Kaplan releases Stanza iPhone e-books in law and nursing: Almost 45 percent of its students will have access to Apple mobile devices
Kapan is publishing Stanza e-books for law and nursing students. But these “wrapped” ePub editions are just for iPhones and Touches. After a Kaplan news release—edited—I’ll discuss this. Your thoughts? – D.R.
Five titles from Kaplan Publishing for law and nursing students will be available at the iTunes store via the Stanza e-reader.
More titles will appear for students with access to iPhones or iPod Touches. Medicine will be among the fields included.
This will happen through arrangements between Kaplan Publishing, LibreDigital (digital publishing service provider) and Amazon’s Lexcycle subsidiary (developer of Stanza).
Kaplan Test Prep is offering the Stanza option after a survey showed nearly 45 percent of its students next year will have access to iPhones and iPod Touches.
The first five titles are:
- The Law School Labyrinth: A Guide to Making the Most of Your Legal Education ($13.99).
- Legal Writing: How to Write Legal Briefs, Memos, and Other Legal Documents in a Clear and Concise Style ($16.99).
- First Year Nurse: Wisdom, Warnings, and What I Wish I’d Known My First 100 Days on the Job (Second Edition) ($4.99) [no link provided, apparently – D.R.].
- How to Survive Clinical: Advice from the Nursing Students and Teachers Who Have Been There ($8.99).
- Your Career in Nursing: Managing Your Future in the Changing World of Health Care (Fifth Edition) ($11.99).
Kaplan aims to deliver its students content in the format best suited to their evolving needs.
It is working with technology pioneer LibreDigital to deliver Kaplan content to the Stanza e-reader. With over two million users spanning 60 countries, Lexcycle’s Stanza is one of the leading e-book readers for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Stanza, which features customizable formatting and searching, has drawn more than 12 million book downloads.
Book Descriptions:
- Law School Labyrinth: A comprehensive guide to law school, from the admissions process to beyond graduation.
- Legal Writing: A guide to legal writing for the legal practitioner covering clear, concise writing with an eye towards the tools of the information age.
- First Year Nurse: Wisdom and warnings from hundreds of experienced nurses.
- How to Survive Clinical: A pocket-sized guide featuring quotes, anecdotes, and advice from both recently graduated nursing students and current professors that will help new students face the academic and emotional challenges
- Your Career in Nursing: Up-to-date information on trends in nursing practice, nursing education, and health care technology…
About Kaplan Publishing
Kaplan Publishing, a leading publisher of academic and professional development resources, offers a trade program that includes non-fiction narratives that educate and entertain. Kaplan Publishing is a unit of Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).
Contact: Tim Brazier
Publicity Director
212.618.2432
Tim.Brazier@kaplan.com
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KAPLAN CUSTOMERS APPARENTLY CAN’T USE THE SAME EPUB FILES ON DESKTOPS AND LARGER TABLETS. TIME FOR THIS TO CHANGE?
David again. This is mostly a very smart move by Kaplan.
Of course let’s hope that Kaplan will provide videos or other instruction for students who don’t pick up technology easily.
What’s more, Kaplan and its digital tech partners need to enlighten us about the copy-protection issue—the topic of the discussion below. Protection isn’t through the usual DRM. But it’s still interfering with typical students’ ability to use the ePub files on a variety of devices.
The positives of the Kaplan approach: Use of Stanza and ePub
Lexcycle’s Stanza is my favorite e-reader app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
And that isn’t merely because the ePub is Stanza’s flagship format (ePub is the IDPF standard and can generally work well on small screens).
You can customize Stanza just so, adjusting font sizes and styles and even the spacing between lines.
Also, Stanza lets you access Arial Rounded MT Bold. So far I’ve found this to be the easiest font to read on my iPod Touch.
The big frustration: Apparently no use of the same files on desktops and larger tablets
At the same time, I’d like the students to be able to use the ePub books on desktops, larger tablets and other machines, too; and some major questions emerge in this area.
The Kaplan books use “secure wrapped iPhone App,” according to a spokesperson for LibrieDigital. “That’s not to say that it can’t be tampered with, but it is to say that it would not be something that an average consumer would do. (i.e.: ‘Secure enough’ without additional DRM wrap).”
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure the same books won’t be usable on desktops and other machines able to run ePub-capable software. At least that will be true of students without the skills to do the necessary extracting and file-jockeying.
If the above is the case, then I hope Kaplan and the others involved will reconsider.
About “secure wrapped”
In a related vein, just what does “secure wrapped” mean?
Is this a different kind of wrapping from what O’Reilly Media uses on Stanza-wrapped iPhone apps, from which it says users can extract ePub for display on other machines?
Presumably the wrapping is different, but I’m just guessing. Will we see more and more educational material for the iPhone/Touch handled this way?
RX for Kaplan: Easy unwrapping and social DRM
At any rate, in Kaplan’s place, if it wants to make its books as attractive as possible for students, I’d make ePub files easily unwrappable—while using social DRM to discourage piracy, given the special piracy concerns in the education market
O’Reilly does tell how to unwrap its file. But its procedures could be simpler. The industry needs standards to make it a cinch for even nontechnical users to extract and manage ePub files for one-book Stanza apps. Apps offer quick access to material and can be an option. But students should also have the ability to access the ePub books through regular Stanaza and delete the apps. Or, of course, use the ePub files on other devices.
iPhone not for every student at every time
I appreciate the need to counter piracy. But, again, will students be able to display the same material for their private use on desktops and larger-screened tablets?
iPhones and Touches are wonderful for reading on the go, but for many students they may not be the optimal platform for hour after hour of study, given the small screen size. If nothing else, how about disabled students with special needs?
If nothing else, what about books with detailed illustrations? Or the preference of some students for E Ink machines, which will be getting better and better?
See the risk of an approach tied too closely to a particular type of hardware, no matter how popular?
Related issue: Kaplan better off creating digital material from scratch?
And of course there’s the related issue of whether Kaplan in the future might be better off creating content from scratch rather than just adapting paper books, assuming it isn’t doing this already.
Perhaps the new offerings could be designed so screen size didn’t matter as much as with adaptations of traditional books. And yes, there could still be paper editions. But here’s to “born digital,” so the material can be easily repositioned. This would be in line with some recommendations in a recent Gilbane report.
Your own thoughts—and maybe some from the companies involved?
OK, what are your own thoughts on these matters?
Meanwhile I very much hope that the companies involved can join this discussion, if they want to get closer to end users.
September 12th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I agree with the fact that porting these books only to iPhone/iTouch is being very shortsighted and disadvantageous, not just to those with special needs, but to anyone, special needs or not.
Given the way students use computers to work and study, having the textbooks available on a full PC or laptop would make it much easier to use. In addition, some people simply have problems reading the small text on the iPhone/iTouch. That’s not even a special needs issue, that’s a fairly common vision issue.
If this is Kaplan’s idea of producing e-books whilst, at the same time, protecting their content, it is going too far… or not far enough. They need to open these texts to use on any device that can read standard formats.
September 14th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Helpful comments, Steve, and I hope others jump into the discussion with their own.
In fairness to Kaplan, it’s possible that the books will show up in formats usable on other machines.
But a far, far better solution would be to use the ePub standard and make the files easily extractable for display on a number of devices. Kaplan, as I’ve noted in my post, should consider the use of social DRM.
Thanks,
David