College Textbooks and ebooks

As we all wait anxiously to see whether the groundhog will see his shadow or not tomorrow, I thought I'd take a minute to brag a bit about the custom college publishing expertise that Kendall Hunt's Higher Education division has to offer.

Do you struggle to find the college ebooks or higher education textbooks that are just right for your class? My guess is that even if you find a book that works, you're still supplementing it with your own material such as articles, research, images, graphs, etc. Why bother with all that? By the time you do all that extra work, you could create your own book with Kendall Hunt.

We've been in the business of custom college publishing for more than 60 years. You can write your own book from start to finish, you can use some of our material and some of your own to build your book, or you can take one of our existing books and customize it to meet your needs. With a wide selection of content delivery systems, from printed material to ebooks, to digital coursepacks and more, you choose what works best for your class and what best meets the needs of your students.

We have experts that serve every state in the country. Some are located near you and some work from our home office in Dubuque. No matter who you work with, you'll benefit from our extensive experience in the industry and our unparalleled service. Look into our custom publishing options today and let us make your job easier!

So, what do you do if you teach a unique higher education course and you can’t find the perfect book to fit your needs? You create your own custom college textbook.

That is what education professors at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa did.  They teach a Human Relations course, which seems basic enough, except they took it one step further for their education students.  They teach their Human Relations course specifically for educators.  Since educators face different human relations situations than persons in other careers, they wrote their book to prepare pre-service teachers for those situations. Congratulations  to Scott Arnett, Susan Burns, and Susie Lubbers on their publication Human Relations for the Educator.

With the opportunities available in custom publishing, you can create a traditional printed textbook, lab manual, digital course pack, college ebook or a combination of any of them.

Discover your Create... Customize ... Adopt solutions at www.kendallhunt.com/highered.

As the days get longer and the weather warms up, I can’t help but think about cold treats. There’s an ice cream store in my hometown of Dubuque, Iowa that is called Cold Stone Creamery.  I’m sure you are probably familiar with this business concept.  The customer walks in, looks at a large sample of ice cream flavors (ranging from vanilla to cookie batter, to banana) and numerous mix-ins (such as Oreo, Snickers, brownie, or Cookie Dough). 

Now the customer can do one of three things when they enter: they can order an existing creation directly from the menu; use the menu as a template and add their own mix-ins; or create their own treat from scratch.

This concept dovetails perfectly to my work at Kendall Hunt Publishing.  As a leading higher education textbook publisher, we allow professors to create, adopt, or customize a variety of our college textbooks and ebooks.

Like my father-in-law orders his ice cream treats directly from the menu, so to can a professor adopt a textbook directly from our online college textbooks catalog.  This serves him well.  He gets a tested and proven ice cream treat – similar to a professor getting a classroom tested textbook.

Or you could be like my wife and use the menu at Cold Stone as a guide.  She looks up a certain ice cream flavor and consults a list of recommendations to meet her palate.   Her favorite is the cake batter ice cream with the cookie dough mix-in.  This is very similar to Kendall Hunt’s customization process.  Professors can meet with one of our educational consultants, discuss their higher education course, and discuss their options.  They can adopt an existing book and add their own content to create a digital course pack; they could consult our digital learning center to see some of our existing material to add, or they could create a new digital coursepack and deliver via our content delivery system.  The possibilities are truly endless!

Finally, the customer can walk into this ice cream store and invent their own ice cream creation.  This is how I like to roll.  Throw a little bit of this, little bit of that, and bam, a new creation!  As always, Kendall Hunt Publishing offers the educator to create their own course content to meet the needs of them and their students.  Professors can create their own college ebooks, college textbooks, or digital coursepacks. This is the principle that Kendall Hunt was based on and has followed for over sixty years…

All this talk about ice cream is making me hungry…..Thank heavens that Kendall Hunt Publishing offers online content delivery so I can work on the run….I’m off to the ice cream store!

In a digital generation where college eBooks and digital delivery are becoming the norm, do students really understand their strengths?

One of the new strategies in First-Year Experience (FYE) programs is "Strengths-Based".

Dr. Marsha Fralick now focuses on this strategy in the new edition of her textbook "College & Career Success," 5th ed.

Instead of assessing a students weakness and helping them to overcome those, instructors help students focus on their strengths, which then helps to motivate students.  This motivation helps in selecting a major, learning the best study strategies, and being overall excited about college.

Learn more about the new features and chapters of "College and Career Success," 5th ed. at www.kendallhunt.com/fralick.