Stage 2: From digital to interactive content: how to capitalise on the opportunity to broaden your market

The educational content shift consists of 3 stages. In our last blog post, we discussed the first transition: from print to digital content. Today, it's time for a closer look at the second transition: from digital to interactive content.

Interactive content: what is it and how will you benefit?

Whereas the first transition is about digitalising publications and making them available as PDFs and/or online materials, the second transition revolves around digital publishing and e-learning. You create interactive content with an educational effect which can be consumed autonomously. In other words, you enable interaction with the materials. You can, for example, create a test that can be taken and assessed online.

This is beneficial for education providers, as digital materials turn into educational tools. Even without a teacher, they have educational value. And that's exactly why content publishers can benefit from interactive content, too: it allows them to broaden their market and create new revenue streams. For in addition to educational materials, they can now provide education, too.

From labelling content to unlocking revenue streams

To capitalise on the opportunities offered by the second transition, you need modular teaching materials that are suitable to publish in an interactive environment. Managing content will become a bit more technical in nature. For instance, any changes made to digital content result in new (pdf) versions, while interactive content is stored in one central place where it can be adjusted and (re-)published as often as necessary.

Now more than ever, you need to store teaching materials in your content management system (CMS) in a structured way. As with digital content, labels provide a solution: labelling each piece of content based on subject matter, level, keywords, and other characteristics makes it easy to retrieve materials at any time.

Once you've set up a labelling system to organise all source materials in your CMS, you can start providing interactive (e-learning) applications. Here's what this means: in addition to being a publisher, you will assume the role of educator. Obviously, this requires you to consider your digital delivery platform. But it's worth the trouble: by offering interactive teaching materials in rich interactive environments, you will unlock those much-coveted new revenue streams!

Want to discuss how you can go from digital to interactive content? Don't hesitate to contact us.

If you'd like to know more about the third and final transition, be sure to read our next blog post.