Creating iBooks Author Culture Change

Sure, it sounds great: educators creating their own digital textbooks using iBooks Author, replacing expensive textbooks offered by massive corporate textbook publishers, and fully taking control of their educational environment.  

Updating these books on the fly, at no additional cost, when news happens or when new discoveries take place.  100% control over the curriculum.

And then sharing these educator-created books on iTunes U by creating courses, or publishing directly through the iBooks Store.  100% control over distribution.

CollegeBoard estimates college students spend over $1200 per semester on textbooks.  K-12 textbooks aren't much cheaper.  Being able to save students money on books, while doing so in a way that improves the quality of the education they receive, is a win-win.

It usually begins with a small group of educators deciding they want to be early adopters, perhaps after learning how others worldwide have used iBooks Author to create amazing digital books.

Then, they get some initial training.  Often, this training is surface-level, covering enough to where early adopters can get their feet wet.  Even so, excitement runs high.

However, then resistance creeps in.  The early adopters, who have started creating digital content at this point, begin hitting roadblocks and don't know where to turn.  Frustrated, some give up.

For others, life simply goes on, and the ambition of creating digital textbooks takes a backseat to the everyday demands of the modern educator's profession.

The end result is always the same: the vision of change starts to blur out, and the future those early adopters chased for a time gets deferred.

Achieving True Culture Change with iBooks Author

Culture change is taking the spark created by the early adopters, and using it to light a fire.

Whereas frustrated early adopters toil in isolation, working without support, culture change happens when these early adopters get the resources and support they need:

1) Training

Gone is the single, surface-level training that takes place every six months, where the same people end up getting re-trained in the exact same technology or material they learned before because it never stuck the first time.

In its place should be an aggressive schedule of training, installed every few weeks or perhaps once a month, at a cadence which allows a majority of faculty and staff at an institution to receive the same instruction over a fixed period of time.

This training should be on-site, and in-person.  Lynda.com and the like have their place, and they work particularly well when motivated individuals take to the internet to learn a new skill at their own pace.  They don't work well as a group training solution.  The immediacy/urgency of in-person training, the ability to get real-time feedback and hands-on instruction, and the social dynamics of on-site, small-group training are a necessity to galvanize interest.

Follow-up training then takes place with those who produce content, and more advanced concepts are covered.  As some faculty in an institution reach this point of advanced training, a funny thing starts to happen: the continuing education of an organization begins to internalize, as these on-site faculty experts begin to lend a hand with others to answer questions and help remove obstacles.

And at that point, the snowball has already started rolling down the hill.  Culture change is occurring.

2) Support

A regular drumbeat of training alone is insufficient.  Early adopters - and everyone else - are going to hit walls.  They're going to encounter obstacles, and will need support to turn these roadblocks into temporary problems rather than permanent ones.

Part of this support is needing someone willing and able to answer iBooks Author questions rapidly as they arise.  When we do a training, we also provide an email hotline for support for all of the training's attendees.  When they have questions, we address them within 24 hours so they can keep making progress toward creating digital books, or whether using iBooks Author to have students create books in iBooks Author to flip the classroom.

The other part of support is rewards and incentives.  Early adopters need to be rewarded for completing digital books out on the frontier, before everyone else was doing it, and as the culture in an organization truly starts to embrace iBooks Author, regular awards for outstanding achievement should be put in place.  

One idea we've seen used effectively is to allow the educators who create the best iBooks over the course of a semester (or perhaps the summertime) to attend the iBooks Author Conference, where they could share their experiences and learn best practices in creating digital curriculum from some of the best in the world.  This is just one example, though, and it is incumbent upon faculty leaders and administrators to make sure consistent support and compelling rewards are put in place, no matter what they are.

True culture change is indeed possible with iBooks Author.  We've seen it: Dr. Julia Maurer spoke at last year's iBooks Author Conference about how Mercersburg Academy has achieved this culture change - their educators use iBooks Author and create textbooks to be used in class, and since 2012, students have saved well over $100,000 in textbook costs.

If you and your institution is ready to pursue iBooks Author culture change, we can help.  Our award-winning two-day hands-on training centers on iBooks Author but includes the full constellation of software iBooks Author content creators need to be successful, including Hype, BookWidgets, and iTunes U.  Those who get trained by our trainers receive one-on-one 24-hour email and Skype support, and our design team provides custom, professionally-designed book covers and book templates for your school so everyone can learn how to use iBooks Author while creating their very own book.

And thanks to Apple's new iOS 9.3 updates, schools don't need to be 1-to-1 iPad in order to take advantage of what iBooks Author offers, and you can even create cross-platform content (for non-Apple hardware) using iBooks Author as well.

If you're ready to pursue iBooks Author culture change, reach out.  We'd love to schedule a brief call to discuss your needs, or even submit a proposal.

Bradley Metrock is CEO of Score Publishing, a digital media company based in Franklin, Tennessee, which owns iBooksAuthorTraining.com, owns and operates the iBooks Author Certification Program (iBACP), and hosts the annual iBooks Author Conference.  

Jenny Kryzstowczyk is Director of Training for Score Publishing, is a former Apple Foundations Trainer, and has years of experience with technology integration and working with educators.