As of March 31, 2009, the IADP has signed agreements with eleven leading publishers (see About IADP – Program Participants), who have provided e-books on-line and off-line for the initial university students on a limited pro bono basis; it has also signed a hosting services agreement with NetLibrary, and designed and deployed an automated e-book selection system.
The initial supply of pro bono e-books was predicated on the development of a sustainable technical and economic model that would facilitate future low price, high volume distribution for educational purposes in developing countries, and in 2008(Q4) the IADP succeeded in reaching a consensus among a core group of leading publishers for discounts of between 45% and 90% in an initial group of 21 countries.
The IADP is now preparing to design/adapt and test the financial component of the e-book economic model, and integrate it with the e-book selection system. It is also designing the roll-out of the e-book component of the Program in consultation with its donors, as well as the British Council, UNESCO, and the World Bank.
During the roll-out period, the IADP will continue to support the e-book procurement, selection, and distribution process, including DRM security, level two technical support, and advice on pedagogy and curriculum integration. In particular, it will scale up its advice on curriculum integration, so as to promote conceptual as well as content teaching, and help create a reading culture among students. In this way, students will learn the skills of:
in other words they will “learn how to learn”.