The California State University has announced an agreement with five major college publishers to participate in a pilot project to license digital course content through an initiatve called the Digital Marketplace. Starting this fall, Bedford/Freeman/Worth, Cengage Learning, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, and John Wiley & Sons, will offer content through pilot courses at five CSU campuses: Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Bernardino and San Francisco State.
Under the plan, students will purchase personal-use subscriptions for the digital content through their local campus bookstore, and will have access to publisher content, for the duration of the course. While prices were not announced, the deal "promises the lowest price available" for students participating in the project, and the pilot program will "collect and analyze student and faculty user data during the fall 2010 term to learn more about usage and preferences for digital materials." The Digital Marketplace is an initiative of the Office of the Chancellor. Launched in 2007, it is a comprehensive effort to use technology to rein in the rising costs of higher education, while offering the best possible education experience. If the deal is successful, it could be rolled out to the entire CSU system, some 23 campuses, serving approximately 433,000 students year round and 44,000 faculty and staff.
