March 23, 2011

Digitizing an Industry

Since starting Inkling, we’ve believed in the value of working with existing publishers to build the world’s best learning content. Building something as complex as Inkling is enough for one company to chew on. Building pedagogically sound, technically accurate textbooks is another endeavor altogether, and we’re happy to work with folks who already know how to do that. That’s why we partner.

Today, we announced new depth to these relationships. Both McGraw-Hill and Pearson, two of the largest educational content providers in the world, have invested in Inkling, signaling a strong endorsement of our approach, our technology and, most of all, our team.

In addition to these investments, we also announced some significant content commitments, including the following:

• The top 100 undergrad titles from McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
• The top medical reference titles from McGraw-Hill Professional.
• A full MBA curriculum from Pearson Education.
• Top undergraduate titles from Pearson Education.
• A full medical education curriculum from Wolters Kluwer Health.

So what do these investments and content commitments mean? We think it’s a watershed moment for the industry. We’re finally turning the page on flat, PDF-based digital textbooks and moving to a richer model of engagement that takes advantage of the unique power of devices like iPad.

In fact, Inkling was singled out in Xplana’s recent revision to their study on the movement toward digital textbooks. In the revision, they increased their forecast for digital textbook sales significantly, and pointed to the iPad and Inkling as catalysts for the change.

For universities, the Catch-22 around iPad adoption may finally have been broken. Many institutions have been on the sidelines waiting for quality educational content. They have been understandably underwhelmed by what they’ve seen before Inkling. Indeed, now that Inkling has a full line of textbooks for business school, medical school and undergraduate courses in production, institutions can move forward with confidence knowing there will be fantastic content available on iPad for all of their students.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, for students and faculty, today’s announcement means Inkling is coming to your school this fall. iPad-toting students will have access to a wealth of interactive content, easy search, and they can buy everything by the chapter. Professors can set up note streams for their students inside the textbooks they use, and best of all, instructors don’t have to change anything to accommodate Inkling. It just fits in.

So, what’s your school doing this fall to take advantage of these new opportunities? The world is moving quickly, and we hope you’ll join us in changing education for the better, one “aha” moment at a time. We’re glad to have the industry titans lining up with us to make it happen.