Learning Resources
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt To Create Online Marketplace for Educational Resources
Beginning
early next year, Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt (HMH) will introduce an online marketplace where
educators will be
able to find, share and sell educational resources and developers will
be able
to market and sell their own instructional tools and content.
The
company will launch the beta version of HMH
Marketplace in early 2016, featuring applications created by
educational
technology developers and startups, including everything from digital
learning
tools and games to classroom resources and original content created by
teachers,
such as lesson plans.
"The
goal is to provide a simple way for
educators to find applications and resources that add value to the
learning
experience, without the hassle of an exhaustive search, additional
log-ins or
technical integration with their existing platforms," said HMH Chief
Technology
Officer Brook Colangelo.
Designed
by HMH Labs to accelerate third-party
innovation, HMH Marketplace will follow by about six months the
introduction of
HMH's online Developer Portal, which offers
developers, designers and educators
access to its application program interfaces (APIs) in order to create
their
own learning applications. So far, more than 200 developers have signed
up to
use the portal.
One
of them is Spritz,
a digital reading
technology intended to enhance comprehension and focus, which also
plans to
take advantage of HMH Marketplace.
"We
are now able to create a custom Spritz reader
for HMH content that will support learners who experience challenges
with
traditional reading methods," said Spritz CEO and Co-founder Frank
Waldman, "and
now HMH Marketplace provides us with a channel to reach HMH's extensive
customer base."
To
create interest in the launch of HMH
Marketplace, the company will host a Curious
Classroom online contest, in which
teachers can share videos demonstrating the impact of the resources
they have
created. Entries can be uploaded beginning October 1 and public voting to
select
winners will begin in November.
Prizes
will include Google Chromebooks,
whiteboards, HMH content and the opportunity to have resources featured
in the
Marketplace.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.