McGraw Hill textbooks begin appearing on campuses and in classrooms in 1986. The Economy Company was at the time the United State’s largest publisher of educational textbooks. So, when McGraw-Hill bought out this company in 1986, they instantaneously became the largest textbook publisher in the United States. “McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, Inc†changed their name to the “McGraw-Hill Companies†beginning in 1995. Their reasoning for this name change was that they were implementing a corporate identity re-branding process.
The McGraw-Hill Companies focus on three unique areas. Their most popular area has always been education. McGraw-Hill Education provides educational materials, both online and off-line, to students located throughout the globe. McGraw-Hill Education is the corporate identity responsible for developing and distributing McGraw Hill textbooks. Along with textbooks, McGraw-Hill Education develops and distributes several trade publications for the medical, business, and engineering business sectors. McGraw-Hill’s corporate identity is structured around three core global ideals: the need for capital, the need for knowledge, in the need for transparency. The company believes that these are the type of ideals necessary to promote growth economically. The company also believes that these are the type of ideals that encourage and permit people, marketplaces, and cultures to attain everything that they are truly capable of.
(McGraw-Hill Education develops and distributes their McGraw Hill textbooks out of their offices located in 33 different countries. McGraw-Hill Education also publishes its textbooks in over 60 unique languages. The company operates under several different imprints within the United States. Some of the popular American imprints include Glencoe textbooks, McMillan textbooks, and McGraw-Hill Higher Education textbooks.
McGraw Hill textbooks are beginning to appear online as well. The company really seems to be focusing on taking advantage of the current digital media revolution. In 2008 the company launched a new cutting-edge data center and Hightstown, New Jersey. This data center will allow the company to distribute digital content to customers throughout the globe, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. We could be fast approaching a time when physical McGraw Hill textbooks are essentially a thing of the past and McGraw Hill online textbooks are the most popular educational materials for students around the world.
To further illustrate this trend of publishers focusing their efforts towards online textbooks, one can also analyze what McGraw-Hill Education accomplished a year later in 2009. During this time the company introduced the McGraw-Hill Connect learning platform. This learning platform is 100% digital for both teachers and learners. Within six months of the platform’s development, Connect was being utilized by over a million educators and students throughout the United States. It is quite clear to see that the future of McGraw Hill textbooks will involve even more digital educational supplementary material. Eventually this digital material developed by McGraw-Hill education may even completely replace the need for physical McGraw Hill textbooks.
New Technologies and Modern Learning Environments
The McGraw Hill Campus (visit the website) is an innovative digital service that allows instructors and students easy access to high quality McGraw Hill resources at no cost to your school. It can be used with multiple campus learning management systems such as Blackboard, IMS and WebCT. McGraw Hill Campus includes the features–Connect, Learnsmart, Tegrity and Create–all designed for more efficient learning in today's world.
McGraw Hill Connect (visit the website) is an assignment and testing system that allows instructors to connect with their students at any time through course management tools. Among other things, instructors can create assignments using the McGraw Hill textbooks of their choice and record presentations for students to access at their convenience. It is also an invaluable resource for the student to learn more quickly and retain that knowledge. The student can submit activities and receive instant feedback and automatic grading, which enables him or her to study more efficiently.
Learnsmart (visit the website) is a very detailed adaptive study system which results in faster learning, more efficient study and retention of knowledge for the student. It is an interactive system which quizzes the students in order to find out what they have learned and how well they've learned it. The program adapts to the student and designs a personalized study plan. If the student has not learned the material well enough, Learnsmart will tell him exactly what areas need review. Learnsmart also has a mobile app which allows students to study anywhere at any time.
Tegrity (visit the website) allows students to conveniently watch recorded lectures presented by the instructor. Among many features, students can search for content by typing in a single word, and bookmark that content. This program also allows for easy note-taking with Powernotes. Another great feature is the ability to connect with the instructor and other classmates either through private conversations or classroom discussions.
Create (visit the website) is a program for instructors which enables them to search for and design their own curriculum materials. It allows for ease of searching in books, articles, media and more. The instructor can then edit and organize the content and customize it by adding his/her own material.
With all the technological changes happening in the world today, McGraw Hill's digital programs and services are a wise choice for enhancing the learning management systems at your academic institution.
