Transforming Learning Materials for the Digital Age: LiveCarta Vision

The Evolution of Custom Course Content in Higher Education

The landscape of education is shifting, and with it, the way professors curate and deliver course materials. In this episode, Richard Speakman, President of LiveCarta, discusses how LiveCarta is revolutionizing course content creation by giving educators more control, flexibility, and affordability in designing learning materials. If you’re an educator, publisher, or decision-maker in higher ed, this conversation is for you.

The Challenge: Keeping Course Materials Relevant

In fast-evolving disciplines like law, medical education, and artificial intelligence, traditional textbooks often fail to keep up. Professors either assign multiple books—which increases costs for students—or attempt to author their own materials, which can be time-consuming and difficult to distribute affordably.

LiveCarta was designed to solve this problem by offering a dynamic platform where educators can easily create, adapt, and share content that meets their students' needs. As Richard explains:

"Certain subjects are constantly evolving and changing. Professors need tools to take content they’ve authored, combine it with commercially available or Open Educational Resources (OER) content, and create the best teaching tool possible."

A Smarter Way to Curate Content

LiveCarta offers two powerful ways for educators to create customized course materials:

1. Custom Copies

With our Custom Copy feature, educators can purchase a book from our catalog and modify it to fit their teaching needs. This includes:

• Selecting specific chapters while excluding others.
• Reorganizing content to align with the course structure.
• Enhancing the material with annotations, additional insights, or counterarguments to encourage critical thinking.
• Enriching the content with multimedia elements such as videos and podcasts.

Custom Copies allow professors to take an existing work and transform it into a uniquely structured learning resource, giving students access to precisely what they need without unnecessary costs.

2. Collections

Another innovative tool on LiveCarta is Chapter Collections. This feature enables educators to compile chapters from different books—even from different publishers—into a single, cohesive resource. As Richard explains, this is a game-changer:

• Helps educators curate the best content from various resources.
• Enables universities to develop branded, proprietary learning materials.
• Provides a competitive edge, particularly for online programs where cutting-edge, adaptable content is key.
• Allows continuous updates without waiting for new editions from traditional publishers.

"Collections let educators pull the best content across multiple sources to create a single, best-in-class work. Whether it’s OER content, university-created material, or publisher content, it allows for a tailored approach that reflects an institution’s unique teaching methodology."

All Custom Copies and Collections integrate seamlessly into Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and D2L through LTI 1.3 deep linking, ensuring a smooth digital learning experience.

Adapting to a Changing Landscape: COVID-19 & AI

The demand for customizable educational content isn’t just a matter of convenience—it’s a necessity shaped by two major forces in recent years:

1. The Shift to Online Learning - COVID-19 dramatically altered the way universities deliver education. Institutions had to rapidly adapt to remote learning, pushing them to rethink how they create and distribute course materials.
2. AI’s Role in Education - The rise of AI-driven learning tools is reshaping how students interact with content. While AI can provide quick answers, universities must ensure that their materials are authoritative and accurate. Richard Speakman emphasizes:

"Custom training materials are now more vital than ever. Universities can present content in a way that is authoritative and true, rather than relying on information that AI tools might generate without proper context."

Ready to Learn More?

🎧 Listen to the full episode to discover how LiveCarta is helping educators build the future of learning materials!

The landscape of higher education is changing, and the ability to create and distribute custom content is becoming a critical advantage for educators and institutions alike. If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve and provide your students with the most relevant and engaging learning materials, you won’t want to miss this conversation.

At LiveCarta, we are committed to empowering educators with tools that make course material creation effortless, affordable, and impactful.

🔹 Visit LiveCarta for more information.
📧 Contact us or book a demo to discuss how we can support your institution’s needs.