We are excited to announce our newest partner school! Saint Xavier University in Chicago has made the forward-thinking decision to transition to an online model for course material and merchandise sales. The move online will increase support to students who are looking for the convenience of an online marketplace.

One thing we can all agree on is that we want students to have every opportunity possible to get what they need to succeed in college. This past year has seen an even greater number of students struggle without many ideas out there on how to help. Students who relied on things such as campus housing, meal plans, technology access, and the library were suddenly without. There is no one solution fits all approach, but we know that the campus store is a vital link to many student needs. We’ve put together a list of 5 innovative ways to help students through the campus store.

We are thrilled to announce our newest partner school! McMurry University is making innovative changes to support student success on their campus and selected Akademos as its partner to move the traditional campus store online and seamlessly provide students with access to lower cost materials sooner.

We are thrilled to announce our newest partner school! Coe College has committed to student satisfaction with their online bookstore change and selected Akademos as its partner to provide the school a comprehensive online bookstore solution beginning this fall.

It seems like yesterday that Clayton Christensen, with colleagues Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson, published Disrupting Class, in which bold predictions of college closures equivalent to the dust bowls would occur by 2020 and mass customization would drive greater personalization and affordability in higher education. Many of these provocative claims have failed to fully be realized. And yet, if you were to ask most education technology thought leaders, the promise of digital courseware with machine learning powered by AI alongside big data analytic capabilities that help drive targeted engaging content is a promising solution to improve student outcomes in higher education. So why is higher education slower to adopt these promising solutions, especially with so many examples of technological transformation and disruption all around us?  

Over the past 5+ years, there has been a steady trend towards not just replicating the traditional textbook in electronic form, but creating interactive and adaptive learning products that are used in lieu of a textbook (e.g. MyLabs, ALEKS, Connect). We broadly group these products under the umbrella of ‘interactive courseware.’ The underlying technology for these advancements has been around for 20+ years and casual industry observers may look at this evolution and ask “why has it been so slow to take off?”