As the reach of digital textbooks expands into various levels and stages of education, from preschool through medical school, one of the underserved areas of academic ebook publishing has been vocational education. Now, Pearson UK and Gutenberg Technology have teamed up to release digital textbooks in several areas of career education, while making the titles available on the Windows 8 platform. This newest app compatibility makes Pearson’s products available for Apple, Android, and the even broader reach of Windows 8 consumer learners.
More importantly, Gutenberg’s single workflow design means that publishers can create content without having to worry about the time delay of formatting it for different mobile devices. This is especially important in the vocational arena, as many US-based career training programs don’t qualify for the grant funding to purchase technology; students will often provide their own, and dictating that vocational students must adhere to purchasing devices on one platform instead of allowing them use mobile devices they are already own can be cost prohibitive for the students.
“The flexibility of our platform, which was engineered for industrial use, allowed us to add Windows 8 to our output list in less than three months,” said Francois-Xavier Hussherr, CEO of Gutenberg Technology, in a press release. “With such an innovative technology that masters the industrial creation of interactive multi-platform textbooks, Gutenberg Technology is now ready to offer Pearson mobile learning content on any device.”
While the publisher is already known for its digital textbooks, which are in use by millions of students worldwide, this initiative marks its expansion into a whole new level of certification programs. Pearson UK’s ActiveLearn Go, which it will launch at BETT 2013, already supports three vocational training programs, allowing students to access their learning materials on any mobile device.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
