Rovia and Houghton Mifflin to deliver electronic textbooks - News: noteworthy people, programs, funding, and technological advances in the world of higher education - Brief Article

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, April, 2001 by Al Branch

Rovia, Inc., a provider of secure, electronic distribution infrastructure for the publishing industry, and Houghton Mifflin Company, a leading educational publisher, have joined to deliver Houghton Mifflin College Division content online. Using Rovia's secure, interactive, Web-based platform, the College Division began offering online versions of textbooks to colleges and universities this semester. The agreement reflects

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Houghton Mifflin's commitment to expanding the reach of its content and services beyond traditional channels.

"Houghton Mifflin is a model for other textbook publishers who want to capitalize on the full scope of ePublishing opportunities available on the Web," Andres Nannetti, CEO of Rovia, said.

Instructors may immediately adopt Rovia-powered textbooks through their Houghton Mifflin sales representative. Students can purchase access to the titles directly from Rovia and Houghton Mifflin's College Division. By renting access to Rovia-powered books online, students can save up to 40 percent off the printed textbook's retail price.

Discounts and access times are stipulated according to the agreement with the publisher. The price range is between 50-70 percent of the retail price for 150 days of access (per semester). Depending on the publisher agreement, access is also available per chapter.

Rovia-enabled texts integrate the entire offering of materials that accompany a textbook--including interactive quizzes, videos, and other multimedia enhancements--into a single platform. With Rovia's first product, the RovReader, professors and students can customize their content by annotating text, highlighting sections, inserting "sticky notes," dog-earing pages, and exporting markups. Rovia's technology enables peer-to-peer sharing of annotations and documents within a secure environment that complies with copyright laws.

Unlike current digital rights management technology, Rovia's technology enables authorized users to view exact copies of copyrighted content from virtually any Web-enabled computer, and guarantees the security and integrity of information not only during transmission, but also during access and interaction. Another feature that distinguishes Rovia-powered textbooks, is that they look just like the printed version--with the same page numbering, layout, and graphics--allowing the print and online versions to easily coexist.