Presentation given at mLearnCon 2011. Discusses Cambridge University Press experience in moving into iOS apps that coordinate with print textbooks.

1. Coordinating mLearning with
Print production
Rod Gammon, Associate Manager, Digital Publishing
Sally Searby, Global Director, Digital

2. The story
400+ year-old publisher embraces mLearning.
• What was easy?
• What was hard?
• What did we learn?

3. The easy part: Content
• Pool of trained Editors and Production staff
• Established processes for asset creation
• Established values in pedagogy, design
• Deep understanding of courses
(content coordinated across many products)

4. 3 ways to leverage print to mLearning
• Adapt successful content
• Build assessment from reference
• Take the brand in new directions

5. Adapt successful content

6. Build assessment from reference

7. Go in new directions

8. The hard part: Business processes
• 400+ years of how it s been done
• New media = Low sales forecast = Scarce resources
• Processes and staff ability developed on the fly
• New business models

9. Important things
• Get Digital involved early
• Constantly manage expectations
• Adjusting processes != chaos
• Learning requires conscious effort
• You will work outside the job description

10. Get Digital involved early
• Manuscript is the product database v.1.0
• Content matters, but so do features
• Marketing goals define the analytics campaign
• Asset organization matters
– Format
– Naming
– Development sequence
• Start with a detailed, agreed specification = $$, time saved

11. Constantly manage expectations
Print staff are outside comfort zone. Offer:
– Training
– Communication
– Helpfulness and commiseration
But be firm:
– The specification is written because it matters
– Processes must serve development, not traditional publishing
– Change requests must be purposeful

12. Adjusting processes != chaos
Process changes are necessary for new products,
but it takes organization outside of comfort zone.
– Document the changes
– Communicate the reasons
– Train the staff

13. Learning requires conscious effort
• Collect analytics
• Be available to customers
• Seek feedback internally
• Document as if it will be done again (it will)
– Issues
– Pended features
– How it was done
– How it works

14. You will work outside the job description
Launching in iTunes required a software PM to do
tasks usually assigned to:
– Legal
– Accounting
– Marketing
– Distribution

15. Print mLearning
Long lifespan, high unit cost Brief lifespan, low unit cost
= Publish perfect = Get it out and update
Assets similar to final product Assets are ingredients
Print = Content + Layout Apps = Content + Features
Static presentation Variable presentation
Well-defined development Emerging development
processes processes

16. 3 dimensions of project difficulty
• Cross-product design consistency
• Degree of interactivity
• Project management reliability
– Budget
– Schedule
– Change control

17. Useful services
• Test Flight: Goodbye UDID headaches
• Google Analytics: Tag ads with clear URL aliases
• Flurry Analytics: Like Google analytics in apps
• App Figures: Better reports than iTunes Connect
All have a freemium tier.

18. Thank you.
Roderick Gammon Sally Searby
rgammon@cambridge.org
@rodgammon
h"p://cambridgemobileapps.org
h"p://cambridge.org/us/esl