Reality Check: Aligning Higher Education Course Materials with Customizability

Ask a university professor to evaluate the quality of their course materials, and the answers might surprise you. One might assume that educators carefully curate a balanced mix of textbooks, case studies, and supplementary content to align seamlessly with their learning objectives. Outsiders may even believe that most professors would confidently give their course materials an A-grade. But is that reality?

The disruptions of the COVID-19 era exposed challenges and truths about educators' abilities to fully design and deliver teaching content that aligns with their pedagogical goals. During the pandemic, institutions rapidly upscaled digital resources, migrating course materials to online formats. While some barriers to flexible content delivery were temporarily removed, others became even more pronounced.

The decade leading to the pandemic witnessed a measured shift toward digital transformation in higher education. Then, the onset of remote learning accelerated these changes, only to be followed by the rise of AI-informed tools poised to disrupt the market once again.

The Changing Textbook Landscape

A recent report from Bay View Analytics underscores the evolving role of traditional textbooks:

• Digital Growth: 78% of faculty require a textbook for their largest course, with 92% of these books offered in digital formats.
• Print vs. Digital Divide: While 79% of faculty agree that digital materials provide greater flexibility, 41% maintain that print materials are better for learning.

Publishers have rebranded themselves as more than textbook providers, positioning as content curators, distributors, and assessment solution vendors. Yet, they still produce the rigid textbooks that remain a cornerstone of many students' education. This rigidity often clashes with educators' desires for flexible, customizable materials tailored to meet their students' unique needs.

To bridge this gap LiveCarta enables publishers to deliver adaptable and engaging resources that resonate with today’s educators and learners. Learn more about textbook customization, pay-by-chapter functionality, and other EdTech tools that are shaping the future of education.

Learn more about LiveCarta digital experience platform

The Potential of Customized Textbooks

Customizing textbooks offers professors a powerful way to enhance course materials, making them more relevant, engaging, and impactful. This isn’t a novel idea—it's a growing necessity. Professors can tailor content to align with specific course objectives and student demographics, addressing both engagement and accessibility.

Here’s how educators and publishers can embrace this customization:

1. Develop Custom Editions

• Select needed chapters and include only the most relevant sections.
• Add case studies, examples, or exercises tailored to the curriculum.
• Remove unnecessary sections to save costs, focus on key topics, and ensure the textbook structure matches the syllabus and supports learning outcomes.
• Organize content in the order it will be taught to create a seamless learning journey.

2. Integrate Supplemental Materials

• Provide problem sets and custom exercises aligned with learning outcomes.
• Embed multimedia elements such as QR codes or links to videos and simulations.
• Add real-world applications relevant to students' future careers to make content engaging and practical.

3. Leverage Open Educational Resources (OER)

• Combine OER materials to supplement or replace traditional content.
• Adapt materials to reflect local examples and the latest developments while lowering costs.

4. Add Instructor Commentary

• Provide insights and explanations within the text.
• Include discussion prompts or custom prefaces to frame the material.

5. Incorporate Student Feedback

• Use past feedback to revise and refine textbooks.
• Highlight sections students found helpful or request additional content in weak areas.

6. Use AI Tools for Assessments

• Generate chapter-specific quizzes and tests to evaluate student comprehension.
• Leverage AI-powered tools to create dynamic assessments that adapt to students’ progress.
• Save valuable time by automating repetitive tasks like test creation and grading.

7. Collaborate Across Departments

• Work with colleagues to develop interdisciplinary resources.
• Share customized textbooks across similar courses for broader impact.

Challenges to Flexibility

While publishers have developed high-quality bundles of course materials, they often bundle content in a way that limits customization or standalone purchases. Research from the Educational Data Initiative reveals persistent challenges:

• Fewer than 50% of professors replace textbook content with their own or external sources.
• Only 29% of faculty require OER materials, and 50% rate their course content as A or B-level.
• 33% of faculty either could not adopt the textbook of their choice without bundled material or were unaware of alternatives.

For Professor Mark Reynolds, an economics educator, the challenge isn’t just the lack of flexibility—it’s the frustration of being locked into bundled resources. ‘I wanted to use just two chapters from the recommended textbook and supplement it with my own case studies, but I had no option other than purchasing the entire bundle,’ he shared. His experience echoes that of many educators constrained by traditional publishing models.

Looking Ahead to 2025

The push for flexible, AI-informed learning materials and globally accessible micro-credential programs is expected to intensify. Universities must rise to the challenge by empowering professors with tools to customize and enhance course materials. Pairing the expertise of educators with affordable, high-quality resources will not only improve learning outcomes but also attract a generation of digital-native students.

The future of higher education depends on bridging the gap between rigid traditional materials and the flexible, personalized resources that today’s learners need. As the industry evolves, those institutions that prioritize customization, accessibility, and innovation will be best positioned to thrive.

By embracing tools and strategies that empower educators, you can deliver solutions that truly meet the needs of today’s learners. Take the first step toward making your content more adaptable and impactful — book a demo to see how innovative customization tools can transform your offerings.

Further Reading:

Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2024). Approaching a new normal? Educational resources in U.S. higher education, 2024. Bay View Analytics. https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/oer_2024_new_normal.pdf

Hanson, Melanie. Average Cost of College Textbooks,  EducationData.org, October 12, 2024, https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-textbooks