Cambridge University Press

A historical benchmark in the publishing world

How many publishing houses can claim to have been founded in 1534?

Cambridge University Press (CUP) is the oldest publishing house in the world. As part of the University of Cambridge, it helps to divulge the educational values of the prestigious British institution in accordance with the highest international criteria. Throughout its history, CUP has published a number of important works such as Newton’s Principia Mathematica or John Milton’s Lycidas. The almost 45,000 titles it currentlyoffers, specialise in topics such as professional development or English language learning. The pioneering and innovative spirit of this publishing house has contributed towards making it the world market leader. Its books are distributed in 190 countries and it has more than 50 offices around the world with 2,000 employees. The objective of Cambridge University Press is to continue expanding its work on a global level, whilst spreading knowledge via printed formats, online and in other digital formats.

The challenge

Cambridge University Press, in association with Discovery Education, wanted to launch a new digital product for English language learning in primary and secondary education: the Cambridge Discovery Readers. Netex Content Factory was faced with the task of creating 96 titles by taking existing printed material as a starting point. The idea was to develop a new product to enrich the experience of students and to arouse their curiosity by using engaging multimedia resources, such as videos, audios, images, etc.

CUP wanted to develop a new product to enrich the experience of students and to arouse their curiosity by using engaging multimedia resources

Our solution

As a starting point, in collaboration with CUP managers, a pedagogical analysis of existing materials was performed in order to adapt them to the new digital format. The result was the creation of a product which would revolve around two axes:

Chapters that respected the original content structure, whilst adding pedagogical videos, audio summaries and illustrations for a powerful visual result.
A variety of interactive activities allowing students to check their knowledge on the subject with self-assessable exercises, whilst respecting the demanding quality criteria of Cambridge.

Once the production guides were established, our content factory began to prepare the units, and our quality department reviewed each one of the titles so that Cambridge would receive them ready to be distributed.

Once the production guides were established, our content factory began to prepare the units, and our quality department reviewed each one of the titles.

Result: CUP launches a new generation of “readers” for the digital environment

The objective has been fulfilled. A new collection of readers has been prepared for the digital environment and will be distributed in online and app versions, by using Netex infrastructure for creating mobile applications.

The production of the Cambridge Discovery Interactive Readers finished in November 2013 and CUP began to market the titles. The objective has been fulfilled. A new generation of readers has been prepared for the digital environment and will be distributed in online and app versions, by using Netex infrastructure for creating mobile applications. It is now time to make them known so that users can immerse themselves in exciting topics containing videos and images. The result of this project is a product that boosts the autonomy of students. It allows them to consolidate their knowledge thanks to a variety of resources they can assess via interactive activities, following the latest pedagogical trends. The content is also ready for visualisation on desktop computers and tablets, ensuring maximum comfort for the user.