Study reveals that the digital resource market is growing faster than the overall K-12 market
Teachers now are using more digital instructional materials than print materials in the classroom, according to a new study from Education Market Research (EMR)/Simba Information.
The Shift to Digital in Reading, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies [1] is the product of several EMR surveys: EMR’s Supplemental Products Market: 2014 survey, conducted in the Summer 2014, and EMR’s latest Social Studies Market survey, conducted in the Fall 2014. Supporting evidence also comes from EMR’s surveys of the Reading, Mathematics, and Science/STEM market segments.
According to data compiled through these surveys, digital resources, and the companies producing them, are growing much faster than the K-12 school market as a whole.
Next page: Findings from the study
Publishers have been rapidly shifting their product development activities in the direction of digital to match the shift in the market.
Among the publishers and manufacturers surveyed by EMR, the most frequently cited product medium for delivering supplemental products was “online/digital” delivery (82.6 percent), followed by “print” (65.2 percent). In terms of sales of digital resources, if all of the digital product applications are grouped together, this segment was up a remarkable 43.1 percent for all of 2013.
On the other hand, non-digital products recorded a 7.9 percent decline.
“As a result of this powerful market dynamic,” said Dr. Robert M. Resnick, president and principal researcher for EMR, “so-called ‘high digital’ companies are selling more and are more optimistic about future growth prospects compared to the ‘low digital’ companies.”
The Shift to Digital in Reading, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies is a single, comprehensive new report covering digital market size, trends and forecasts, including:
- Market drivers and converging growth factors in the K-12 environment
- The impact of Common Core standards and assessments on the growth of digital
- Installed base of computing devices, and student-to-computer ratios through 2015
- Digital products market size and growth through 2016
- The specifics of the shift to digital in Reading, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies
Material from a press release was used in this report.