Abstract:
A method has been developed for the electronic creation and distribution of customized educational materials. An educator compiles a customized text from a catalog of available materials. The customized text is then indexed in an electronic database where it is available for purchase in an electronic format by students. Copyright infringement is discouraged by providing the educator the option of electronic testing and grading such that only students that actually purchase the educational materials are eligible to receive a grade in the class. The custom textbook is easily changed or updated to correct errors without the publisher incurring traditional printing and distribution costs, while simultaneously reducing the time to market for new editions of materials.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present application claims priority to provisional application having Ser. No. 60/513,907, entitled “Monvini Method of Publishing Instructional Materials via the Internet”, filed on Oct. 23, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to methods of publishing and distributing custom compilations of available books, articles and related published and unpublished matter that are prepared or specified for specific instructional courses.  
         [0003]     Historically, the method of marketing and selling of instructional materials has been to directly approach the instructors employed at the institutions via a publishers&#39; sales representative and/or, advertising campaigns through the mail and/or, most recent through order placement from on-line catalogues provided by the websites of major publishing houses. Shipping cost and returns born by the publisher, as well as sampling of books as promotional materials. Small circulation textbooks are expensive, due to both the high fixed and variable costs of traditional publishing. The textbooks must then be order by local bookstores or educational institutions in quantities sufficient to serve the anticipated class enrollment.  
         [0004]     Prior methods of selecting and distributing instructional materials include the traditional route of an instructor selecting a textbook that best coincides with the curriculum that is expected to instruct in or create. As Instructors tend to be very selective on the portions of the books and accompanying/supporting materials they chose to use for their classes the student is customarily saddled with purchasing a very expensive set of educator materials that will be only partially used for his/her required course work.  
         [0005]     However, Instructors are usually limited in rapidly evolving fields as the availability and quality of available textbooks, must suffer the errors that have been found, but will not be corrected until another edition goes to print.  
         [0006]     Such costs of an inefficient system, which is the poorly matched needs of the instructors for content and providing the supply to the students in a timely manner, as well as the aforementioned factors, is eventually reflected in the price of books, being ultimately paid by the students.  
         [0007]     It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide Educators with a method to select educational material most suitable for their curriculum and teaching style.  
         [0008]     It is a further objective to enable Educators will, in many cases, to reduce the time spent in grading and administering grading reports, to the extent the selected materials include homework problems and exams capable of electronic scoring.  
         [0009]     It is another object of the invention to reduce the cost of textbooks and related instructional materials so that the students will only pay for the materials they need for their classes.  
         [0010]     It is additionally and objective to provide students will virtually instant access to instructional and textual materials, so as not to be dependent upon on local bookstores carrying sufficient inventory.  
         [0011]     It is yet a further objective of the invention to help Publishers to reduce the time to market for new editions, and distributing timely corrections, as well as lower costs of promotion, distribution and inventory.  
         [0012]     It is still another objective that authors and publishers will not suffer losses in potential revenue through the sharing of textbooks or copyright infringement.  
       SUMMARY OF INVENTION  
       [0013]     The inventive method of publishing is unique in that it breaks from the traditional/current method of marketing and selling of bound, copyrighted textbook and supplementary learning materials to students attending, or faculty employed by, learning institutions.  
         [0014]     The method of publishing and distributing instructional materials via the Internet offers an alternative to the traditional or current practice of selling entire textbooks and accompanying ancillary educational materials as a unit. It provides for any marketing and sales of these educational media to be conducted entirely over the Internet, or alternatively virtual and private networks of institutions, through a method of segmentation of the textbooks and ancillary materials. Thus, rather than the purchase of a single book of multiple topics/lessons in a particular discipline, a person could purchase any single, individual segment/lesson on an “as needed” basis. Instructors could mix and match lessons among many authors and publishers listed on a supported website that serves as the electronic storefront and tailor their class assignments and presentations accordingly. The novel method of publishing may include all subject matter in all disciplines. It embodies the contents, composition and format of these individual segments and any disseminating, transferring, distributing, transmitting or receiving of written or non-written sections, chapters/segments or any other component of any educational, instructional or informational materials either through the Internet or private network via a process known as “streaming”, or the convention distribution of a computer readable medium in a tangible format, such as a CD-ROM or DVD.  
         [0015]     Thus, in the present invention, the first object is achieved by a method of compiling education materials wherein publisher provides a catalog of available electronic content, educator&#39;s then select two or more items of the available electronic content to generate a custom compilation. The educator/instructor then associates institution and course identifier with the compilation, providing a unique identity to the customer compilation, publisher or the equivalent electronic storefront then stores and makes the custom compilation available for sale.  
         [0016]     A second aspect of the invention is characterized by a method of distributing custom compilations in which the electronic storefront or publisher posts available custom compilations on a searchable electronic database. Students search the electronic database by institution and course identification number to order selected custom compilations, after which the student receives the custom compilations in a digit format or other form of computer readable medium.  
         [0017]     A third aspect of the invention is characterize by a method of grading a roster of students in which the institution/instructor of record provides a roster of students, for associating an electronic examinations with qualified students, the qualified student having fulfilled the roster requirement of purchasing one or more custom compilations. Thus, the qualified students are then provided with the examination in electronic format, generally one in which completion of the examination, exercise or assignment includes answering one or more questions that require the selection from a discrete number of potential answers. The answers provided by the qualified students are then scored by automated data processing using an answer key to correlate the cumulative number of correct answers to the one or more examinations questions by the qualified student to calculate a grade. Thus, the grade resulting from the examination(s) is entered in the roster for each student designated therein.  
         [0018]     A fourth aspect of the invention is characterized by providing data structures that enable the creating and formatting of a custom compilation described herein, having data fields for at least each of the Teacher/instructor generating the compilation, educational institution, course, one or more identifiers of electronic content.  
         [0019]     A fifth aspect of the invention is characterized by providing data structure for a gradable roster, having data fields for at least each of the educational institution, course, student identifying information, qualification by purchase of custom compilation, and the associated one or more grades.  
         [0020]     The above and other objects, effects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0021]      FIG. 1  is a flow chart illustrating the interactive steps in the instructor creation of a custom compilation.  
         [0022]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating the interactive steps in the student&#39;s procurement of a custom compilation.  
         [0023]      FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating the interactive steps in the method of testing and/or grading students  
         [0024]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart illustrating the interactive steps in the method of Authors creation and editing of instructional materials.  
         [0025]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart illustrating the interactive steps in a Visitors preview of educational materials.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0026]     Referring to  FIGS. 1 through 5 , wherein like reference numerals refer to like components in the various views, there is illustrated therein a new and improved method of creation and publication, generally denominated  100  herein. Further, there is illustrated therein a new and improved method of distribution of such publications, generally denominated  200  herein.  
         [0000]     Definition of Terms  
         [0027]     A Custom Compilation is a derivative work of authorship that includes educational materials intended either to supplement classroom education or self-directed study that are selected from an offering of various types of electronic content from one or more publishers, authors and/or their agents and representatives.  
         [0028]     Electronic content is defined as textual, visual sound, questions and potential answers, or interactive media in fixed, tangible or temporal form of computer readable media, and may include descriptions of experiments to be completed, and mathematical manipulation and graphing of experimental results.  
         [0029]     A roster is defined as a list of students registered for a particular class with a particular educational institution.  
         [0030]     The content source maintaining party is the electronic storefront that manages either the databases or the access thereto that house the electronic media available for creating the custom compilation. The content source maintaining party or another third party (that is other than the student, either author or instructor) provides an electronic storefront where students can procure the custom compilation.  
         [0031]     Education Institution is intended to encompass, without limitation traditional schools, colleges, universities whose primary mission is education that generally have one or more fixed locations, as well as operators or entities involved in corporate training programs, government and military training, certification programs, and on-line training or education.  
         [0032]     In accordance with the present invention, the instructor as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , via process steps  100 , creates a custom compilation. In  FIG. 1 , the instructor initiates the compilation process by accessing the home page  110 , the instructor then registers or logs in using an identification number and a key or code associated with either the institution or one provided by the electronic storefront/server operator. Thus the instructor is then directed to a professor specific home page  130 , from which the instructor either creates a class  135 , or once the class is created chooses the class, such as by entering a unique course number, that would include some type of institution identifier, to begin the process of creating the custom compilation.  
         [0033]     Creating the class in step  135  involves defining at least one of the discipline, title or course number and the school or institution, and optionally the country, state or city it is located in to avoid confusion with multiple entities of the same or similar names, such as in steps  136 . Creating the class optionally involvers creating a schedule for laboratory work, teaching assistant led sessions and other ancillary activities associated with the instructional program, as shown in step  137 . Thus, the custom compilation may include insertion of selected materials that supplement the lecture schedule, for example those specific to the instructor&#39;s classroom, in particular lectures notes, video clips of experiments, past lectures or pre-recorded lectures when travel is required, and the like.  
         [0034]     Thus, in the subsequent steps of  150  to  180  of creating the custom compilation, the instructor is directed to view the full text and illustrations of available books, generally defaulted by discipline associated with course creation in step  135 , as shown in step  150 . Within each book of interest, the instructor can then view potential chapters in step  155 . After reviewing sufficient materials, the instructor creates the custom compilation, at least in part, by assigning chapter step  157 .  
         [0035]     The process of assigning chapters may also include specifying the order of the chapter and/or sub-chapters, as well as providing supplemental and hyperlinked annotation such as web links to additional resources, lecture notes and outlines (which might include PowerPoint presentations and the like), video clips of experiments, suggested revisions submitted to the publisher/author that are not yet incorporated into the textual materials, as well as instructions for laboratory assignments, teaching assistant or laboratory assignments, safety instructions, legal releases and the like.  
         [0036]     To the extent that a book or text has associated with it an answer key for homework assignment, lab experiments, or examinations, the instructor requests the answer key in step  156 . Preferably, in step  154 , an e-mail is generated and sent to the address of the instructor, or an authorized designate at the institution so that the answer keys are not improperly obtained by students or others who do not have a legitimate need for access thereto. The e-mail would include either an attachment of the answer key/book, or a key code that is entered in step  158  when the instructor return to home page  130 , such that the answer book, as well as all or specific chapters of the custom compilation are downloaded in step  180 . Alternatively, in step  180  the instructor may order for postal or courier delivery a CD-ROM or other form of computer readable media containing the same material, or any portion thereof.  
         [0037]     In step  157 , the instructor can also define the temporal availability to students and/or visitors of all or portions of the custom compilation may be available instantly or at selected times and dates as defined by the instructor. For example, for test administration, the students will have access to the test questions for a limited time during which all students take the test, and answers must be submitted. Alternatively, to encourage classroom attendance and discourage students from skimming or reading ahead of the instructor, the instructor may choose to upload lecture notes, but limiting access thereto after the lecture has already been given in person. Further, to the extend that a lecturer or instructor is required to be out of town when a given class is schedule, the instructor can provide the video content remotely, as a substitute for the live lecture, or provide a pre-recorded lecture, which is only available for download and viewing at the time of the regularly scheduled lecture. Further, the instructor might wish to limit the availability of all or portions of the custom compilations to visitors, or submit portion of the custom compilation to which they are the original author, to one or more publishers or the content source maintaining party, so as to obtain a royalty for each use, at for example solely their own institution, as well as others that may choose to access and use the same materials.  
         [0038]     Each custom compilation in effect creates a data structure having fields data fields for at least one of Teacher/instructor generating the compilation, educational institution, course, one or more identifiers of electronic content, which may include terms, codes that serve as proxies in their stead.  
         [0039]     In another embodiment, a roster is created or transmitted to the content source maintaining party that tracks the students associated with each instructors course and is available at the instructors discretion for tracking such matters as the attendance of each student, the completion of and grades for laboratory, homework assignments and/or examinations, as well as the tallying of a final course grade there from, in addition to option intangible facts at the instructors discretion. The instructor is encouraged to rely on the roster for the automated grading features and other time saving benefits that accrue to the instructor. thus, to the extent that the instructor relies on the roster, the student are required to purchase the custom compilation from the content source maintaining party to be placed on the roster, and thus be graded and receive credit for the course. Accordingly, the roster is in effect a data structure having data fields for recording and associating the educational institution, course identification information, student identification (such as name and/or student number), the students qualification to be graded via the roster by purchase of one or more custom compilations, and one or more grades.  
         [0040]     In another aspect of the invention, the student procures the custom compilation as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , according to the process  200  comprising steps  210  to  280 . In the first step,  210  the student access the home pages. The student then registers or log&#39;s in, which if it being the first instance of encountering the electronic storefront establishes a new account, generally by entering credit card information, or permitting access to draw from a school administered account, step  220 . In any case, the student generally specifies the institution they attend. Next, the student is directed to a home page,  230 . The student then selects the class from those available at their institution in step  240 , or alternatively finds a class in step  235 . In the step of finding the class  235 , the student species the school or institution through some combination of a unique ID, location (country, state, city and the like) as well as the institutions name. Further, the student that identifies the actual course by at least one of a catalog, schedule and/or course number, and may optionally choose or specify a laboratory or other ancillary educational experience associated with the class, such as time, date and day of the week. [0001] After specifying the class, the student has access to the custom compilation and related instructional materials the instructor created in the Steps associated with  FIG. 1 , in step  250 ,  260 ,  265  and  266 , provided the payment be made through steps  270  or  277 . Methods of payment contemplated by these steps include the charge to a student account with the educational institution, the physical delivery of a check or cash, wire transfer, credit or debit card payment and cash payment on delivery of the computer readable medium. Methods of delivery contemplated by step  260  include as an email attachment or text, contemporaneous download now, and the mailing of a form of computer readable medium. It is perceived that the student will be purchasing a number of “credits” which he can bank and charge against for each segment. In  270 , he/she can purchase the entire set of assigned materials and download all at once or individually at his/her leisure. Step  277  provides for the student to continue to add “credits” to his account to supplement his credit line as his/her desire or available monies dictate.  
         [0041]     In step  250 , the student may have access to some materials free, such as those provided directly by the instructor to the extent that they supplement the lecture schedule, such as a reading list of library material, class schedule, lecture notes, assignments and the like, as well as optionally the ability to preview materials available for purchase, such as when the student has the options of one or more supplemental texts or alternative between different texts or compilations, or other forms of electronic content, for example experimental procedures, results and/or answers to be validated against. The free materials are available for download in step  260  or  280 , as well as materials purchased via step  270 , with the ability to view results in step  266 . In addition, similar to the examination and grading process described below with respect to  FIG. 3 , the student after making the purchase in step  270  or  277  is able to upload answer to experiments in step  265 , but only to the extend they have paid for the experiments download or have sufficient credits from previous payments made in step  277 .  
         [0042]     It should be noted that one aspect of the invention important for the prevention of copyright violations is the recording in the roster that a student has procured the custom compilation by legitimate means, that is purchase, rather than text sharing or using a version left over from a previous semester.  
         [0043]     Although the sharing of textbooks as well as the purchase and reuse of used material is largely discouraged by the processes of the instant invention, all students benefit greatly from the opportunity to purchase textbooks and related instructional materials in the electronic formats discussed in the instant invention. These include the expected lower costs, as materials not needed for a particular class will not be included in custom compilations. Further, the textbooks and related materials will be more portable, as they can be stored on a portable PC, CD/DVD-ROM, memory chip/portable USB device and the like. Further, the text and lecture notes will by definition be better organized and integrated into a chronological sequence with the actual coverage of materials in a classroom. In addition, students will be able to annotate the electronic media, be it copies of the instructor outline or presentation, or the textual content itself, with their own personal notes. Further, students will also benefit greatly from the improved accuracy of the instructional materials that occurs from the constant updating as the authors receive input from instructors and students using the texts.  
         [0044]     Further, as the custom compilation may combine videos of past lectures, class discussion, question and answer/last review sessions as well as laboratory experiments, the opportunity for distance learning and instruction is greatly enhanced.  
         [0045]     In addition, authors at less prestigious institutions or smaller publishing houses will have receive equal access and potential exposure to their works of authorship or publication as larger publishing houses, as an extensive network of sales representatives is not longer needed to promote books, which has in turn discouraged publishers from considering submissions of authors that are less well known than professors from say the most prestigious universities and colleges.  
         [0046]     In another aspect of the invention, the instructor may test and grade the students using the roster, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 . In  FIG. 3 , the student initiates the examinations or quiz process by accessing the home page  310 , then logging in with the student identification number and a key or code associated with the prior purchase of the textbook or course materials. Thus, the student is then directed to a student specific home page  330 , from which the student selects the appropriate class and exam to be taken  340 . It should be noted that in the preferred embodiments of the invention, the instructor not only creates the examination, but also specifies a time window when the student will have electronic access to it as shown in step  350 , in which they view questions. The questions can be viewed one at a time, with progress to the next question only after answering the first questions, or all at once or any other sequences, so that the student can answer all or a selected portion of the questions in any order they choose or deem most efficient, as illustrated in step  360 . Finally, either during the progress of the exam or at its completion, the student submits the answers, step  370 , for grading. The server then receives the answers and performing the step of correlating the correct answers to the answers provided, thus tabulating a grade instep  380  for each particular student. As the student is only able to access the exam and provide answers if they have acquired the login or entry key by purchasing the text materials, only such student will be able to have the exam graded as shown in step  380 , after which the server enters or associates a grade with that particular student using the roster, in step  390 .  
         [0047]     Further, for security reasons it may be preferable that all or a selected portion of the steps in process  300  are carried out on a separate network than that of the content source maintaining party, including a virtual private network, as well as permitting the instructor to perform some or any portion of the scoring and grading of the examination manually, and then updates the roster with grades on a separate non-networked computer.  
         [0048]     Alternatively, the raw answers may be transmitted to the instructor, who then enters the grade in a separate roster, not accessible on the network, or using a key code password, access the roster and manually associates the grades for each student, per step  390 .  
         [0049]     It should be apparent that in any of the above scenarios, the roster might be organized for grading to an objective standard or a fixed distribution.  
         [0050]     The method of examination also contemplate that each student provides answers on a tangible or fixed electronic medium, which are then either manually scored or by electronic data processing. The methods of electronic data processing of examinations and exercises or assignments also includes the machine or computer grading of text, that is by looking for any combination of key words, numeric answers or semantic content.  
         [0051]     As such, the various schemes the electronic data processing of examinations and association of grades via the roster saves times for the instructor, as well as management overhead for the institution, thus the instructor is likely to use the electronic roster rather than a traditional one. Accordingly, when the instructor deploys the electronic roster, only students that have both registered for the class, and purchased the custom compilation, are eligible to be graded, thus, discouraging the use of non-purchased course materials.  
         [0052]     Thus, benefits to publishers using the inventive method include, in addition to a reduction in distribution cost, avoiding the potential revenue loss from copyright infringement and used book sales.  
         [0053]     In another aspect of the invention, an author may submit or update and revise content as illustrated in  FIG. 4 , as a sequence of process steps  400 . In  FIG. 4 , the Author initiates the creation, submission or revision process by accessing the home page  410 , then either registering or logging in with the identification number and a key or code associated with a prior registration as an Author/Submitter in step  420 . Thus, the Author is then directed to an Author specific home page  430 , from which the Author selects to view a compilation of product offerings  435 , create a book  440  or edit an existing book they either created or otherwise have the rights or authority to revise  445 . Thus, in step  450  the Author selects a chapter for revision or uploads a new or revised chapter or portion thereof to replace previous materials. The Author also has the option of reading or reviewing text in the same format it would be read by a student purchasing the materials. Alternatively, the Author can submit and cause the server to upload alternative and supplemental materials, such as experiments, web links to additional resources, photograph, video and sound files and the like to add, supplement or modify the interactive content of the text.  
         [0054]     The ability of the author to make corrections at anytime allows for continuous correction and updating of the text, as the author receives feedback from students or colleagues using the book at educational institutions worldwide. The system also optionally provides for the delivery of e-mail alerts or automatic updates to students who have purchased the book, as well as their instructor, so that they can take immediate advantage of these corrections or supplements to the textbook. Alternatively, the author can make proposed revisions and then distribute the text with proposed revisions to a limited audience, such as the publisher, an editing committee, peers reviewers and the like before the final revisions are accepted and distributed to all users. It should be noted that the faster rate of correction and the inclusion of the instructors own materials discourages the use of outdated volumes, the electronic equivalent of used books.  
         [0055]     In another aspect of the invention, illustrated in  FIG. 5  as a sequence of process steps  500 , a visitor can preview electronic content and/or custom compilations. In  FIG. 5 , the Visitor initiates the preview process by accessing the home page  510 , then either registering or logging in with the identification number and a key or code associated with a prior registration as a visitor, instructor, student or author in step  520 . Thus, the visitor is then directed to a visitor specific home page  530 , from which the visitor is able to search for and identify existing books, in either the same or a limited manner as the instructor in  FIG. 1 , or custom compilations available for purchase by students as described with respect to  FIG. 2 . Thus upon selection in step  530  or  540 , the visitor is able to view all or some selection of the reading material  545 , the experiments  550  (preferably as a short description) or other portion of the custom compilation (made available at the discretion of the publisher, service provider, author or instructor to visitors who have not yet purchased the book) the objective being to preview a sufficient amount of the materials so that a visitor can make an informed decision to purchase the book or compilation, as well as take the class/instruction program corresponding to the custom compilation. As the visitor generally cannot freely misappropriate the content thereof there are encouraged to purchase the book/compilation in the manner of a student as illustrated in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0056]     It should be appreciated that the preview of custom compilations is an alternative to the educational institutions printed catalog of students, as it may include a synopsis of the course, as well as a more in depth preview enabling students to better select courses that meet their need or interests.  
         [0057]     While the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular form set forth, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.  
         [0058]     The novel method of publishing and distributing instructional materials via the Internet, and it&#39;s functional equivalents, specifically includes, in addition to the above mentioned criteria, those facts, data or commentary abstracts, excerpts, or matter similar in kind, in the disciplines or sub-disciplines of Science, Math, Technology, Social Science, Art, Humanities and General Education or any other discipline which lends itself to be sold and marketed using the Internet. Notwithstanding the above, specifically included in the novel method of publishing and distributing instructional materials is any transmitting, distributing, transferring, disseminating or any receiving of any of the above described segmented instructional materials, or any matter similar in kind, by any individual, business entity, trust or other legally recognized entity for the purpose of conducting E-commerce.