Great River Learning
An Innovative Learning Model Engaging Students and Funding Departments

Why settle for textbooks or open material that students don’t read?

Great River Learning (GRL) is leading the charge in transforming education with immersive, media-rich content that brings textbooks to life. Taking a hands-on approach, it works closely with educators at every stage—from instructional design and development to production, technology and ongoing support. Its interactive course materials captivate students while offering a smarter, more effective alternative to costly textbooks that often go unused. These solutions improve learning outcomes, generate revenue for institutions, and help manage rising costs.

With nearly two decades of experience in educational innovation, GRL continues to push the boundaries of learning. It provides custom and interactive textbooks/ebooks, Couseware, a flexible open educational resources (OER) platform and a dynamic in-class tool to enhance student engagement.

“A textbook isn’t successful unless students actually use it,” says Keith Kropp, assistant vice president. “We help educators create or transform existing content into engaging, interactive materials aligned with their goals.”

Unlike traditional publishers, GRL collaborates closely with educators—helping them brainstorm and develop engaging content, manage production, and create a flexible schedule that fits their commitments. With all costs covered, GRL ensures affordable pricing for students while allowing educators and their departments to earn ongoing compensation.

Whether built from scratch or adapted from existing material, these customized etextbooks integrate interactive, gamified, and media-rich elements, creating an engaging learning experience that supports diverse learning styles.

A real-world example of GRL’s impact comes from a student with ADHD who had always struggled with dense, traditional textbooks. The customized content was clear and engaging, aligned with the student’s comprehension level, and helped the student stay focused and succeed in class.

Recognizing that many institutions are turning to OER to cut costs, GRL offers Courseware, a solution designed to simplify content selection, curation and organization. Educators can efficiently curate and edit materials while using built-in analytics and reporting to track student progress and engagement. By streamlining OER adoption, it makes delivering high-quality learning experiences easier and more effective.

We help educators create or transform existing content into engaging, interactive materials aligned with their goals

GRL’s Classroom Engagement Tool (CET) goes beyond typical student response systems with its exclusive Participation Rubric, allowing educators to assign point values for attending class, answering polls, responding to confidence checks, asking questions, engaging in chat discussions and taking notes. Seamlessly integrating with existing LMS platforms, CET provides real-time and asynchronous analytics to track student participation, confidence, performance and retention. These functionalities ensure students stay engaged and accountable.

The LMS integration extends to all GRL content, allowing students to access their learning materials just like any other textbook or course resource, making the experience smooth and easily accessible.

The content development process at GRL goes beyond publishing, focusing on an ongoing partnerships with educators to create cost-effective, customized content that meets academic and institutional goals. It begins with a planning meeting where course objectives, pedagogy and content needs are aligned. After approval, a project development coordinator manages the development, integrating multimedia elements and ensuring compatibility with LMS platforms. Continuous feedback keeps the content relevant and adaptable as course needs evolve.

GRL’s comprehensive support from its instructional designers, editors and developers guarantees the creation of professional, high-quality content that aligns with institutional priorities. One long-time client, an educator, emphasized the company’s responsiveness and commitment to continuous improvement, noting that GRL’s quick turnaround—whether updating a chapter video or granting access to students and colleagues through the LMS— keeps course materials relevant and accessible. The professionalism and support have remained consistently reliable throughout the years, ensuring that its content continues to meet the ever-changing demands of education.

Another client echoed similar satisfaction with GRL’s approach, describing the process as a pleasure. They praised the team for being generous, encouraging and efficient and appreciated the valuable feedback and ideas provided throughout the collaboration.

GRL elevates course materials by transforming static content into immersive, interactive experiences that resonate with students and adapt to educators' evolving needs.

More than just a publisher, GRL empowers educators to create engaging, cost-effective course materials—enhancing student learning while providing financial benefits for institutions and faculty.