While college students have plenty to worry about this school year, one all-too-common stressor — textbook prices — is becoming a thing of the past.
Education textbook and technology company Cengage is transforming the traditional textbook approach with an interactive subscription service that cuts book costs by more than half. Instead of the average $400, students invest $179 for one full year of Cengage Unlimited textbook access. These cost-savings are in large part thanks to Cengage innovators in the company's Mason office. Combined with the Independence, Kentucky, services center, Boston-based Cengage employs roughly 1,300 people in the Greater Cincinnati area.
“Cengage has been willing to look at itself and change with the times,” said Erin Joyner, SVP of product, higher education and skills for Cengage. “We’ve been able to move from an industry focused on textbooks to an industry that’s focused on learning and doing what’s right for students.”
“We recognize there’s still a huge value in printed text, but there’s more we can do with teaching students difficult concepts by engaging them through digital media.”
The cost-savings in and of themselves benefit students. Joyner estimates University of Cincinnati students have saved more than $370,000 in course materials, for example, but this program was also built to help each user study based on their own learning style. Cengage Unlimited includes online textbooks, study guides, quick lessons, flashcards and a variety of career-focused tools.
Joyner, who’s been with Cengage for 19 years, now leads a team tasked with deciphering students’ preferred learning experiences. Their expert recommendations were integral to this cutting-edge learning portal.
“You can do so much with digital learning that you really couldn’t do on a flat piece of paper,” she said. “We recognize there’s still a huge value in printed text, but there’s more we can do with teaching students difficult concepts by engaging them through digital media.”
The Cengage Unlimited subscription service, which launched last year, remains unrivaled by competitors. It’s available in 5,700 universities across the country, although Joyner attributes much of the platform’s success to the diverse institutions close to home.
“We are blessed in Cincinnati to have a lot of really great higher-education learning institutions,” she said. “There’s such a plethora of our own customers right here, and I think that allows us to engage with students and instructors on a regular basis, right in our backyard.”
Under one name or another, Cengage has called Cincinnati a second home for over 100 years, Joyner said. The company went through different phases and names before ultimately being sold by Thomson Reuters in 2007 then rebranding as Cengage Learning (now Cengage).
The company’s student-focused approach helps Cengage stay not just relevant, but ahead of the curve, in a typically stagnant textbook industry. It’s one of the reasons Joyner, born and raised in central Indiana, stuck around for 19 years. It’s also why the company made The Cincinnati Enquirer’s “Top Workplaces” list in 2019.
“Over my 19 years here, Cengage has refocused itself in exciting ways,” she said. “It’s also really important for us to offer the best environment for our employees in Mason. Happy workers make for a successful company.”
