Flatworld Knowledge, LLC. News
Flat World Knowledge Challenges Textbook Industry; Offers Free Books to College Students and a New Model for Publishing
NYACK, NY, July 14 PRNewswire — Flat World Knowledge, a publisher of free and open college textbooks, today announced it will soon begin the nation's largest in-classroom test of open college textbooks. The nationwide beta test of its books involves hundreds of students from 15 colleges and universities across the United States. Flat World Knowledge's free and open textbooks will replace traditional textbooks in a single class or class section at each participating institution. The beta test begins this August and will run through the completion of the Fall 2008 semester.
Flat World Knowledge has built a business model around offering free textbooks to college students. Through their open platform, students will have access to complete textbooks free of charge, with the option to purchase affordable alternate formats of the content (i.e. print & audio versions of the text) and study aids (podcast study guides, mobile phone flash cards, etc).
The beta launch of Flat World Knowledge comes amid a growing outcry from students, educators, parents and government regulators who are demanding a halt to the unsustainable textbook price increases of the last decade. Expensive college textbooks, which routinely run students over $900 per year, threaten to make higher education unaffordable for many students. The crisis of high textbook prices was the subject of a 2007 report from the Student Public Interest Research Groups, available at http://www.maketextbooksaffordable.org/Exposing_the_Textbook_Industry.pdf
"The traditional textbook publishing model no longer serves the interests of students, educators, and authors," said Jeff Shelstad, co-founder and CEO of Flat World Knowledge. "Textbooks are too expensive for students and too inflexible for instructors. And authors, the major, initial source of value in the industry, are increasingly confused by faster revision demands and their compensation for those revisions. Flat World addresses all of these industry pain points."
Textbook publishing industry veterans Jeff Shelstad and Eric Frank founded Flat World Knowledge in 2007 to address the textbook value proposition, the lack of options for students, and to build an open platform that would enable faculty to tailor textbooks to their own syllabi and teaching style. Prior to Flat World, Shelstad served as editorial director for the Prentice Hall Business Publishing Division, and Frank served as the same division's director of marketing.
The Flat World Knowledge Business Model
Flat World Knowledge's mission is to take the best characteristics of traditional textbook publishing — such as expert-written, peer-reviewed and professionally edited texts — and then flip the old model on its head. Flat World's books will be open for faculty to customize, and free to students online. Flat World and its authors earn compensation by offering affordable choices to students beyond the free online book, from printed, on demand textbooks for around $30, to audio books for around $25, to downloadable and printable files by the chapter, and more. The company supplements its texts with low-priced study aids like podcast study guides, digital flash cards, interactive practice quizzes, and more.
"The time has come for open textbooks," said Eric Frank, Flat World Knowledge co-founder and chief marketing officer. "This new model of textbook publishing will result in increased choices and dramatically lower costs for students. It can enhance learning by giving instructors more control over content, and by leveraging the power of social learning networks around content. Between the oligopolistic practices of the big publishers on one end of the spectrum, and piracy on the other, lies a better solution — open textbooks."
The Beta Test
The beta test will involve four new Flat World Knowledge textbooks, including Launch!: Advertising and Promotion in Real Time by Michael Solomon, Lisa Duke and Amit Nizan; Exploring Business by Karen Collins; Principles of Microeconomics by Libby Rittenberg and Timothy Tregarthen; and Fundamentals of Income Tax Theory and Practice by Dieter Kiefer.
The beta test will provide Flat World Knowledge with valuable feedback from instructors and students about its textbooks, ranging from the quality of the books and related study aids to the quality of the overall learning experience. Feedback learned during the semester-long testing will help the company further improve its books and online platform prior to its worldwide commercial launch in advance of the Spring 2009 school period. The Spring 2009 launch will feature an expanded product roster of eight textbooks; all focused initially on business and economics subjects. The company currently has a total of 15 textbooks under contract and in the pipeline.
About Flatworld Knowledge, LLC.
Founded in 2007 by textbook publishing industry veterans Jeff Shelstad and Eric Frank, privately held Flat World Knowledge is a leading publisher of open textbooks for higher education. Flat World's textbooks are written by the world's leading subject matter experts. The books are peer reviewed, professionally edited, and made available for free online to educators and students. Educators have the freedom to use the books as-is, or to mix, mash or edit them to suit their unique classroom requirements. Students can access the books for free, or purchase alternatives from print-on-demand versions of the books, to audio versions, to downloadable versions and more at a fraction of the cost of traditional textbooks. Flat World Knowledge backs its textbooks with an online social learning platform that allows students to learn from each other as well as from the book. More information about Flat World Knowledge is available on the Web at http://www.flatworldknowledge.com.
Media Contact: Kathryn Reid or Bryan Ferarro Dovetail Public Relations 408.395.3600 fwk@dovetailpr.com
SOURCE Flatworld Knowledge, LLC.
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