“Publishers need to adopt innovations to catch up with the pace of expectations”

The last two years of Covid-19 have been a roller coaster ride for the publishing industry. Amongst all the challenges faced by the industry during covid, new opportunities have been created. As Arundhati Roy rightly quoted, “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

Impact of Covid on education…

Covid-19 has led to a shift in education from offline to hybrid mode. Online classes for K-12, online degrees and certifications, online assessments with remote proctoring, and online vocational classes is the latest rising trend seen in the educational sector. As per the survey conducted by FairGaze, 45% of people believe that online content will replace books. Out of this 45%, 46.32% believe that instead of books, online material should be used to teach by teachers. This trend has elicited the publishers to adopt innovative methods to catch up with the pace of expectations in this changing world.

Changes post Covid-19

In my view, the established new normal is that online learning and physical books will go hand in hand with the future of the industry being hybrid. The dire need of the hour for teachers is to learn relevant technologies and the art of teaching online using digital resources. Educational publishers need to respond fast to this significant change to keep their leading positions in the market. The proper use of digital technology platforms and agility to respond faster to the changes can help educational publishers to ride this wave of change and grow.

One major challenge faced by the publishers is the availability of free digital educational content (since several reputed universities grant free access to their libraries online). To stay relevant and maintain the leading position in the market, the following should be adopted :

1. Provide Digital Education Platform: Publishers can create their virtual platforms or web apps to provide relevant educational material online.

2. Develop Digital Educational Resources compliant with Digital Education Platform: After selection of the digital platform, the main focus should be on developing the digital content. Digital content should serve as an aid to the physical book. It should make learning simplified and easy.

3. Ensure Mobile Compatibility of Digital Education Platform: Not every child reading the book has access to fast 4G internet, smartphone, or a laptop. The platform developed should address all these kinds of challenges.

4. Conduct Teacher Training to enable them to impart online education effortlessly on Digital Education Platform: The backbone of our education system is teachers. In this new hybrid learning ecosystem, it is important to help teachers efficiently learn and use the digital platform.

Revival Plan

To stay relevant and ahead in the industry, we have taken the following steps :

• We have expanded our horizon from publishing K-8 books to publishing CBSE K-12 books and various entrance exam books. We have launched new competition books incorporating all the above-discussed points of innovative learning. Also, we have launched our various digital portals to facilitate hybrid learning.
• We are developing relevant online content that will enhance and promote the ease of learning concepts.
• We have taken strict efforts to develop relevant, highly curated content based on today’s changing dynamics.
• We have incorporated the latest innovative teaching and learning methods in our books.
Even in these changing times, where future of publishing industry is hybrid, physical books will still play a pivotal role for students, teachers and schools. Digital publishing just provides us an opportunity to expand our work domain.