Macmillan Learning, Intellus Learning, and OhioLINK Partner to Help Students Succeed in College Courses via Affordable Materials and Insights

May 3, 2018 - Macmillan Learning, a premier educational solutions and insights provider, and OhioLINK, a consortium of 120 academic libraries distributed among 91 Ohio colleges and universities, today announced a strategic offering designed to make course materials more affordable. This multi-pronged approach includes a textbook pricing agreement and Intellus Learning, a Macmillan Learning product, as a learning tool for participants in a statewide grant supporting Open Educational Resources (OER) in the state of Ohio. Combined, these agreements offer students at OhioLINK's participating member institutions access to Macmillan's digital portfolio via inclusive access and preferred pricing models, resulting in potential student savings of nearly 70% on course materials, ensuring immediate access to materials on the first day of class, and driving higher likelihood of student success.

Both Macmillan and OhioLINK institutions are focused on course outcomes and affordability as crucial elements in course design decisions. Faculty at OhioLINK institutions will have the opportunity to adopt eBooks from Macmillan's digital course portfolio via Inclusive Access and grant participants will take advantage of the capability of Intellus Learning to discover and review OER and no-cost-to-students library content that matches defined course objectives.

"Our customers are focused on providing learning experiences that are affordable, engaging, and drive student success," explained Macmillan Learning CEO, Ken Michaels. "Yet, finding the right mix of content and tools that address all three objectives can be challenging. With this strategic partnership, we are delighted to meet the needs of Ohio institutions, administrators, faculty, librarians, and students with a highly innovative solution that offers critical transparency around student engagement, content usage, and content effectiveness. The combination of affordability and insights is a game-changer in the pursuit of lifting student outcomes. Helping students achieve their ambitions is what drives me every day, and also why I'm thrilled about partnering with OhioLINK."

OhioLINK provided Intellus Learning, a Macmillan Learning product, to faculty participating in Ohio's $1.3 million OER Innovation grant through the Ohio Department of Higher Education, OhioLINK's parent agency. Intellus enables them to efficiently identify free, quality course materials and provides insights into content use and student engagement. With patented machine learning techniques, Intellus has aggregated, indexed, and measured usage and engagement of 5.4 million Open Educational Resources (OER). Using the Intellus Learning platform, faculty cohorts from institutions across the state participating in the grant will be able to discover, curate, and assign OER along with OhioLINK shared library resources. These cohorts are working on 21 courses identified as priorities for OER adoption across multiple Ohio higher education institutions.

"At OhioLINK, we are focused on students first and foremost, seeking out and testing the appropriate tools and strategies that deliver cost savings to them directly," said OhioLINK Executive Director Gwen Evans. "We believe in tackling affordable learning from all angles, including textbook savings, OER and inclusive access, among others. Working with Macmillan delivers complementary strategies that support student success and academic freedom simultaneously. Whether it's making digital course materials available at a reduced cost to our member higher ed institutions or our grant group using Intellus to potentially speed OER adoption-we are working diligently on these initiatives on behalf of Ohio college students."

"Macmillan Learning & OhioLINK share a common belief that affordability coupled with expert teaching and engaging learning experiences is the true path to student success," stated Macmillan Learning Institutional GM, Craig Bleyer. This partnership personifies this mindset and allows us to extend successful learning to as many students as possible. We are committed to the transformative nature of education, and want to do our part to help students reach their fullest potential."

The inclusive access textbook pricing collaboration between Macmillan Learning and OhioLINK will be immediately available to the statewide network of libraries and their combined student population of more than 600,000 learners at institutions such as The Ohio State University, Sinclair Community College, and Bowling Green State University. Institutions interested in taking advantage of this price agreement should contact Macmillan Learning directly.

Elaborating on these initiatives further, Craig Bleyer said, "As a family-owned company with a 175-year history in publishing, we have a deep passion for learner success. We strive to deliver impactful learning solutions with rich insights for our student and faculty customers, and are delighted to champion affordability in the state of Ohio."

To learn more about Macmillan Learning's portfolio of products and services, please visit: macmillanlearning.com.

About Macmillan Learning:

Macmillan Learning improves lives through learning. Our legacy of excellence in education informs our approach to using user-centered design, learning science, impact research, and data mining to develop world-class content and pioneering products that are empathetic, highly effective, and drive improved outcomes. Through deep partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers, we facilitate teaching and learning opportunities that spark student engagement and improve outcomes. We provide educators with tailored solutions designed to inspire curiosity and measure progress. Our commitment to teaching and discovery upholds our mission to improve lives through learning. To learn more, please visit http://www.macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN or join our Macmillan Community.

About Intellus Learning:

Intellus Learning empowers instructors to quickly access high-quality open educational resources (OER), other openly-licensed content, as well as their institution's academic library materials to help replace expensive course materials, while providing powerful, real-time insight into students' engagement with the assigned content. To learn more, please visit: http://intelluslearning.com.

About OhioLINK:

Established in 1992, the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is Ohio's statewide academic library consortium and serves more than 600,000 end users, with 120 libraries as full members. These libraries are distributed among 92 different Ohio colleges and universities. OhioLINK membership includes the State Library of Ohio, 16 public university libraries, 51 independent college libraries, 23 two-year college libraries, 16 regional campus libraries, eight law school libraries and five medical school libraries. A member of the Ohio Technology Consortium of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, OhioLINK provides a competitive advantage for Ohio's higher education community by cooperatively and cost-effectively acquiring, providing access to, and preserving an expanding array of print and digital resources, and by centrally hosting digital content. Learn more at http://ohiolink.edu.