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Weekly News Digest
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January 23, 2012 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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Internet2 Partners With McGraw Hill and Courseload to Test eText Program
Internet2, McGraw-Hill, and Courseload announced implementation of an eText Pilot Trial Pack to students and faculty at five universities for the Spring 2012 semester. The five institutions, also Internet2 members, include the following: University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University; University of Minnesota; University of Virginia; and the University of Wisconsin.The pilot, which is based on Indiana University’s eText model, provides a timely and simple way for universities to quickly assess a new model for digital course materials. While an increasing number of etexts are already available at retail prices, eTexts can cost less when institutions negotiate attractive volume price deals to dramatically reduce costs to students while efficiently paying authors and publishers fairly for each use of their digital work. Participating universities in the pilot get McGraw-Hill eTexts, the Courseload reader and annotation platform integrated with their Learning Management System, and can be part of a joint research study of etext use and perceptions. Through the Courseload software, students can print, use social annotation with classmates and instructors, and access their etexts on any HTML5-capable tablet, smartphone, or computer. Students will receive their etexts at no cost as the institutions are subsidizing the study, and students who prefer a full hard-copy book may optionally order a print-on-demand version of the etext for a $28 fee. Faculty interest at the pilot institutions has been very strong. Internet2 is a not-for-profit advanced networking consortium comprising (as of June 2011) 221 U.S. universities, in cooperation with 45 leading corporations, 66 government agencies, laboratories, and other institutions of higher learning, 35 regional and state research and education networks and more than 100 national research and education networking organizations representing over 50 countries. Internet2 NET+ Services and program aggregate the IT needs of university members and efficiently contract with leading commercial firms for services tailored to that community. Recent NET+ opportunities for Internet2 members include cloud storage services from Box.Com, and cloud computing from Hewlett Packard and SHI. Source: Internet2
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Brandi Scardilli
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