1. 14
WILEYWORLDWIDEDECEMBER14
WileyPLUS
WITH ORION
ACES FIRST
REPORT CARD
When Paul Kimmel first suggested that
his accounting students use the ORION
module in their WileyPLUS with ORION
course, he meant only as a practice tool.
“I wasn’t requiring ORION for my class,”
said Kimmel, a longtime WileyPLUS
user. “Initially, not that many students
were using it, but after the second quiz,
a student asked what she could do to
improve her grade.” He recommended
ORION.
A few quizzes later, the student posted
a message on the class’s discussion
board, explaining that ORION would
improve their grades. Kimmel noticed an
immediate spike in usage, followed by a
distinct uptick in results.
As Associate Professor at the University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (and co-author
of several market-leading Wiley
accounting textbooks), Kimmel is one
of many instructors who have seen the
improvement ORION can bring. Launched
in mid-2013 as an adaptive learning
component embedded within WileyPLUS,
ORION allows students to practice solving
problems in an enjoyable, low-stakes,
homework environment, at their own pace,
and with material tailored to their level of
proficiency.
During the 2014 U.S. spring semester, the
Wiley Learning Solutions team partnered
with Broadview Analytics to conduct a
study on the effectiveness of ORION, with
the participation of 13 instructors and
804 students in Accounting, Business,
and Anatomy and Physiology WileyPLUS
courses at community colleges and
four-year universities. As reported in the
study’s conclusion, “Students who engage
with Wiley’s adaptive learning system,
ORION, perform better in their course …
Students who engage with both ORION
and WileyPLUS earn a full point GPA
higher than do those students who had
limited engagement.”
COVER
STORY
Acquisition of FIZ Chemie Berlin (now Wiley Information
Services GmbH), complementing Wiley’s Smart Article
program and advancing the company’s smart content and
cheminformatics capabilities significantly
Launch of Wiley
Online Library,
replacing Wiley
InterScience
BENEFITS BEYOND NUMBERS: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Michelle Lockett’s arrival in June 2013 signalled
a profound shift in Wiley’s use of social media as
a marketing tool. For the first time, the company
provided focus to its increasingly strategic efforts in
this arena.
As Social Marketing
Director and part of the
Marketing Revenue Center,
Michelle is tasked with
establishing, maintaining,
and ultimately leveraging
a sustained, ongoing,
long-term engagement
with customers in the
“social” sphere – a relationship that drives business,
but in ways that are more subtle and less traditional
than the norm. By engaging with professional
communities and generating awareness of Wiley’s
offerings, the social marketing team is establishing
communications channels and creating conditions
that are propitious to sales.
“Unlike many marketing methods, where messages
are directed at customers, we use social media tools
to listen to our customers and gather information
from them,” Michelle explains. “We hear about the
challenges they’re facing and the concerns they have,
what’s working and what’s not working for them.
Armed with this information, we can help position our
products and services to address their needs.”
The team’s work on Wiley Insight IFRS illustrates
the methodology behind a targeted social media
approach.
Launched in the U.K., Wiley Insight IFRS (International
Financial Reporting Standards – a set of corporate
accounting rules gradually being adopted
worldwide) is a subscription-based site that provides
accountants around the world with information, tools,
guidance, and checklists that help them in their work
(see Wiley World Wide, May 2014, page 20).
“We started from the ground up on this project,
putting all our chosen social media tools in place,”
explains Michelle. “We also had the advantage of
a dedicated social marketer [Charlotte Tomkins,
London-based Senior Social Media Strategy
Manager] and the ability to develop our social
strategy alongside other marketing efforts.”
The project’s pre-launch period (October 2013 – April
2014) included development of a temporary marketing
micro-site designed to build brand awareness of Wiley
Insight IFRS, gain visibility for the site, and – most
important – start generating sales leads.
“The micro-site included white papers commissioned
by our editorial team; to download the free content,
visitors had to sign up,” Charlotte explains. “The
data we collected enabled us to launch email and
social media campaigns, build profiles of potential
purchasers, and ultimately drive subscription sales.”
Because of its reach within the business community,
Twitter was used as the primary social media tool
to create and maintain a “buzz” about Wiley Insight
IFRS. Weekly Twitter activity (tweets and retweets) is
in the 10,000–20,000 range.
“We’ll also continue to reach the global accounting
community through Wiley’s Facebook accounting
pages, such as Wiley Accounting, Wiley CPA, and
Wiley CMA, and through LinkedIn,” says Charlotte.
“But we’re focusing our efforts on Twitter, where we
currently have almost 800 followers, choosing to do
one platform really well.”
Social media communications are complemented by
the use of tools such as Hootsuite (a social media
management system) and Radian 6 (a social media
monitoring tool). Hootsuite has been invaluable for
“listening” to social accounts, on a daily basis, for any
mention of Wiley Insight IFRS, while Radian 6 has
enabled ongoing performance tracking, analysis, and
reporting.
Moving ahead, the social marketing team will
enhance content shared on Twitter and experiment
with a LinkedIn showcase page. They also plan to
drive social media activity for Wiley Insight IFRS by
looking for new channels to reach the global financial
community.
“We want to experiment in the social space in a
thoughtful way,” says Michelle, “continuing to engage
strategically with our customer communities in their
preferred space, while also exploring opportunities in
other social media trends.”
The social media marketing team is also taking the
lead in establishing Wiley’s social media policies,
arranging training and certification for marketing
colleagues in each business, and supporting the
marketing of revenue-drivers and strategic e-learning
and workflow offerings. The ultimate goal, says
Michelle, is to use the information gleaned from
social media to offer our customer communities the
best possible products and services.
“We’re making steady progress. Wiley is positioning
itself for a digital future, and social media will play a
major role.” ///
Michelle Lockett
2010 20132012
Wiley establishes first ELT-level technology position,
forms Wiley Global Technology (WGT) group

2. 15
WILEYWORLDWIDEDECEMBER14
Acquisition of SimBioSys, accelerating
development of the Wiley Science Solutions
suite of workflow tools for chemists and life
scientists
2014
A HI-TECH EDUCATION
AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS CHANNEL
INNER JAMES BOND TO LEARN MATH
Jacaranda, Wiley Australia’s School Division, is tapping the latest
in interactive learning solutions with Spy Class, a comic book-
style environment in which year 7 and 8 math students hone
their problem-solving skills while helping the game’s three teen-
spy protagonists fulfill exotic missions.
Students begin by rating their own ability in mathematical
concepts. They complete a training level and then move
on to the game’s 18 levels, with each mission relating to a
mathematical concept.
Along the way, students
earn stars and gain
useful spy tools. With the
ability to set the level of
play, those struggling
with concepts can revisit
the basics, while those
cruising through can try a
more difficult challenge.
Spy Class is an excellent
tool for teachers, who can see at a glance which skills are being
tested in a mission and direct their students accordingly.
HIGHER ED DIGITAL GROWTH IN AUSTRALIA
As Wiley’s transition to digital progresses, colleagues in
Australia’s Higher Education business are gearing up to offer
the entire local frontlist in the form of online courses from FY17
on, with WileyPLUS Learning Space – an environment weaving
together interactive reading content, student practice material
and assessment, social collaboration tools, and learning
analytics – as a key strategic component. In 2015, WileyPLUS
Learning Space for Management Information Systems, First
Australasian Edition,
will be sold through a
new subscription-based
business model in which
every student from an
adopting course will
be enrolled for a free
two-week trial and then
prompted to pay $50
for the balance of the
course. In a deregulated university environment with escalating
course fees, this value will democratize higher education
resources and help build new institutional partnerships.
IT’S ALL ABOUT CONNECTIONS …
Most colleges and universities today use a Learning
Management System (LMS) for administering courses –
tracking enrollment, grading, and so forth. The 2012 integration
of WileyPLUS with Blackboard, a widely used LMS, was a major
achievement. Now Wiley colleagues have gone beyond that
dedicated effort to create the Wiley Integration Middleware
service, to bring together a wide range of software platforms
that don’t “talk” to each other out of the box.
“Our goal is to be a plug-and-play content provider,” says
Rich Virginia, Senior Analyst, Integrated Solutions. “We’ve
used the middleware to integrate WileyPLUS with Canvas, an
open-source LMS, and it also forms the connection between
WileyPLUS and ORION.” Potential offerings include custom
courses built around Wiley Online Library content, and
e-commerce capabilities for society partners, enabling visitors to
their sites to click on links for online publications and complete
the access transactions seamlessly on Amazon.
ORION’s functionality, including its
immediate display of colorful visuals
representing student results, makes for a
unique learning experience. “ORION makes
students more confident,” commented
Andreea Cimoca, Executive Marketing
Manager. “They realize they’re using
their time effectively, in a comfortable
environment that addresses their needs,
which makes them feel good. It’s the first
time we have seen students ‘linger’ where
they do their homework. With ORION,
students spend on average 40 minutes
practicing per session, even when it’s not
required.”
For educators, ORION is an accessible,
easy-to-use tool, with a dynamic dashboard
where students’ progress can be viewed
and measured at the level of a chapter, a
learning objective, or an individual question.
Amanda Rosenzweig, Associate Professor
of Biology at Delgado Community College
in New Orleans, who has taught with
WileyPLUS for five years and with Tortora/
Principles of Anatomy and Physiology for
11, started with ORION two years ago and
noticed a change not only in her students’
grades but also in their attitudes toward
learning the material. “ORION has changed
how I approach, teach, and interact with my
students,” she said. “ORION has allowed
me to tailor my lectures, activities, and
assessments to meet [my] students’ needs.”
Students in Rosenzweig’s 2014 summer
semester Anatomy and Physiology classes
provided positive end-of-semester feedback
about ORION:
ORION was the best tool for me … I tended
to score better on my in-class assignments
and tests.
The ORION and WileyPLUS assignments
really helped to make sure that I studied the
correct information and [did] it the right way.
Though ORION was very challenging, it is the
best out of all of the assignments [and] will
help you recognize what your strengths and
weaknesses are in that particular chapter.
Senior Publisher’s Representative Dayna
Leaman noted ORION’s benefits for her
customers. “After selling WileyPLUS for
years, what I love about ORION is that it not
only helps professors teach, it also saves
them time when evaluating their students.
We are selling to instructors who are busier
than ever, with more stresses and demands.”
As for students, ORION offers them a
chance to take control. “Students drive the
situation,” Dayna said. “Through ORION,
they make the investment and, ultimately,
own their learning.”
Following on the successful results of
Broadview Analytics’ study, a second
study will be conducted for the U.S. spring
semester. With the launch of 30 new
courses, WileyPLUS with ORION is on
the path to score an A+ from instructors,
students, and Wiley colleagues alike. ///
Rebecca Costantini, Assistant
Development Editor, GE, HOBOKEN
TOP Ryan Gomes, a Business Analytics and IT major at Rutgers University, class of 2016,
reviews his performance in the WileyPLUS with ORION course for Weygandt/Kieso/
Kimmel/Financial Accounting, 9e.
BOTTOM A video at http://orion.wileyplus.com (scroll to the page bottom for link)
demonstrates key features of WileyPLUS with ORION.