive; it doesn’t offer personalized learning, doesn’t generate Big Data, and simply isn’t attractive to learners – digital natives.
The trend for the educational business model
The key for the publishers is to change the attitude towards digital solutions from “nice-to-have” additions to the core paper offering to a significant part of their business. The educational publishing market is shifting into a hybrid model, connecting the advantages of traditional and modern methods. It means that while hard copies remain relevant, the world of education is eagerly adapting to the dynamic technological advancement.
However, we must remember that the same as the difference in EdTech advancement, the pace for changing the proportion between digital and printed materials will vary from region and market. Digital education speeds up in many countries, but in some parts of the world, it will not be needed immediately and will not replace the book entirely.
Dynamical digital education change means fast publishers’ adaptation
With the hybrid model shift of priorities in the portfolio comes to a transformation of publishers’ long-established operations model. Today, there is a need to develop skills suited to a more digital-oriented company without losing the original core competencies. How can these two be reconciled?
How, and above all, what skills are needed for publishers suited to the hybrid model?
When will digital master the print?
