More than 1,500,000 students and teachers have requested access licenses to use these tools in their teaching work
The weeks that we have been in confinement have shown that it is possible to continue with the teaching activity using technology. And in this, educational publishers have played a key role. According to data collected by the National Association of Book and Teaching Material Publishers (ANELE), among its associated companies, the number of users and online educational content since the confinement began has increased by more than 250 percent .
Since face-to-face classes were suspended, approximately 1,500,000 students and teachers have requested access licenses to publishers’ online platforms to continue teaching while schools remain closed. This very important increase has been possible thanks to the quick response and the initiative of ANELE’s associated companies to open their platforms and provide free licenses to teachers and students (clients and non-clients) so that they could freely access all educational content. available in them during confinement.
This significant increase in users has led, on the one hand, to the need to expand technological infrastructures to provide access to a greater number of users. And, on the other, an exponential 2 increase in the demand for advice and attention by users. According to the figures collected, on average, publishers have had to triple support and user assistance tasks, which has made it necessary to increase the staff dedicated to these tasks by between 80 and 120 percent.
“ANELE publishers have been betting and investing significant amounts for years in a new educational environment where we no longer talk about textbooks, but about curricular educational content. Part of this content is collected in books, but another complementary part is found in the different technological platforms that are made available to students and teachers. Thanks to this prior technological preparation, publishers have been able to respond, overnight, to the needs and peak demand for service caused by the new scenario in which we find ourselves”, explained José Moyano, president of the National Association of Book and Teaching Material Publishers.
Courses for teachers
Additionally, publishers have launched online training courses and activities aimed at teachers to train them in the use of available digital tools. According to the data collected by ANELE, the publishers calculate the value of the content and services provided to facilitate access to their platforms at more than 18 million euros . Among the companies associated with ANELE are the publishers Algaida, Anaya, Barcanova, Bromera, Bruño, Cambridge, Casals, Cruilla, Difusión, Donostiarra, EDEBÉ, EDITEX, Grup Promotor, Ikalsekar, McGraw-Hill Interam, Oxford University Press, Pearson Education , PPC, Santillana, SM, Teide, Tekman Education and Xerais.
Also, in recent weeks, some publishers have incorporated new content and developments planned for the next academic year into their platforms, including the reinforcement of basic skills. This has allowed many teachers and students to access updated content in addition to that included in their textbooks. In addition, they have developed applications or have adapted the existing ones to offer families resources especially aimed at early childhood education students and content and advice so that they can help their children study at home how to manage stress, anxiety, lack of concentration…). Along with this, complementary actions are being developed, such as virtual talks with authors, artists, contests, etc.
Collaboration with the Ministry and the Ministries of Education
In addition to all this, many of the companies associated with ANELE have collaborated with the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and RTVE to convert their channel into an education channel, as well as the transformation of part of the grid of channel in an educational platform aimed at students with fewer resources. To do this, they have provided a selection of their audiovisual educational materials for students of all educational stages. Likewise, they have been made available to the Ministries of Education to collaborate in making their contents available to the entire educational community.
