Pearson Acronyms

LTS (acr)

Learning Technology Specialist

TOC (Acr.)

Table of Contents

Key Accounts

A team of project managers who work directly with sales and customers. Reserved for high revenue and/or high profile schools.

Angel

A third party LMS now owned by Blackboard.

AE

Acquisitions Editor Previous job title of "Field Editor" or "Custom Editor".

Class Date

Actual class start date of semester

PuTTy

An access protection method no longer in use, it will occasionally be referred to in specs. This has been replaced by SMS via global login pages.

A&S

Arts and Sciences. This is one of the three main Pearson Education text/media publishers. Disciplines include: Arts - Humanities, Social Sciences, and World Languages.

BLTI (acr)

Basic Learning Tools Interoperability

BOM

Bill/Build of Materials In addition to being the unique identifier of a project or package, ISBNs are also used to track sales and pay respective author royalties. The BOM is the breakdown of the individual pieces of content that make up the project or package and is accounted for in the ISBN—akin to the separate parts of content that equal the whole. This is why the royalties section of the PCS record must accurately reflect the contents used to build the product.

Bb

Blackboard A third party LMS

Mastering

Branding of science discipline's online courses (ex. MasteringBiology) as well as its own platform. Available as a standalone platform as well as an integrated platform of MMND.

Hard media

Cd, DVDs, or jump drives delivering content.

CTG (acr)

Central Tech Group

CMS / LMS

Course Management System / Learning Management System A CMS/LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training. Pearson provides proprietary content in CourseCompass, MyLabs/Mastering New Design (MMND), Pearson Learning Studio, and Pegasus. 3rd party applications we commonly convert content to are Blackboard, Desire2Learn (D2L), Angel, Moodle, and Sakai. Note: CMS is also used for Content Management System, referring to products like Documentum or WPS. The educational publishing industry is therefore trying to move towards LMS for the standard acronym, in the meantime both are used interchangeably.

LMS (acr)

Course management system

CC

CourseCompass One of Pearson's legacy proprietary platforms, CourseCompass was built on a Blackboard framework but is significantly different in the release and user experience portions of the process. CourseCompass has been replaced by MyLabs/Mastering New Design (MMND), which is built on a Pearson proprietary framework known as Digital Vellum.

CoCo

CourseConnect CourseConnect is the brand of online courses developed and marketed by Pearson Learning Solutions. CoCo courses consist of a series of 12 online lessons, typically used to be used in conjunction with a textbook, which can be taught either in a distant learning (i.e. online) course or integrated into a hybrid classroom (in-class and online). CoCo courses are offered "off-the-shelf" for a number of disciplines and are available for use in multiple Learning Management Systems (LMSs.)

CTMS

Custom Title Maintenance System Prior to the implementation of PCS in 2010, CTMS was our system for maintaining print and media project records. This was a proprietary system to Pearson Learning Solutions and though old records will still often be referenced by CTMS number, most are now accessible through PCS—search using the field 'Old Custom Title Id.'

DRV

Derivative Material This is a legacy term used to describe content derived from Pearson texts and media products (as opposed to Original Material or Third Party Material). For example, we might create a custom eBook that uses 60% content from a Pearson Astronomy text (derivative content), 30% readings from another publisher/source (third party material), and 10% material written by the instructor (original material.) The more appropriate terminology for this is Source Content (SC) however DRV is still referenced often.

DAE

Digital Account Executive The DAE role no longer exists and has been replaced by Learning Solutions Consultant (LSC).

DAS

Digital Account Specialist The DAS role no longer exists and has been replaced by Learning Solutions Specialists (LSS.)

DCTM

Documentum Pearson-wide archiving system. Used for electronic file acquisition and archiving our project folders.

eBooks

Electronic book. Common eBook platforms include CourseSmart, eText (Pearon owned), Flashpaper, VitalSource and PDF.

FE

Field Editor This is the custom sales representative. The FE works with the local Sisco sales reps to identify custom leads and close business. FEs are aligned to project managers.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol Standard network of protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host. We use various FTP sites to move content back and forth to vendors and internal servers.

HEAP

Higher Education Application Portal Often inaccurately used interchangeably with HEPM, HEAP is an internal portal that provides access to HEPM as well as interdepartmental resources such as the eCatalog, Who-to-call lists, Document Library etc.

ISBN

International Standard Book Number The unique number assigned to all books, online and physical media, access kits and packages (Valuepacks). Historically, a 10-digit number but recently the industry is at the point of exhausting it and moving toward 13-digit ISBNs. Currently, every time an ISBN is assigned, it will be assigned both a 10-digit and a 13-digit ISBN (often prounounced "IZ-bin")

LSA

Learning Solutions Associate Administrative in-house team working directly with national reps and LSCs. Primary responsibilities are to set up custom Valuepack PCS records.

LSC

Learning Solutions Consultant Primary custom media sales force. LSCs will be submitting the majority of media records that our team builds.

LSS

Learning Solutions Specialist internal team aligned to sales force. LSSs assist sales with some administrative items and also respond directly to customer queries after a project is delivered.

LTG

Learning Technology Group LTG is the technology arm of Pearson Education, handling everything hosting and handling Pearson proprietary course management systems to product releases (PLS & Sisco) to development of new internal technology. (Formerly CTG)

Pre-conversion

Legacy process. Refers to Sisco products that we have converted for a specific LMS and can now be sold off-the-shelf.

Portal Page

Main Pearson product course listing. A user can access any Pearson product they have registered for at "Portal"

Third Party Material

Material included in a product that is not from a Pearson company or original to the instructor. This could be material from a textbook from another publisher or content found on the web/other resources. Third Party Material will definitely involved the Rights group before production work starts.

ME

Media Editor The Media Editor role no longer exists, however you may hear it be used to reference a (LSC) Learning Solutions Consultant

MPM

Media Project Manager Responsible for updating and managing primary milestones as well as managing secondary milestones that may appear in specific schedule templates.

MLP

MyLabsPlus Any Pearson MyLab or Mastering product hosted in Pearson Learning Studio. Project managers are based in Denver.

MML (acr)

MyMathLab

NEO

Neo is a space where you can connect with people across Pearson, share ideas, expertise and information. It's also a global directory that you can use to search for people in all sorts of ways - by job type, experience, region and many more. Neo also hosts many helpful docs pertaining to Pearson products and processes.

OLP

Online Purchasing Created in SMS, this is almost exclusively referred to as OLP. It allows students to purchase access to our online products directly from Pearson using their credit card, not through a bookstore.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor

Open source scripting language and commonly referenced in PLS when referencing authentication through a global login page. PHP code is also applied to our custom websites when we need the site to verify SMS data.

OM

Original Material Many custom projects include material (word docs, readings etc) authored by the adopter.

PAL

Pearson Asset Library Previous archiving system. Replaced by Documentum.

PCL (acr)

Pearson Custom Library

PLS

Pearson Learning Solutions Our company name. A division of Pearson Education. Formerly known as Pearson Custom Publishing (PCP)

Pegasus

Pearson proprietary LMS. Available as a standalone platform as well as an integrated platform in MMND.

MMND

Pearson proprietary LMS. Where many of Pearson's MyLabs (robust online courses) are hosted. MMND's native platform is known as Digital Vellum however the platform also supports many integrated platforms such as Pegasus, Mastering, XL and Epic.

TestGen

Pearson proprietary testing application. Can be used as a standalone platform for test creation. More commonly, TestGen files exist for many Sisco titles and are a malleable format if we need to convert tests/quizzes into an LMS.

Portals

Previous term used for custom websites.

P&C

Professional and Career This is one of the three main Pearson Education text/media publishers. Disciplines include Business, Economics, Computer Science, Nursing, Medical Science, Education, Vocational etc.

PCS

Publishing Control Systems Database of records for all Higher Education print and media products (includ. media cards) Formers known as CTMS/PIMS)

QA

Quality Assurance Internal project managers or QA vendor review projects for accuracy against the approved spec.

RBND (Acr)

Rebind

Off-the-shelf

Refers to custom products that are already build and ready to be sold.

Website Release

See LTG

SSO

Single Sign On With this property a user logs in once and gains access to all systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them.

Sisco

Sister Company Main publishing divisions of Pearson (ie Arts, Sciences, P&C) Also referred to as "National" as in a product released for the general population.

STC (Acr.)

Solutions Technology Consulant

SC

Source Content This is a term used to describe content derived from Pearson texts and media products (as opposed to OM or Third Party Material. For example, we might create a custom eBook that uses 60% content from a Pearson Astronomy text (SC), 30% readings from another publisher/source (third party) and 10% material written by the instructor (OM). Legacy terminology is DRV.

Specs

Specifications Documents used to establish what we are building and provides specific technical details to our vendors, sales force and QA team regarding the final product.

SMS

Subscription Management System Generally referred to as SMS is the application we use to "lock down" (i.e. password-protect) content so that it is only available to users who purchase and register access.

TIF

Test Item File Typically a Word or PDF version of Sisco tests. Expensive to convert an LMS as it requires manual copy/paste by the producer or vendor. TIFs are often availabl

Solutions Consultants

The Solutions Consultants are the custom sales representatives for what was formerly known as the "Solutions" side of our business. In addition to promoting CourseConnect, the SCs handle corporate, government and institutional accounts. In addition to print and media sales, their projects also often involve curriculum and instructional design work.

Nomenclature

The divising or choosing of names for things.

Rights

The group that verifies we have the legal right to use any content. They should be checked for OM or third party material.

Softside

The more subjective (ie 'soft') disciplines, used to refer to Humanities, Social Sciences and World Language disciplines.

Hardside

The objective disciplines, used to refer to the Math and Sciences disciplines.

Access Code

The pre-printed code provided to the students either as part of the textbook (see ValuePack) or as a standalone card. This code is generated as part of the SMS process. Also called student access kit, media card, custom card.

TPI (Acr.)

Third Party Integration

WebAssign

Third Party LMS

WebCT

Third Party LMS

Sakai

Third party LMS

ExamView

Third party assessment engine. We often convert Pearson assessments into ExamView format.

Pearson Learning Studio

This is another division of Pearson Education who handles MyLabsPlus product and other media integration. eCollege (an LMS) is part of Pearson Learning Studio.

TMR

Title Maintenance Request The process (accessed through HEPM) by which ISBNs are requested or changes are made to the HEPM record.

VP

Valuepack This is the physical package of course materials a student purchases at the bookstore for any given course. A Valuepack may include a textbook and media card providing access to any of our online products. Valuepack components are typically shrink-wrapped together and the Valuepack always carries its own ISBN in addition to the ISBNs of the respective components.

VLE (Acr.)

Virtual Learning Enviornment

WPS

Web Publishing System Pearson proprietary web-based authoring system used as the base for multiple Sisco products. Slated to retire 2014.

WIP (Acr.)

Work in Progress

GHEPM

{Global} Higher Education Product Master An internal catalog of all the HigherEd products currently published and on schedule to pub. HEPM contains useful information including product families, and is the private version of the public-facing educator catalog.