Are digital textbooks the way of the future? Can publishers keep up?

Are digital textbooks the way of the future? Can publishers keep up?


By Camila Lima De Moraes, Senior Project Officer (Research), GEM Report

Despite significant upfront costs, including infrastructure and training, digitization of textbooks can greatly reduce the production and distribution unit cost. Digital textbooks also have the advantage of increasing student access to content outside school hours. Moreover, those openly licensed as OER encourage contextual adaptations that can improve inclusiveness and relevance. However, this requires a reconfiguration of some of the dominant business models. 

The 2023 GEM Report on technology in education showed just to what extent digitalization of resources is taking place. As a starting point, many governments have been digitizing content from traditional textbooks as static digital versions – that are not interactive, for example – with the objective of increasing their availability. In Bhutan, all government textbooks are downloadable from the Royal Education Council’s website, although most refer to primary education. In Nepal, textbooks have been digitized as PDF files that are available for download.

There are also moves away from static digital versions towards digitally enhanced contents. In Algeria, concerns over the heavy weight of textbooks led the government to develop a digital version of primary school textbooks that also contains supplementary materials such as videos, animations and interactive features. In India, the government is embedding all textbooks with QR codes which can provide additional information, contextualize content and bridge linguistic gaps. In Sweden, collaborative digital textbooks are being developed for teachers and students to engage with materials and experience a multimodal way of learning.

Digitizing textbooks can make them more accessible.

In India, the National Institute of Open Schooling has been developing content in Indian Sign Language and Digitally Accessible Information System-enabled talking books. In Kenya, the Ministry of Education partnered with eKitabu, a local company, to help the deaf community and local content creators produce visual storybooks and integrate sign language videos in early grade readers. eKitabu is also developing 270 accessible e-books for Malawi, 220 in Tumbuka and 50 in Malawian Sign Language.  

In Paraguay, the Ministry of Education and Science piloted the Accessible Digital Textbooks for All initiative in 2021, which develops digital tools and content based on Universal Design for Learning principles. Over 92 countries have ratified the 2013 Marrakech Treaty, which requires parties to set exceptions to copyright rules allowing the reproduction and distribution of published works in accessible formats for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled.

And they can break down barriers to education related to costs or language:

The 2023 Southeast Asia Report documented several such examples from the region. Indonesia, for instance, launched the Electronic School Textbook Programme in 2008 to address increasing costs and school textbook shortages. The ministry buys the copyright of selected books to be shared with the education community via a dedicated portal. The number of e-books made available for free has increased every year.

Digital and open textbooks help address the problem of shortages, especially in local languages, often caused by stringent procurement policies and challenging supply systems. Since 2008, the Vietnam Open Educational Resources programme has been engaged in digitizing learning materials and has made more than 20,000 modules available for free under the Creative Commons Attribution licence. The Ministry of Education and Training has also digitized all textbooks and exercise books in grades 1 to 12 and made them freely available to teachers and students.

The trend of digitizing textbooks increased during COVID. 

In Malaysia, the government launched a Digital Textbook Initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at providing digital textbooks to all students in the country. Over 750 digital textbooks have been uploaded to the Ministry of Education’s Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia (DELIMa) platform. The Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint encourages education publishers to transition to e-books and interactive formats by 2030. As of October 2023, it was accessed by 4.1 million students (85%) and 420,000 teachers (99%).

Similarly, the number and use of digital textbooks has increased in the Republic of Korea during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. Building on the country’s past experience, immersive content, such as virtual and augmented reality, has been integrated into existing digital material, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications have been embedded in new textbooks. In 2023/24, the Ministry of Education plans to scale up AI-embedded textbooks to expand personalized learning opportunities in the country.

However, commercial publishers can be slow to adapt their business models.  

Printed textbooks are very profitable. For instance, e-books only represent about 10% to 13% of publishers’ printed book revenue in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, as they face challenges adapting and maintaining new technologies. A lack of digital infrastructure in schools and of government policies to support sales of digital textbooks pose challenges for the publishers to change their production modes. In Brazil, the 2015 National Programme for Textbooks that distributes textbooks to public primary and secondary schools allowed publishers to offer digital textbooks. However, the government stipulated that digital textbooks must have the same content as printed versions in order to preserve fair competition between publishers, many of which did not have the capacity to produce digital content.

Governments and commercial publishers must find sustainable models for the changing textbook market. In France, a non-profit association of mathematics teachers founded Sésamath, an online platform to share educational materials, including textbooks. The association is financially supported by the government, but almost 90% of their operating costs are covered by partnerships with publishers for low-cost printed textbooks – an example of how governments, OER and commercial publishers can approach the market together. 

Commercial publishers are more likely to move towards digital books at the tertiary level, where they are less dependent on government infrastructure and regulations. Digital textbooks already make up a considerable share of the higher education revenue of major publishers such as Pearson and McGraw-Hill. This move requires a change in business models, however, that raises several regulatory and ethical concerns. For instance, the value of digital products is suddenly based on an asset market, which brings future value through maintaining ownership and charging for access to the asset. This poses new challenges. For instance, student and personnel data create value, which is being shared between institutions and technology companies. Students and staff may be constrained in their choice of platforms and the requirement to agree or not to their terms of use. In the United States, universities have been signing subscription deals with major publishers to provide all required digital learning materials to students at a discount. This severely restricts students’ and professors’ choices and may increase costs, as institutions get locked into exclusivity contracts 

In this context, OER have been gaining ground as an accessible solution to higher education learning materials. OpenStax, a non-profit corporation, has been publishing openly licensed college textbooks online for free that are used in over 100 countries. Nevertheless, despite a few exceptions, including Siyavula in South Africa, open textbooks are still mostly restricted to North America, where the affordability of learning materials is high on the political agenda.

As this blog shows, technology has the power to significantly improve access to content and, in many instances, it already has. It can remove many of the common barriers for accessing content, including language, cost and entry requirements. Digital textbooks will not – and never should – replace printed materials. But there is clear potential in their ability to reach and engage with learners that governments should not ignore.



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