Leaders in Cloud Publishing Series: Q&A with Beth Jacobson, Development Editor for Ohlinger Publishing Services
Beth Jacobson is a development editor at Ohlinger Publishing Services, where she’s worked with publishers like Pearson, McGraw-Hill, and others. In addition to her publishing experience, Beth has spent over fifteen years as an educator, both as a classroom teacher and a curriculum director. She currently lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
What are you currently using the Inkling platform and Habitat for?
We are developing several American Government projects in Habitat for Pearson. The print content was loaded into the Habitat platform along with widget content [interactive templates in Inkling Habitat], which was developed by the authors to enhance their narrative.
What have been able to do with this project in Habitat that wasn’t possible before?
For the first time, authors have the opportunity to integrate their content with multimedia and instructional devices that students can access in one place. The Habitat environment offers flexibility not allowed in print or online platforms in the past.
Has Habitat changed the way you think about authoring and distributing content? If so, how?
This time, we have been focused on getting the content into the Habitat platform and providing content for the Inkling widgets. In the future, we may have the opportunity to work with authors to consider how the content and widgets can best work together to provide students with the highest-quality online experience. We’ll be able to eliminate the narrative content that widgets represent interactively and think about how to use those widgets more effectively.
What advice would you give to content teams that are looking at new publishing tools?
If a tool has new, interactive features, such as Inkling’s widgets, think through the types of interactivity that your content demands so that the tools developed can truly enhance the content. For example, before finalizing widget development, prepare sample content in a particular widget and review to consider what the widget does effectively to enhance learning and what it does not.
What three words would you use to describe Habitat?
Dynamic, user-friendly, promising
Where do you see the future of cloud publishing going in the next year? Five years?
The publishing industry is going through a lot of change, and much will depend on how this roll-out goes. As it transitions from the print world to a digital one, we need to successfully learn how to meet the needs of digital learners.
About the Author
