University professors' selection criteria for teaching resources in large undergraduate classes

¶ … universities and colleges are crowded places making the jobs of teachers and professors a difficult one in attending to personal needs of the students. In addition, suggesting textbooks, either the printed format or e-books is not easy, as few large players dominate the publishing market. The introduction and access of technology has added to the confusion. The e-books add the dimension of larger interaction between student-peers, student-student and peer-peer groups, helping the pursuit of education and dissemination and analysis of knowledge that is the prime objective of education in universities. The continued inactivity of university presses has only complicated the decision-making capacity of the professors at the graduate and under-graduate levels, as specific, proactive, and responsive textbook production (whether in traditional or digital form) remains largely within the confines of select few, large publishing houses in the American universities. In this paper, issues relating to textbooks, teacher's preferences and related issues are attempted through a study of limited literature that is available.

1. What parameters are used by American university professors in choosing classroom teaching resources?

Some of the most difficult classes to teach in the universities are undergraduate classes that have high enrolments. University professors in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia utilize different approaches to tackle the difficulties related to teaching these undergraduate classes and thus create a learning environment that is effective. The approaches encompass utilization of both organizational and simple strategies and a range of advanced technologies and communications equipments to better the learning environment. High enrolment classes are usually taught by instructors who have been trained to lecture smaller classes. This creates a situation that is at times inefficient and unfulfilling to both the instructors and the students, by consequence. The difficulties encountered in teaching large undergraduate classes continue to persist even now (Hanover Research, 2010).

Large undergraduate classes have been a common and almost standard feature in colleges and universities in the U.S. And around the globe for quite some time. As such, lecturers across universities have come up with several strategies to help them effectively structure and teach these large classes. These strategies are designed in such a manner to make instruction times efficient and productive, to improve the interaction between the student and the faculty, and/or to create a learning environment that is proactive. While it is possible and easier to make abrupt changes to a course plan in smaller sized classes, the situation is different in high-enrolment undergraduate classes where it is particularly important to clearly and firmly organize the course plan before the first class meeting. The main objectives for professors instructing high enrolment classes is to make the class seem or appear smaller than it really is, to motivate the undergraduate students to participate and for them to make themselves easily accessible to students. The issue is about the instructors thrust on changing the normally passive learning environment, into an environment that is active and the students can be individually engaged. It is crucial for professors to create and encourage a student-faculty interaction in order to build an environment where the professors are not only easily accessible but the students also feel very comfortable approaching them. To achieve these objectives, professors utilize several teaching and organizational approaches. Of late an increasing number of institutions of higher learning have been incorporating newer technologies to further enhance the teaching of high-enrolment undergraduate classes (Hanover Research, 2010).

A key dimension in the organization of high enrolment undergraduate classes is the strategic planning of assessments. Certainly it is difficult in large classes to grade assignments submitted by the many students, so it is necessary to spend time to create templates for assessment that are both practical as well as effective. One commonly used approach of doing so is by utilizing a combination of easy-to-mark multiple choice questions (MCQs) assignments to test basic knowledge and more taxing projects such as essays to evaluate higher learning objectives. Apart from a clear, well-defined and comprehensive course organization, another key strategy for teaching high-enrolment classes is to create and encourage the interaction between the students and the faculty. Towards creating an environment where students are comfortable to approach and interact with their professors and are motivated to do so, professors can choose to utilize from the several conventional, simple methods to connect with the undergraduate students (Hanover Research, 2010). Some of the primary means of facilitating student-faculty interaction include:

Spending time at the end of lecture sessions talking to the students. Professors can also, if possible end the classes before time to give the students adequate time to approach them and ask questions.

Professors and other instructors can also try to call the undergraduate students they are teaching by their names. Since it can be difficult to remember the names of each and every student in the class, professors can have the students place placards bearing their names on their desks.

Professors also ought to walk around the class to enable the students to feel more connected.

Professors can also have their students fill out a "student profile" that details their interests during the first class meeting (Hanover Research, 2010).

Several new technologies have lately been incorporated to transform high enrolment classes into learning environments that are effective and rewarding. These technologies are directed at enhancing lectures, developing electronic forums for out-of-class learning and creating in-class learning instruments. These three functions are directed towards creating an atmosphere of active learning in large classes. Professors can utilize modern technology to assist them to deliver traditional lectures more effectively to large classes. In a high-enrolment class, students usually have trouble comprehending all the material covered in class. In fact, one study reported that students may learn or record a paltry 52% of the material covered during a lecture. This is attributed to the fact that students are usually susceptible to experiencing several "attention breaks" during a lecture. Utilizing technologies such as visual aids makes lessons exciting and more interesting and is one of the ways through which professors can combat the "attention breaks" phenomenon (Hanover Research, 2010).

The technology that has become commonplace in the teaching of high-enrolment classes in advanced universities is an audience response system. Audience response systems incorporate the use of handheld devices that enable the students to interact with and respond to lecturers. Clickers, part of the audience response systems, enable professors to gather numerous types of feedback for students in high enrolment classes that are often not conducive for the individual interactions between the students and the professors. In many scenarios, clickers enable students to interact and contribute more freely than they could without the technology. This is particularly true in high enrolment classes where even if the professors wanted to, a sufficient amount of time would not be available for all the students to contribute. The ability of clickers to enable anonymous contributions from students is one of its top benefits. Clickers also contribute to enhanced classroom environments. Using clickers, professors can make their students "clock in" using their clickers to note how many are present. Furthermore, by asking questions and getting responses during the class session professors can gauge if the students are paying attention throughout the lecture. Utilized in this manner, clickers essentially become monitoring devices enabling professors teaching high enrolment classes to keep track of the students coming to class and to monitor their participation. Some professors have even incorporated the use of the clicker to count students' final grade; a decision that has resulted in some professors recording significantly increased lecture attendance. Thus, newer technologies are helping American professors to make classes a little more active, rather than just plain monotonous lecture (Hanover Research, 2010).

Even though at times graduate students are perceived or looked at as a totally different assembly from the undergraduates, the reality is that graduate students learn the same way that undergraduate students do; via the effective retention and knowledge transfer (Cassuto, 2013). author Michelle Schwartz, in her article "Teaching Graduate Students" (n.d), describes a course in which students work in unison to generate a "review of the literature" paper, that instead of having students strictly follow the standard graduate format that entails reading and presentation of articles and the eventual writing of research paper at the end of the course, Garcia, a professor, had the graduate students gather, read and summarize a variety of articles and then debate the weaknesses, strengths, needs, gaps and applications of the field and only then, finally develop a focus for a review of the literature paper. This exercise not only gave the students a thorough overview of the thinking in their field but also taught the student about how to come up with a literature review paper from scratch, about the submission process to a journal and how to prepare for a peer review process. Thus, this approach made the necessary preparatory exercises such as reading discussing, analyzing and writing about the field way more interesting to the graduate student since they were engaging in "real work" and not just completing assignments. It also resulted in students co-authoring publications which help in building of resumes especially for graduate students who want to enter academia. Schwartz argues that while many graduate courses are designed in such a way to turn students into scholars in the intellectual sense, such courses are not always effective in preparing students to interact and professionally participate as academics (through teaching, presentation of papers at academic conferences, working collaboratively, publishing and doing service and committee work. By incorporating this group writing exercise into her course plan Schwartz utilized experiential leaning to provide or allow students to have ownership of what they were learning, to give them the encouragement to finish any task, and to equip them with skills that would help them beyond their course content (Schwartz, n.d).

Schwartz in her work cites Garcia who argued that publishing in journals was the finest way of finding "cutting edge" of one's discipline and to start having your opinion matter in defining it (Garcia, 2006 as cited in Schwartz, n.d). Schwartz was also of the opinion that graduate course content should be designed to progressively initiate students towards independent research (Schwartz, n.d). Graduate courses should guide students along the route of becoming independent researchers and scholars capable of conceiving new ideas, planning, conducting and effectively communicating their research (Schwartz, n.d).

Similarly, Mary Nell Trautner in her article "Teaching-infused Graduate Seminars: Incorporating Pedagogy into Substantive Courses" (2014), argues that it is the responsibility of graduate programs to provide students with basic professional skills such as teaching skills. As such she incorporates a teaching application for each of her classes. She argues that such applications enable students to learn of the many different ways that they can analyze and share their theory and research with others (Trautner, 2014).

2. What is the evidence that textbooks are still required or are we moving into an area that is more appropriate (other resources). Take the example of Pearson that reinvents book publishing

The cost of textbooks has been a concern to a variety of groups such as parents, students, school administrators and teachers. One of the solutions that has been proposed to solve the issue of textbook prices has been the adoption of electronic textbooks otherwise known as e-books, which are much cheaper to produce and ultimately distribute. Many e-books are offered via a subscription channel through which students buy access to such material for a set period of time, for example, for 6 months (Hacker, 2010). Electronic books are becoming more feasible and commonplace as computers and internet access are becoming cheaper and more widespread. Author Robinson (2011) reported that a study done among students in Malaysia revealed that students used e-books for several reasons including the fact that they were easily accessible, available online and more convenient to use. The study also revealed that reasons why students did not use e-books included preference for traditional paper books and that some of the students thought they were more difficult to browse and read compared to paper textbooks. The study reported that 81.5% of the 206 students surveyed favored reading paper textbooks; however of 80 respondents who had previous experience with electronic-books, 73.8% still favored print. This study implies that experience with electronic books enhances the opinion of the students with regards to e-books, even though print is still the most favored option. Similarly, author Robinson also reported another study conducted in 2007 revealed that 67% of the respondents stated that they would prefer reading text on paper instead of a computer screen, and given the chance 70% would buy printed textbooks instead of electronic books. Only a paltry 7% in the study stated that they would be somewhat comfortable reading long texts on computer screens rather than from paper textbooks. It is obvious from these recent studies that there is still a huge preference for reading printed books compared to electronic books. Over the long-term however, individuals may adopt new reading styles based on the prevalence of the computer-based content they read (Robinson, 2011).

The revolution in digital technology is transforming the communication, cultures, entertainment, information sharing and access, privacy, publishing and authorship. This revolution has also provided a whole new range of innovative teaching, education, practice and learning tools. In the year 2002, e-books attracted net revenues of about $15 billion and were responsible for about 20% of publishers' income. Sales in the trade books sector had increased by 8% and comprised about $2.3 billion (Tintinalli, 2014). Many individuals favor the physical experience of browsing and reading a paper book. When reading, humans build a mental picture of the location of that particular piece of data or information where that text appeared. However, we do not have the same kind of spatial landmarks when reading text on an e-book. Most e-reader screens only display a single virtual page, and perhaps the percentage of the book that the reader has gone through, and maybe the page number, but still there is no overall context of that particular chapter. However, despite these challenges in using e-books, advanced e-learning systems that are based on electronic books can greatly expand teaching and learning tools such as video lectures, curriculum foundations, procedural videos, figures and illustrations, chat rooms, interactive learning, and continuous credits for their use; thus creating an engaging learning atmosphere (Tintinalli, 2014).

A study done by the National Association of College Stores (NACS) was recently cited by the Book Industry Study Group's (BISG) 'Student Attitudes toward Content in Higher Education'; this particular survey conducted on behalf of NACS by On Campus Research reported that 74% of United States university students still favored printed textbooks. In its press release, BISG (2011) stated that students listed look, permanence, feel and the possibility of reselling as some of the main factors that influenced their preference for printed textbooks. The survey also reported that the prohibitive pricing of new paper textbooks drove students to look for more affordable options such as buying cheaper versions from third party online resellers or seeking textbook rental solutions. One of the main lessons that have lately emerged during implementations is the necessity of access platforms across different publishers. While a few of the big publishers have heavily invested content delivery options that were specific to their content, schools and other institutions continues to acquire textbooks from platforms that access content from different publishers (Book Industry Study Group, 2011).

Nowadays colleges and students have a wider variety of textbook options than in any other time in history. Technological advances have led to increased availability of newer and alternative modes of accessing content. Besides used and new printed books, students and lecturers have a choice of electronic books in several formats including file, online, and electronic versions with a printing option (Young, 2010a, 2010b). Smart phones, tablets and e-reader hardware manufacturers are increasingly paying attention to the growing e-book content market (Kolowich, 2012; Young, 2012), an act that is bound to increase the adoption of electronic books usage by students and colleges. Basing his study on industry projections, Reynolds (2011) predicted that the market share of electronic books will increase from the paltry 3% in the year 2011 to 35% by the end of 2016. The rising popularity of e-book options and the adoption of electronic books in some colleges and universities have raised the question; what will be the effects of using e-books on teaching, learning and higher education in general? (Chulkov & VanAlstine, 2013).

Several publishers have created their own digital offerings. Cengage, for instance bought SealedMedia digital technology to distribute its iChapters product, which enabled instructors and students to buy only the chapters that they required. Pearson publishing on the other hand, used the e-domain through their MyLab suite of digital offerings enabled access to online tools such as multiple media animations and active assessments to complement their printed textbooks. Similarly, other large publisher such as McGraw-Hill and John Wiley and Sons adopted Connect System and WileyPLUS respectively to complement their print textbooks. Elsevier's Student Consult and Evolve products complemented its digital and print textbook options in the field of health sciences. Each of these digital offerings is delivered in a unique manner with different pricing options. While large publishers continued to struggle with rights management issues, new technologies such as ultra-high speed printer and scanner technology almost made digital copying and printing a moot concern. Digital files of print textbooks could quickly be made by anyone with a scanner and just one print book, thus the heavy protection measures that were being put on digital copies by the publishers were fast becoming irrelevant. As computer and internet access has spread to a near 100% of the United States college student population, publishers have been, as a result, under more pressure to react to the demand by their consumers for materials that can be accessed on Smartphones, tablets and laptops. Publishers have also been forced to consider both their internal workflows and different third party digital platforms for processes that are not only scalable but also reproducible, that would enable their digital segments to grow across multiple prints, titles and courses. After many years of worrying that the textbook business will go the same way as the music business, publishers are now of the opinion that they are seeing tipping point in terms of consumption where the move to digital will only continue to grow in the long-term (Reynolds, 2011; Chesser, 2011).

It can be argued that digitized educational materials are fast becoming commonplace (Everard & Pierre, 2014). The majorities of electronic textbooks originate from publishers' traditional paper print workflow and thus are often rigid/semi-rigid reflections of the print textbook; these materials are available through channels such as Nook Study, CafeScribe, CourseSmart, and VitalSource-which are easy to find for consumers. In these cases publishers work with independent distribution and software companies to create and maintain platform that avail their products to the market. Some industry experts have even predicted that online channels or platforms are soon replacing traditional print textbooks in several subject areas (Chesser, 2011).

Nowadays the use of electronic textbooks in the classroom is becoming increasingly popular (Woody et al., 2010; Tees, 2010). E-textbooks are e-books whose content have educational functions and text material. These books have several features one of which is their ability to display different digital resources such as photos, videos, simulations, animations, audio and a couple of other resources (Chen et al., 2013; Woody et al., 2010). Second, electronic textbooks can enhance learning via some primary text functionalities including annotating, highlighting, searching, referring, bookmarking and editing (Chen et al., 2013; Lam et al., 2010; Woody et al., 2010). Third, electronic textbooks offer students easy access to online resources to enhance learning experience (such as quizzes and websites) (Chen et al., 2013; Lam et al., 2010; Woody et al., 2010). This feature also allows the instructors to quite easily assign the pertinent materials to the students based on their quiz levels (Chen et al., 2013). Fourth, electronic textbooks enable students to share their e-book activities such as their highlights, bookmarks, notes and reports with other students. This feature can improve students' interactive or collaborative learning experience (Chen et al., 2013). The growth of the mobile (tablets, Smartphones and laptops) industry and its integration into the learning system has resulted in increase in diversity of teaching, learning and practicing using electronic textbooks (Lin, Liu & Kinshuk, 2015).

There is another issue, obviously, that everyone is aware about with regards to textbooks: the fact that they are prohibitively priced. In many sectors of the book publishing industry many people believe that the increase in the use of e-textbooks will tackle this issue. For the last ten years the electronic textbook has been increasingly seen in lecture rooms around the globe and many industry experts have been watching and waiting with interest for that time when paper printed textbooks will become obsolete and electronic textbooks will reign supreme. As electronic textbooks provide more engaging and dynamic content, and as learners are able to access this material increasingly across different channels and devices of their choice, and as more purchase and pricing options for digital material continue to emerge, it looks certain that sales in electronic textbooks will continue to increase significantly in years to come (Chesser, 2011). Today in the market, all the biggest publishers have their own interactive e-textbook digital offering such as: Pearson's Mylab, Cengage's Brain, McGraw-Hill's Create and Connect, Elsevier's Health PageBurst, WileyPlus from John Wiley and Sons and Macmillan's Dynamic Books (Chesser, 2011)

3. Who are the leading publishers of classroom resources? (please look at their website in the author guidelines (authors for university teaching resources) and make a comparative table of what they want from an author to be considered for publication (only mention relevant information, nothing needed on number of pages or other graphic and technical details. Only author profile, content type, anything suggesting what they are interested in)

Wiley Blackwell

Pearson Education

McGraw-Hill Education Manuscript Guidelines

Background

This is the leading partner for societies in the entire globe, and it works with over seven hundred academic societies and associations. The publisher also recognizes the significance of developing and maintaining the highest ethical and professional standards and thus is committed to motivating and promoting only ethical publications and practices across all its journals and other academic materials (John Wiley & Sons, n.d).

Writing and publishing a book is a skill and/or craft that utilizes the services of many different people and thus necessitates the possession of great skill and a well structured process. This process involves the original manuscript going through several stages and various departments before the publication of the final material. Pearson education publishing group member is present in all of the stages. This member is qualified to address specific issues and concerns, be they developmental, editorial, contractual, or related to marketing (Pearson Education, n.d).

McGraw-Hill's publishing guidelines are unique to particular requirements of different individual fields. Their guidelines help in the identification of team member of the project. These guidelines also help in the identification of their roles, in addition to providing important information that is required for the writing/creation and submission of academic articles or manuscripts (McGraw-Hill, n.d).

What they are interested in Most publishing houses wish only to consider works that have not been published before by another firm. One of the main reasons for this is that scientific scholarly content can be distorted by redundant publication, an action that might result in huge consequences, for instance, if the previous results were unintentional included several times in meta-analyses. Thus both readers and journal editors have a right to know about the previous publication status of the work.

Journals also ought to request the authors for a signed declaration that the academic work submitted and also its basic substance have neither been previously published nor being considered for by another firm for publication elsewhere.

If it happens that a research report is published only for it to be later found to have previously been published (i.e. redundant), the editor of the journal should contact the authors as soon as possible and then publish a redundant publication notice.

Editors do have a right in Wiley Blackwell to demand the original manuscript and to question or investigate whether the opinion segments (for example, non-systematic reviews, letters and editorials) have been previously published; journals should have a policy on the level or extent of overlap that is regarded as acceptable between such kinds of academic publications.

Journals that are in the business of publishing clinical trials ought to consider making registration a prerequisite for the publication of these trials. Even in cases where the journal does not make it a prerequisite, editors of those journals should request a clear and well defined identification of the trials and ought to have a policy on the position within a published article.

Papers that report new syntheses or analyses of data that have previously been published (for instance, sub-group analyses) should clearly identify the source of primary data, and the reference to the registration number of the clinical trials if applicable and a complete reference to the initial publication (John Wiley & Sons, n.d).

The first step with regards to publication in Pearson Education whether Pearson is the first to contact the author or the author goes to Pearson with a proposal, is the same and it entails discussions with the commissioning editor/the Acquisition editor for that particular discipline.

The author will then be asked to submit a proposal for their book and a few sample chapters, which will initially be assessed by the Acquisitions Editor and the List Manager. This evaluation is based on comparison with related titles, market feedback and the requirements of the syllabus.

After the first in-house analysis and research has been completed, manuscript or proposal will be sent out (anonymously) to peers for reviews.

Once the concerned Acquisitions Editor and List Manager decide to publish the manuscript, the Acquisitions editor will then contact the author to discuss an overview of the project and the contract terms. These contract terms will then be sent to the Rights Manager for the formal creation of the contract (Pearson Education, n.d).

If there are tables and charts that have to be included in the book, it is important to give each a title and an identification number (e.g., table 1.1). If applicable, the author should also give a source line (where the he or she got the information from) for each figure.

Captions for all illustrative materials including images ought to be typed in a separate file. The captions should also be numbered to correspond to the illustration numbers. The caption should also be accompanied by a photo credit for each corresponding photo.

Tables too ought to be clearly distinguished from figures since they present data in a tabular format rather than an illustrative one, basically rows and columns of numbers or words. These are different from figures and other illustrations therefore they should have their own separate numbering system. Similar to figures, tables too are numbered based on the chapters that they are found (e.g., Table 2.1) and should be clearly and directly referred to in the text using their numbers. Source and permission lines should also be indicated in the footnotes (McGraw-Hill, n.d).

Plagiarism and copyright

Journal readers and editors have a right to expect that the work submitted is that of the author and that it has not in any way been plagiarized (i.e. copied from the works of other authors without permission, if it is required) and that the work has not breached any copyright (for instance, if tables and figures have been reproduced) rules.

Many journals have a compulsory condition before publication that authors should declare that the work submitted is their own and they own the copyright (or if applicable have been given permission by the owner of the copyright). This is further enforced by the Wiley Blackwell Online open Form, Exclusive License Form or Copyright Assignment form. One of these three forms has to be submitted prior to publication in any journal within the Wiley-Blackwell group. All these forms require a signature from the corresponding author declaring that the article is an original one, that it has neither been previously published nor is it under any consideration by another firm for publication either in electronic or printed form (John Wiley & Sons, n.d).

Permission to Use Copyrighted Material

One of the key responsibilities of an author is to make sure that the material he or she submits is their own and that if taken from a different source, is not bound to any potential legal difficulties related to reprinting. A proposal that has outstanding copyrights or permissions cannot be regarded as ready for publication (Pearson Education, n.d).

Items That Require Permission

Any content whether text or figures that have been lifted from other sources (including Pearson books, or the author's own previously published works, or even materials from relatives and friends) may require some form of written permission. The objective here is to differentiate material that can be used without permission from those that require permission.

The following guideline can be utilized to help authors decide:

One requires permission for the reproduction of any work unless the principle of "public domain" or "fair dealing" allows the use of the work without getting permission.

Works that have not been previously published and that are not in the public domain such as speeches, theses, and letters require permission, since it is the right of the work's author to choose what to do with material.

Even a single line from a short novel, a song or a poem, regardless of whether it is illustrated, requires permission.

Any form of art from another source, including the author's previous work (Pearson Education, n.d).

Permissions

Written permissions are as necessary for the reproduction of art, tables, or texts that the author did not create as the artwork or manuscript. Only in cases whereby one has an unusual, exclusive contract with the company, is he or she exempted, otherwise all authors have contractually agreed to get all necessary permissions to reprint in their work any art, text or work that has been copyrighted by other people. And unless the author's contract states otherwise, he or she is responsible for the permission fees if applicable. The kind of material that requires permission before it can be published by McGraw-Hill includes:

Prose (whether non-fiction of fiction, based on the scope of the material used).

Photographs and images copyrighted by other corporations or individuals.

Tables, charts and graphs copied from an original source without being significantly revised.

Screenshots from websites that have been copyrighted.

Poetry (whether a line or the entire poem).

Song lyrics (even if it is a line)

Drama or plays (whether several lines or an entire act) (McGraw-Hill, n.d)

Best Practice: Transparency

Sources of funding for publication or research within the Wiley Blackwell group have always been disclosed. Editors are required to explicitly state this in their editorial policy. Authors also ought to include all information regarding their research funding in all the papers that they submit for publication (John Wiley & Sons, n.d).

Before sending a proposal or manuscript to Pearson Education, an author should make sure he or she has included the following:

• A complete Table of Contents.

• Sample chapters or all chapters as discussed with the Acquisition Editor

• Any additional material such as artwork, glossary, bibliography and appendices (Pearson Education, n.d).

Journals

The major publishers developed their own content delivery platforms. For instance, in 1997 Elsevier launched the first large-scale platform, or full-text scientific database, Science Direct, which by 2013 included 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and nearly 20,000 books making available the works of its authors to more than 16 million researchers. Publishers compete on the usability of their platforms, such as reliability, speed, and ease of use, search and linkage to other data. However, the strength - and overall brand - of the platform is based on the brand value of the individual journals and books, and the size of aggregation. The key publishers are big enough to do business directly with the purchasing groups or institutional librarians, via which the institution's subscriptions to eBook and journals collections are settled. Publishers without their own platforms use third-parties for distribution such as HighWire (Stanford University). Metapress and lngenta (Publishing Technology). The U.S. aggregators of journals and content databases, such as EBSCO and ProQuest, provide library access to the output of publishers. The subscription agents are developing their businesses in different directions (Clark & Phillips, 2014).

Small publishers

Big publishers

Publishers without their own platforms use third-parties for distribution

Major publishers developed their own content delivery platforms. Major publishers are large enough to deal directly with the institutional librarians or purchasing consortia.

Operate on a much smaller scale and are far more specialist. Small presses often cater to a niche market or a specialized genre.

Diverse in respect of the character of the publishing operations. Some leading publishers are quite diverse in their discipline span and the character of their operations

Generally prefer to use a different acquisitions model, relying less on agents and more on their privileged access to the academic community. Most small presses do not require authors to have agents and therefore are easier to approach

Bigger publishers rely on agents who actively seek to recruit successful and promising academic authors

Lack the resources to compete with the major trade houses in the market for content

Have the resources to get their books into the big retail chains and make them visible

Publish the lion's share of books in the humanities, and to a lesser extent in the social sciences

Large commercial publishers play an important role in certain subject areas like scientific and technical book publishing

In some respects their systems and editorial approach are not well adjusted to the demands of this field and to the conditions of success within it

The commercial textbook publishers know very well when their textbooks and new editions have to be published and when their stock has to be in the bookstores, and their systems - editorial, production and distribution - are well geared to ensure that these deadlines are met.

5. What should a small publishing company do to be able to have a market share in the university teaching resource area? Please only show what existing research says. No opinions

The rapid development/growth of "open" academic content has not only been embraced but strongly been supported by many proponents, stakeholders, analysts, reformers in the world of academic publishing and the higher education sector. The top two widely known developments are Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), and open access scholarly publishing. Both developments are associated to highly positively disruptive innovations that have been enabled by new advanced technologies. Small publishing companies should utilize these developments to sell their products. The support for these fresh modes of exchanging information and knowledge is due to the expectation that these developments will result in several public interest benefits such as: broadening the productivity, impact and the format of distributing and using academic work; transforming the academic publishing markets and the higher education sector; and relieving some related expenses in academia. The market provision system means that potential buyers of those texts are often excluded and many higher learning institutions may not be able to afford to buy those texts, or must sacrifice other crucial goals to do so (Wellen, 2013). Advocates of open access thus argue that the extent of text sharing initiatives in the academic field should no longer be restricted to the confines of permission and price (Suber, 2012). Academic journals usually have smaller audiences and not so much in the way of capacity to attract huge advertising making them significantly different from other forms of commercial information products like magazines and books (Wellen, 2013).

Large publishing firms continue to fight against open access with regards to journals, especially in cases where universities are bound into buying the products of the publisher. Academic papers are often published only in few places, and have to be read only by researcher in attempt to keep up with what is going on in their field. Demand is often inelastic and competition does not exist, since different journals cannot publish the same content. In many situations publishers bind libraries to buy bundles of journals irrespective of whether they have use for all of them. The greatest deadweight is however, the consistent price increases by publishers. The prices increase at roughly ten percent annually, an amount that is much above that of inflation, in fact prior to the advent of electronic journals, the price increases were even steeper (Totosy de Zepetnek & Jia, 2014).

Even though the move to open access by smaller companies will result in transitional costs and a paying-author model, it will in the long-term cut the price of subscription payments. This will free significant amounts of money to support the research itself. Thus there is a need for scholarly associations to rethink their functions as well instead of sticking to a publishing model whose time might have already exhausted. The economic changes that will be brought about through embracing open access upon small academic publishers will both change the business models of scholarly associations and transform these societies into new entities. Under the open access regime, an article can be published in different formats. Universities could utilize their institutional repositories by encouraging students and faculties to self-organize the writing of articles for publication based on the open access potential held within. This would enable researchers to use the recognition of institutions to generate interest in products outside conventional publishing models (Luke, 2013).

Conclusion

Even as the attendees in the undergraduates and graduates textbooks' space enlarges, making way for more publishers to enter the business, the hegemony of the established, large publishing houses seems to tighten even more given their innovative ideas and flexibility to adapt to changing technology. The preference for print media seems to be challenged by the digital mode increasingly. Studies note that teachers and students resent the rising cost of printed books though they prefer them more to the e-books. The technological innovations also help in monitoring students' progress and hence allow for revisions in real-time. The University presses could play a big role in addressing the problems of the textbook concerns, given their access and proximity to the academia.