BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--June 22, 2006--With diverse multimedia changing the way college students learn today, Boston-based educational publisher Houghton Mifflin believes it's time to modernize their textbooks as well.
This summer, Houghton Mifflin is launching the Student Achievement Series, which incorporates student and instructor comments, feedback and preferences into textbook design and content. The Student Achievement Series marks the first time both students and instructors have systematically helped design and build their classroom textbook program from the ground up.
"We applied everything we learned from our student and instructor focus groups to create a completely new textbook model," said Lise Johnson, senior sponsoring editor and market strategy manager, Houghton Mifflin College Division. "The Student Achievement Series is the first textbook program specifically designed and based on extensive student and instructor feedback from beginning to end, so we consider it a significant milestone for meeting the learning, study and assessment goals of today's students."
According to Johnson, approximately 600 students and instructors from more than 40 universities were involved in every key decision regarding the development of the Student Achievement Series, from content structure, to textbook design and packaging - even marketing and messaging. Based on their feedback, the Student Achievement Series textbooks feature an open, user-friendly design; concise text in bulleted format; highlighted key terms with definitions in the margins; and a unique, integrated Web component for immediate reinforcement and assessment.
"The ideal textbook, students and instructors told us, gets to the point quickly, is easy to understand and read, has fewer and/or shorter chapters, has testing materials designed to reinforce key concepts, and has a strong supporting Web site for quizzing and assessment," said Johnson. "The Student Achievement Series is designed to deliver on all of their requests."
The first book in the Student Achievement Series, to be released in July, is Principles of Management by Ricky Griffin of Texas A&M University. Houghton Mifflin will publish three additional titles in the series over the next several months: The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People; The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History; and The Confident Student, with more scheduled for release in 2007.
About Houghton Mifflin
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with more than $1 billion in sales. Houghton Mifflin publishes textbooks, instructional technology, assessments and other educational materials for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers. With its origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. The Company's Web site can be found at www.hmco.com.
