Yes, you are eligible to participate in the pilot program.

It provides McGraw Hill eContent and the Courseload e-reader software for 20 sections/800 students or 40 sections/1600 students. The fee does not provide for the devices (laptops, tablets, etc) that the faculty/students use to access the eContent. Note: Neither EDUCAUSE nor Internet2 keep any of this money; it is disbursed by Internet2 to the providers of the e-reader and eContent.

We are using the Courseload e-reader which is HTML5 based and can be accessed on just about any devices with a browser.

Currently the campus bookstore has no role in this pilot.

It is possible that since this is a limited, research based pilot (a research study is included if desired) it falls outside the language and the spirit of the contract with Follett.

It is believed that the central IT areas will not need to work with the student account areas to manage the billing process. This pilot is based on the institution providing a flat fee (of either $20K or $35K) that subsidizes the costs for the students. Individual students do not pay any fees under the pilot.

Whether or not every class involved in the pilot is an "all or nothing" solution would be up to the individual institution.

The pilot does allow full printing of eContent at no additional cost. Also, students can purchase a low-cost POD version of the eContent for an additional fee if desired.

In a situation in which a student cannot afford a laptop or tablet device, they still have the option of printing out the eContent for free.

When we say printing at no cost, we mean that a student can print out the eContent personally (on their own personal printer, at a computer lab, etc.) at no additional fee. In this pilot, the student can print out specific chapters of interest or literally print out the entire eContent if desired. The "low cost" POD would be a separate transaction that the student would enter into with the publisher or a contracted 3rd party. In the POD scenario, the student would receive a complete printed version of the textbook for approximately $20-$30.

The flat fee is only an arrangement for the pilot being offered by I2 and EDUCAUSE. It is designed to provide a simple, low-cost eContent pilot for an institution so that each institution doesn't need to worry about contract negotiation, arranging a fee gathering process, billing students, etc., as all of those items take additional time and resources to implement.

Once an institution is ready to move beyond a pilot phase into a larger scale eContent initiative, the institution would need to figure out how they would bill their students for the cost of the content as I doubt that an institution could simply keep subsidizing the costs for students at scale. For example, IU has set up an eContent fee that charges each individual student in an eContent section for the cost of the content. There is no large flat fee that IU pays the publisher.

Students can print out their notes and export them for archiving purposes.

The highlights will show up in the notes section of the software, so no need to copy and paste.

Best option for this pilot would be POD or printing the book yourself. The POD is of reasonable quality. It is certainly not equal to a hardback, glossy paged, full color textbook, but it is clearly readable and looks like a professional copy (it does not look like someone photocopied the book).

That choice is made by each individual bookstore.

Yes, the faculty can add links to multimedia, annotations, highlights, and notes. Those resources will be immediately propagated in each student's eContent.

We have seen the highest level of positive response in the classes where faculty truly utilized the software in their teaching. You can take a look at the Internet2 eTextbook Spring 2012 Pilot Final Project Report (PDF).

Yes, that data should be available at the end of the semester for the institutions to share if they wish.

We believe that some faculty are using their own faculty created content through the Courseload software, but we are not personally aware if a true open textbook is being used.

For the moment, McGraw-Hill is the only publisher and all of their eContent. (See McGraw-Hill Higher Education portfolio.)

No. Internet2 and EDUCAUSE are contributing all staff work on the pilot and are not receiving any payments. All revenues from the pilot are divided between the e-reader provider and the publisher(s), as their contracts with Internet2 provide. In many cases the revenue from the participating schools may not fully cover the cost of the pilot program for the e-reader or publishers. In previous engagements with individual campuses, the platform provider for this particular pilot, Courseload, agreed to provide some rebates back in the form of scholarships, reimbursement for promotional expenses, and so on. Such rebates are NOT part of this pilot. One of Courseload's original investments came from State of Indiana's 21st Century Fund. Both Courseload and McGraw-Hill are EDUCAUSE corporate members. Regardless of these connections, for this pilot no funds or equity are being provided to Internet2, EDUCAUSE, Indiana, Indiana University, or any individual associated with the pilot directly or indirectly.

Numerous publishers were approached by the project team and offered the opportunity to participate in the pilot on common terms. While there is significant interest in working with our community, many of the publishers were uncertain how to accommodate such a program without impacting their existing business models. We have been clear that the program is not intended to set a permanent price point or to require a change in other business engagements, but rather focuses on exploring new delivery mechanisms. The tight time frame to achieve a fall rollout has made it difficult for some publishers and e-reader providers to participate.

This pilot builds on work within a small group of Internet2 schools that previously conducted a pilot with Courseload and McGraw-Hill. We expect additional platform providers to join future pilots, which likely will explore different business models and delivery tools from the current pilot's, as well as expanded content from more publishers. Those agreements have not yet been reached, since planning for the next pilot will not begin until we've completed enrolling participants in the current one.