It's quite an accepted fact that kids nowadays see reading a textbook as a monotonous job. Added to this no one really wants to while away hours and hours doing a H.O.M.E.W.O.R.K!

In a nutshell, the issue is not with the educational systems globally but rather the structure of coursework it promotes. While the teachers/professors come with the moral responsibility of making better citizens out of each kid under their wing, they still cannot figure out as to why a student may be performing bad or why his/her paper submissions are late.

And yet they love asking the time honored question - "Class, have you read/done your lesson?"

Outright irritating, if you are on the receiving end!

While the majority of the class may have scurried through the pages as a "just-for-the-sake" act, the teachers always worry about the understanding and absorption of topics at the conceptual level. Now this is education, at its shallowest best, where each one is bugged with getting over with the task at hand.

The new eTextbooks by CourseSmart comes as a almost perfect solution to the double-edged problem.

A Silicon Valley start up, CourseSmart wants to pioneer the digital media niche by allowing teachers to track the progress of their students with their eBook and analytics technology. It was founded in 2007 by a group of famous publishers including Pearson, Cengage Learning, McGraw Hill Education, Macmillan and John Wiley & Sons.

Over the years, CourseSmart has managed to facilitate higher education system by its vast online catalogue of "40,000 eTextbooks, representing 90% of the core textbooks currently in use in North American Higher Education". Certified by Truste - the Internet privacy service provider, CourseSmart materials are accessible from any Web-enabled device. In 2011, they were the first to launch eTextbooks for mobile devices- for both iPhone and Android.

In its latest technology module,being tested at the popular A&M University,Texas, the dean of the business school calls it a "Big Brother, but with a good intent".

It is a known fact that many of the top educational institutions are coming to rely on digital materials for classroom teaching. The stand out feature of the startup's latest technology, is that it is meant for improving the standards of both the professors and their students.

With the help of CourseSmart analytics, the professors can now comprehensively assess student performances by measuring "engagement with materials", i.e how well and long a student actually read the text, the average page views and notes they made. Added to this the student's overall class participation and academic involvement through quizzes and discussions is also valuable in charting out the strengths and weakenesses.

This comes in real handy when the class strength is huge and individual interaction is not always possible. However, CourseSmart's tools allows access to a dashboard where teachers know easily which student is performing well, moderate and bad.


Coming to the publishers, they too get to analyse the business trends easily with this technology module. The collected data enables them to "see how their books are being consumed, and if a particular chapter is constantly being overlooked, publishers can identify why and update the material".

Digitally tracking student performance and course engagement is a smart idea, if only the minor loopholes are covered up nice and tight. Since it is a web-based technology , concerns over privacy loom. Students have an opt-out option from the tracking session as well. Moreover the data of those within the loop may not be the most authentic in every case.

What do you feel about this latest development in learning technology? Is a comprehensive tracking of digital reading by students possible? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

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