game-based

Partnership brings customization to digital, game-based content


Toolwire-LAD Custom Publishing partnership will reduce materials costs by bringing à la carte pricing to colleges and universities for educational games and digital content

game-basedIn response to demand for enhanced digital content in core academic subjects, Silicon Valley-based game and simulation developer, Toolwire, and LAD Custom Publishing announced a partnership that will enable colleges and universities to customize digital content and game-based learning tools.

The price of textbooks has increased 812 percent since 1978, outstripping the Consumer Price Index, healthcare costs, and even college tuition. Research suggests that 65 percent of students failed to purchase an assigned textbook because it was too expensive. As a result, colleges and universities are looking for ways to reduce cost, better equip faculty, and increase student engagement.

Through this new partnership, institutions and faculty will be able to pick-and-choose from copyrighted materials, Out of Print Books, OER (Open Educational Resources) or use their own content that is custom tailored to faculty needs. Toolwire then supports faculty by mapping relevant digital game-based learning tools for essential first-year writing and business courses that truly engage the students.

“This customized approach allows our partners to choose from a wide variety of materials and digital interventions that really bring the course to life,” said Lance Liggin, President of LAD Custom Publishing. “Our partnership with Toolwire will provide faculty and instructional designers with powerful, tightly-integrated content and game-based learning courseware to help institutions engage and retain students in gateway courses.”

“Toolwire’s Writing Games are a great way to provide students with another level of interaction with course content and concepts,” said Stacy Oberle, an English professor at Lone Star College.

Toolwire’s educational games use live-action video to immerse students in authentic workplace scenarios. Game characters provide dynamic remediation and encouragement as students complete interactive assessments that are auto-graded in order to save faculty time.

“Faculty are searching for high-performance interventions to improve student outcomes in essential gateway courses such as writing,” said Cameron D. Crowe, Executive Vice President at Toolwire. “Teaming with LAD will allow us to put the power of game-based learning and innovative digital course packs into the hands of instructors.”

Material from a press release was used in this report.

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Laura Ascione

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