The present era is witnessing many radical changes in the most basic processes of life, including education. Learning in schools might still be the same as it was a decade ago but with the introduction of online education, the education paradigms has been affected because the learning and teaching methodology has jumped to a whole new level. Technology makes it possible to let the learners indulge in a more comprehensive and effective form of learning. Even though many technologies have been introduced so as to enable eLearning, this sector still experiences constant evolution and innovations.
The digital educational content provides many audios, visuals and documents to enable learning in an interesting and collaborating environment. New styles of online education have been developed like quizzes and interactivity and these features have attracted more users towards the same; typical eBook creation companies create rich interactive content that appeals and educates more effectively. Earlier, Adobe Flash was preferred for eLearning but with the facilitation of html5 support in eBooks, its advantages over shadowed Flash.
The ePub profile has made a major contribution in evolving eLearning terrain. After html5 support in epub was enabled, many interactive learning options were made available but this concept still lacked defined standards.
With the arrival of EDUPUB, which is the latest ePub3 profile, these standards can be defined and better use can be made to provide superior content for advanced learning processes. To provide more accessible and superior quality of educational content, which could also be shared across various electronic channels and devices, a new format of EDUPUB, was launched in 2016 by International Digital Publishing Forum.
Need for ePub educational publishing
There are several benefits of using ePub for Educational publishing. It is actually safe to say that EDUPUB is not a very new file format but is a part of ePub. Its aim is only to improve the online learning experiences by adding some specifications to ePub3 content.
Making the most of web standards like the inclusion of CSS3 and HTML5
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language that is used to elaborate the look and the format used for a document written in markup language. HTML is a markup language that is used for giving a definite structure and to present content on the internet. The current version of the same is HTML5. Making use of such tool is necessary as it betters the quality of the content whereby more users are attracted towards using the same. The purpose of improving digital content is to gain popularity across channels while promoting education.
Semantically structured content
EDUPUB aims in creating digital content that has a proper body and structure to it. It also filters out the unnecessary things and only works on content relevant for educational purposes. Thus this epub for education is thus highly beneficial.
The focus on metadata increases
Metadata provides basic information about data that in turn makes it possible to locate and work with specific instances of data without facing troubles. EPUB has been designed in such a way that it accommodates different kinds of publications and a varied sort of content. Metadata recognizes the educational publication and records all the accessible characteristics it possesses and then expands the structural semantics vocabulary of the ePub to add the terms related to education.
Creation of highly accessible and distributable content
EDUPUB creation for Education facilities distribution of digital learning content across various electronic devices. When digital content is available for both online and offline use, it automatically becomes more convenient for the user because then, this content becomes available 24/7 at per the ease and requirement of the user. This is easily achieved by EDUPUB.
Authoring tools and structures
While creating mLearning or eLearning content, it is often stated that the use of an authoring tool that is the right fit for you is very important. With this format an authoring structure with useful educational data is supported and this helps in creating superior content with new and developing interactive features.
Promotes innovation
When there exists a structure that would support innovation in content creation, it boosts the possibility of thinking out of the box and moving forward with more rapid strides. E-Publishing solutions for educational sector encourage consistency in both functionality and presentation of the content and improve its flexibility as well.
EDUPUB has the same file extension “.epub” but it is specifically used to cater to some explicit requirements that are needed to create a standard ePub for the purpose of education. It is basically an ePub3 that has the validation of IDPF standards and also contains some supplemental guidelines. The most amazing thing about EDUPUB, enhanced epub creation, is that it facilitates making copies of the educational content for the teachers as well as the students and they can be differentiated with the help of tagging and annotations.
EDUPUB aims at creating high quality content that can be functional across various platforms. A major advantage that these interactive and enhanced eBooks offers is that it provides for Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and Question and Test Interoperability (QTI). This is the reason why EDUPUB has lifted the level of a standard published eBook to new heights. The only uncertainty right now is to witness the speed at which this profile is adopted.
When it comes to the provision of e-publishing services in India, there are countless companies. The trick lies in getting associated with the right people with solid reputation.