Updated: Digital Publishing Trends in 2020

In PUBLISHING
20 May 2020
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Since the beginning of 2020, much of the world has undergone rapid changes in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. With more than 30% of global population under some form of lockdown in April, everything from doing business to keeping busy has been turned upside-down and everyone is being forced to innovate.

That’s why we decided to update our list of digital publishing strategy trends for 2020. Although the strategies we discussed back in 2019 are still important, we wanted to highlight trends that have emerged this spring. Read on to learn how businesses are adapting digital publishing to meet new needs during the coronavirus pandemic.

DIGITIZATION

A main concern for companies across all industries has been getting their business up and running online. Of course, having an internet presence and even offering online sales are already key for modern organizations. However, when stores are closed and potential customers are quarantined at home, digital platforms are vital for staying in touch. One recent survey showed more than 85% of marketers anticipate bigger demand for online services, while 70% expect increased e-commerce.

In addition to serving customers online, businesses are also figuring out how to enable remote work for their teams. For many, the shift from office life to working from home was sudden. Overnight, thousands of companies have had to adjust priorities and adopt new ways to collaborate. In the US alone, the number of people working from home jumped from 4% of the workforce to 34% during the first week of April 2020.

This unprecedented move to the web means companies are racing to digitize documents of all types. From internal memos to product catalogs, their materials need to be available for customers and employees online. And due to production and distribution difficulties, the trend is even stronger for businesses with print publications. In challenging conditions, digitization is helping to provide critical publishing solutions.

SOLIDARITY

Another publishing trend to come out of the pandemic is more widely shared content. Digital publishers quickly recognized the need for people at home to stay informed, entertained and learning. Overwhelmingly, they have responded by making content that is usually paid available for free online.

Here at Calaméo we have seen inspiring examples of publishers showing solidarity with their readers. We rounded up some of the educational resources that our publishers shared to help quarantined parents and children on the blog in French. We’ve also noticed special journals, activities and more being shared on our platform for everyone to enjoy.

💡 TIP: Published something on Calaméo that you’d like us to check out? Don’t forget to tag us @calameo when you share it on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Indeed, this is a trend that’s become clear among publishers all over the internet. Newspapers and magazines like the New York Times and Vanity Fair are letting readers without a subscription access their coverage of the coronavirus. As a result, views were 30% higher on average in March 2020 than in 2019. Some sites have even reported doubling their traffic due to free content initiatives, demonstrating a strong connection with audiences online.

E-BOOKS

The last publishing trend we’ll highlight today is a bit unexpected: e-books. After a decade of highs and lows, by 2019 e-books made up about 20% of all book sales. But as more and more businesses turn to online tools to digitize and share content, e-books have gained new popularity amid the pandemic.

Offering readers the opportunity to download digital copies of their material is an important option for publishers in lockdown. Booksellers are reporting increased demand, while libraries have experienced a surge of e-book borrowing. For example, digital library book checkouts climbed by 30% during the first weeks of quarantine in the United States. And in France, e-book sales rose up to 200%.

Businesses in every industry are working hard to adapt to the extraordinary circumstances created by the coronavirus. However, the immediate future remains uncertain. Some experts predict, for instance, that 25-30% of people may still be working from home in 2021. Others wonder whether advertising will continue to support online content as usual.

We don’t know yet how these digital publishing trends will evolve over the coming months. But one thing seems clear: the best strategies in 2020 will focus on being useful in a changing world.

To learn more about digital publishing on Calaméo, check out our Guided Tour below. Write to us with your questions any time at contact@calameo.com.  

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PUBLISHING

Digital publishing: A guide for educators

In PUBLISHING
4 November 2021

Digital publishing is a tool that can be adapted to every industry. And education is no exception! From elementary schools to universities to employee training courses, digital publishing is useful for all facets of education. But how can educators and the education industry best use digital publishing?  Here we have compiled a guide for educators on how to use digital publishing in the education industry. 

Teachers & professors

In 2020, teachers and professors around the world were forced to quickly adapt to online teaching. This big change was hard for many education professionals, especially those who did not have the right tools. While many schools have decided to go back to in-person learning this year, there are some digital tools that proved so useful that teachers will continue using them, including digital publishing!

Online assignments

Easily post homework and other assignments on a digital publishing platform. This is a great solution for a student out sick who needs to catch up, or a teacher deciding to go green and reduce paper waste.“The dog ate my homework” will no longer be a valid excuse! Teachers can post workbooks, readings, worksheets, discussion questions, and everything in between for students to access online. 

Lesson plans

If schools are using a hybrid in-person/online model, students who are at home can follow along with the classroom students thanks to digital publishing. The teacher can add external links to the publication if there is a quiz or video component to the lesson, for example. 

Answer keys, corrections

Using digital publishing, teachers can post a plethora of additional materials for students to help with studying. Archive old assignments so students have a useful study guide at their disposal before big exams. Answer keys, corrected assignments, additional exercises, external resources, and more! The possibilities are endless.

Virtual library

Want to display students’ work? It’s easy with our Library widget! End-of-semester projects, presentations, creative writing assignments…these can all be beautifully displayed and embedded in a website or classroom blog for everyone to see.

💡 TIP: Students can create a digital portfolio of their work! Read our article on how digital portfolios work harder for grads.

Privacy

Teachers have options when it comes to uploading material that is for students’ eyes only. First, by making a publication private, the teacher controls who can access the publication. Then, they can choose to share the publication via a private URL, or using the Subscribers feature with a PREMIUM or PLATINUM account.

💡 TIP: Our Editor tool is the key to an enriched publication!

Administrators

Digital publishing is not just reserved for the classroom. Administrators can also take advantage! From school districts to school boards to Parent-Teacher Associations, digital publishing can help administrators achieve their communication goals.

💡 TIP: Using Calaméo for professional purposes? Take a look at our PLATINUM plan!

School or university brochures

Show off your school or university in a beautiful digital brochure. Add links, videos, music, and other interactive features to wow potential students and their families. Embed it in your website or share it via your social media pages. Display your school colors and logo by using our white label feature!

Newsletters

Much like brochures, digital publishing is an excellent medium for newsletters. Whether it’s an internal newsletter for teachers and staff, or an external newsletter for students and families or alumni, your publications can shine on a digital publishing platform. Add links to sign-up forms for field trips or volunteering, and, if you have a PLATINUM  account, include videos of student performances or other highlights. Online newsletters are the perfect solution for communicating important information to many people at once. Use our Statistics feature to see how many views your newsletter receives!

Professional documents

Policies, procedures, school rules, student handbooks, school directories, annual reports (and more!) can be posted online for all to see. These crucial documents can be shared easily to ensure that both faculty and students receive all the important information throughout the school year.

Yearbooks

Traditional yearbooks have gotten a 21st-century upgrade! Why not include videos of congratulations or well wishes from faculty, for example? Students can share their yearbooks with relatives to show off their accomplishments from the previous school year.

💡 TIP: Need to know what types of files you can convert on Calaméo? Click here!

Flyers

Bake sales, charity auctions, open houses, school plays, talent shows…broadcast all your school events and important announcements with digital flyers! Embed them in your school’s website and share them easily. If there’s a date or venue change, no need to panic. Upload a new version of your publication and the URL remains the same.

Training

Another sector of the education industry that could benefit from digital publishing is professional training. Many companies provide continuing education or training courses for their employees, both online and in person.

Training materials

Professional trainers can upload their training materials to a digital publishing platform such as Calaméo and enrich it with interactive touches like links and videos. In fact, PREMIUM and PLATINUM members can use Folders to organize by theme or company department, managing access via private URLs or our Subscribers feature.

Intranet or employee training portal

Training managers can embed their training materials on the company’s internal website, Intranet, or training portal, for employees to consult from anywhere. Easy to upload and easy to access, employee training will be a breeze!

And more!

Private tutors, professional aides, volunteers…absolutely everyone in education can use digital publishing! Not only is Calaméo a great option for a digital publishing platform, it’s easy and will save educators’ most precious resource: time.

PUBLISHING

Digital publishing for today’s students

In PUBLISHING
10 August 2023

What do “digital natives” have to learn about digital skills? The generation of children in school today have grown up in a connected world. Smartphones, social networks and internet culture have been part of life for many as long as they can remember. These young digital natives are defined by their comfort with technology and use digital tools intuitively. Unlike their older “digital immigrant” teachers, today’s students do not need to be taught how to log on.

Given this digital intuition, it makes sense that technology has found a central place in the classroom. Teachers increasingly use connected computers, tablets and even smartphones in lessons around the world. Students might be asked to research, work together with classmates on a group project or turn in homework online.

Digital publishing offers practical tools for students to share their work while also learning valuable digital skills. These skills go beyond the simple use of technology to help build students’ awareness of some of the biggest issues in our information society: accessibility, media literacy, digital community and understanding code. Read on to find out how digital publishing sharpens these key skills in the modern classroom.

Paperless pros

Although the future is probably not 100% paperless, plenty of everyday life has moved to the screen. Digital natives are more likely to expect experiences like shopping, banking and entertainment to be accessible online and reading is no exception. That’s why many publishers make a wide variety of titles aimed at younger readers available on Calaméo for parents and kids to sample.

As digital natives head off to school, digitally published textbooks can represent an important source of information. Online course material meets students where they are: on their phones, using Google to research their homework. By publishing textbooks digitally, educational publishers can ensure that digital natives find reliable facts through search and maybe even remind them of the paper copy sitting in their backpack.

Publishers can also offer convenience to students at ease with digital books, which are searchable, downloadable and impossible to forget in their rooms. With college textbook prices in particular at an all-time high, online editions can be an especially attractive option for today’s students. Since these publications live in the cloud, course information is accessible in and out of the classroom. Instead of staying buried deep in the clunky platforms of enterprise education applications, learning material can be consulted anywhere, anytime.

Critical thinkers

The enormous amount of information available on the web may seem particularly amazing to those old enough to remember starting homework assignments with a stack of library books. All of this information poses new risks to digital natives. In the age of fake news, 91% of teachers think that evaluating the quality of information online is an “essential” skill for students to learn.

Digital publishing platforms can be a great tool for teaching media literacy, or the ability to understand how information is communicated. While researching online, students need to know how to consider more than just the search results. Factors such as the format, the publisher and the source of information are essential to judging its quality: newspaper article or wiki? Amateur or expert? Facts or opinion? Digital publications are a rich medium for students to explore and analyze, providing diverse materials published on a huge range of topics.

Learning to think critically about sources matters not only when reading, but also when writing. One study found that a third of high school students admitted to copying from the Internet in their homework. Tools like Calaméo’s Editor let students add external links to their digitally published presentations, reports and projects to cite their sources.

Learning communities

Digital publishing is also an opportunity for today’s students to become part of a type of online community different from those than they may already belong to. Internet users younger than 25 are more concerned than older users about privacy on the web. But unlike social media networks, digital publishing platforms do not restrict interaction to friends only. This openness can teach students valuable lessons about being part of a global community.

Once a digital native becomes a digital publisher, she adds her own voice to the vast resources available online. Students publishing on Calaméo also have the option of creating private publications, which are not indexed for search. Since how to approach online privacy is in the news and on the minds of young people, students should decide carefully when to publish privately and when they want to join a worldwide conversation.

Whether public or private, digital publications are the site of innovation in teaching and learning. From educators publishing lesson plans to student newspapers distributing online editions, digital publishing brings both local and global communities together. Some inspired teachers are even using digital publishing to grade assignments, reviewing the homework that individual students publish and leaving comments with feedback.

Future developers

Although digital publishing is a great tool for teaching in almost any subject, one of the ways it is most useful is for students who are beginning to learn coding skills. Digital natives may feel immediately comfortable with technology, but comfort does not mean an ability to code or even understand what’s happening behind the user interface. By 2020, an estimated 1.4 million software development jobs will go unfilled in the US alone because there are not enough qualified candidates.

Students everywhere can benefit from reviewing the technical basics of digital publishing. Uploading different file types to Calaméo is simple, but today’s students need to know what it means to publish in HTML5 and what that allows you to do. Studying up on the differences between a PDF, digital publishing and file sharing services is a good place to start.

To gain practical skills, beginner students can try their hands at development activities using digital publishing. Embedding a publication in a student-created webpage is a perfect project for learning about Iframes, a key building block of many websites, while creating a fully responsive Library widget display may be appropriate for more advanced students. Students interested in design can take advantage of Calaméo’s uniquely adaptable viewer by coding their own viewer Themes.

Final marks

Digital publishing makes it easy for students to access course materials and offers teachers many possibilities for encouraging them to develop media literacy, participate in an online information community and improve tech know-how. When it comes to helping digital natives strengthen important digital skills, Calaméo is at the top of the class.