We continue to receive requests from our clients asking we have available our course material in PDF format. Some clients don't have access to a computer all of the time for their studies (i.e off-shore oil workers, people in remote work areas with limited internet, etc).
What is the best way to go about satisfying this type of concern? We are worried about our copyright material being spread about like butter on toast. At the same time, we have lost sales to other companies that DO offer this service.
At the very least, I need some advice on the proper way to set up an eBook of our material. I know this goes against what eLearning is supposed to be, but we also don't want to lose sales to the competition.
We have done the same thing for some internal projects. This is a real convenience for folks that want to review materials on the train, etc..
After completing a few of these, we came to the conclusion that we should START with the print version and design the multimedia version afterwards. Though the content and intent was the same, we didn't always need to try to replicate a knowledge acquisition by reading in the same way we leverage a multimedia based activity.
We found that we were able to stratify the information as well for appropriate focus and delivery method. For example, we placed the focused concepts (need to know) in the multimedia presentation format and extracted the support information and nice to know into modular articles (PDF). These modular articles were woven into the offline version, providing the same information and activities that were as close as we could make them. Each solution is a bit different, so there isn't a cookie cutter pattern that works consistently for every topic.
Once you release those it's tough to reel them back in. One way you could discourage pirated distribution is by attaching a simple sentence in your footer:
"This material is licensed for use as a convenience to the course participant. Redistribution is prohibited under copyright."
You won't prevent all distribution but by making it clear, you'll prevent most of it.
You can help with copyright a LITTLE bit by changing the options for the PDF (I.e make them non-printable, non-copy-and-paste-able, etc) If people are using them for e-books then then this could make the "copyright" issue a *little* bit better.
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We have done the same thing for some internal projects. This is a real convenience for folks that want to review materials on the train, etc..
After completing a few of these, we came to the conclusion that we should START with the print version and design the multimedia version afterwards. Though the content and intent was the same, we didn't always need to try to replicate a knowledge acquisition by reading in the same way we leverage a multimedia based activity.
We found that we were able to stratify the information as well for appropriate focus and delivery method. For example, we placed the focused concepts (need to know) in the multimedia presentation format and extracted the support information and nice to know into modular articles (PDF). These modular articles were woven into the offline version, providing the same information and activities that were as close as we could make them. Each solution is a bit different, so there isn't a cookie cutter pattern that works consistently for every topic.
Once you release those it's tough to reel them back in. One way you could discourage pirated distribution is by attaching a simple sentence in your footer:
"This material is licensed for use as a convenience to the course participant. Redistribution is prohibited under copyright."
You won't prevent all distribution but by making it clear, you'll prevent most of it.
You can help with copyright a LITTLE bit by changing the options for the PDF (I.e make them non-printable, non-copy-and-paste-able, etc) If people are using them for e-books then then this could make the "copyright" issue a *little* bit better.
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