Educator Frequently Asked Questions

Getting a desk copy is easy, but you must have an educator account in order to request one.

Simply find the book you would like to use for your course, and click "Request a desk copy."

If you have not created an educator account already, you will be asked to do so. Once you have filled in the required information and your educator status has been approved, you will receive your book within 4-10 business days.

If you have created an account but never requested educator access, please e-mail us directly at faculty@flatworldknowledge.com and our support team will have you set up as an instructor within 48 hours. Please note, if the book you would like to review has not been published, your request will remain in our queue until it becomes available.

Click here to see a tutorial on how to navigate the Flat World site and request desk copies.

Yes, you do need to adopt the book so your students can easily access it. An adoption registers your course in the 'Find My Class' tool. Students use this tool to access your book online or to purchase affordable offline formats and study aids. Adopting is easy! Once you've found a book you like, click 'Adopt This Book.' After filling in some class information you'll be taken to a 'Thank You for Your Adoption' page. This page provides information on how your students will find your book, how to notify your bookstore with the ISBN, how to access Instructor Resources, and more.

Click here to see a tutorial on how to adopt a Flat World text.

Make sure you are logged in, then in the top-right corner of the home page, click on MY ACCOUNT. Now, under YOUR ADOPTIONS, click on the course name for the book you want to re-adopt. From the drop-down menu, select 'Re-Adopt'. The next screen allows you to edit any necessary variables, ie: enrollment, term, start date, mid-term date and end date. Click 'Save & Continue'. Enter your mailing address in the last screen and then click 'Save & Continue'. Your re-adoption is now complete!

To see a short tutorial on how to re-adopt your book, click here

It is very important that you re-adopt the book each semester to ensure the correct course information shows up for students in "Find My Class." If a student should see information from the previous semester, it may cause confusion, which would delay their access to the book. Our My Account page allows you to easily re-adopt by clicking on the name of your current course and selecting COPY.

Click here for more information about how to use our My Account page.

Flat World is compatible with many Learning Management Systems, including Blackboard. For example, our Test Item Files can be accessed easily from the Catalog Book Page ->Review Supplements -> Test Item Files on our site.

The other benefit of using a Flat World text with your LMS is that you can easily link directly to our book from within your LMS without the need for passcodes or portal pages.

As with any book, the best indicator of whether the students are using their book is by class performance.

While we do have data around usage when students access your book through your custom URL or through the 'FIND MY CLASS' function, we do not yet offer that data as a service to adopters.

To access educator supplements you must first be registered and verified as an educator. Once verified, to access supplements click into your book via the Catalog and click 'Review Supplements.'

If you have created an account but never requested educator access, please e-mail us directly at faculty@flatworldknowledge.com and our support team will have you set up within 48 hours.

If you adopt your book on our site at least 4 weeks prior to the start of your class, we will send you First-Day-Of-Class flyers as well as a copy of the book to hand out to one lucky student at the start of class.

Generic First Day of Class Flyer

You are not required to customize your book in order to use a book from Flat World Knowledge.

In order to begin customizing, you can either search our Catalog for the book you would like to use, and choose the "Customize This Book" link, or simply use the "Edit" toggle button in the reader. Once you see the MIYO (Make It Your Own) controls, you can rearrange chapters or sections within chapters, delete entire chapters/sections, insert your own material, and much more.

Your custom book(s), as well as the canon, will always be listed on your 'My Account' page

*Don't forget to publish and adopt your final product so that your students are able to locate the book for your course.

For more detailed information regarding customization, check out this video.

At this time, Flat World does not provide customization tools for supplements and student study aids. However, when you customize your book and move or delete chapters, the supplements will be moved/deleted accordingly to line up with the new order of your book.

When you customize a book using our Make It Your Own editing platform, that great new book you publish is called a Custom MIYO.

You will also have the option to share your Custom MIYO with other educators by adding it to the Flat World Catalog. When you add your book to the catalog, it becomes a Shared Custom MIYO.

There are a number of ways to create a custom MIYO:

From the catalog: Find the book in the Flat World Knowledge Catalog (hyperlink) for the course that you teach. From the expanded search result or from the book details page, you can select "Customize this Book" to get started.

While reading a book: As an educator, you will see a toggle switch on the page to change between "Read" mode and "Edit" mode. Simplly click "Edit" to begin creating your MIYO.

From "My Account": If you have already added your desired book to My Books in your account, you can select "Customize this Book" from the drop down menu.

Once you have gotten started with our Make It Your Own custom book editor (MIYO), there are additional help resources and FAQ's within the tool.

Yes, you can adopt another professor's Custom MIYO, if s/he has opted in to add their book to the catalog, thus making it a Shared Custom MIYO.

Your Shared Custom MIYO will be given a dedicated page in the catalog with its own URL that you can share with your colleagues. When you opt in to sharing your Custom MIYO, you will be asked a few questions to describe your book. The information you provide will appear on your book's catalog page, so feel free to brag about your great Custom MIYO!

When a professor from a school or institution other than your own adopts your Custom MIYO, you will earn 2% of any resulting student purchases. You will have the option of not receiving a royalty when you opt in to sharing your Custom MIYO.

Absolutely not! We aim to make top-quality educational material more accessible to students, so making them pay more goes against our mission. The 2% royalty comes from Flat World's pocket, not our students'.

Royalties will be paid on a semi-annual basis, within 90 days following the close of each semi-annual period ending June 30th and December 31st of each calendar year. You will only receive a royalty for the semi-annual period once they have accrued to a minimum of $100.

Your Custom MIYO will accrue a 2% royalty on any sales of the book and related supplements. It must meet the following two requirements:

1. Your Custom MIYO is a customization of the original author work, and not a customization of another Custom MIYO.
2. The adoption and resulting sale occurs outside your affiliated institution.

Students can read free online as often as they like. If they prefer a printed book, we offer a variety of offline formats designed to suit nearly any personal preference and budget.

• Print it Yourself (PIY) PDFs can be downloaded to your students' local hard drive and printed out.
• Black and Whitesoft cover copies can be received within 4-10 business days, depending on the method of shipping the student chooses.
• Full Color soft cover copies can be received within 4-10 business days, depending on the method of shipping the student chooses.
• Individual PIY Chapters are also available, for a nominal per chapter fee.
• Audio Versions of the books are also available – ideal for the student on-the-go or aural learners.
• eBooks are available for those with an e-Reader or e-Reader software (i.e. iPad, Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble nook, iPhone, etc).

Students can find detailed instructions for loading their eBook onto their device on the Student FAQ page.

Students will access their book by using the unique URL you provide them or by going to www.flatworldstudents.com and using the 'Class Finder'. They can enter their school name, your name, course, ISBN, or any combination of this information into the Class Finder tool. A list of courses is generated based on the search criteria they provide. Once they click on your course, they are brought to the course book landing page where they can choose from a variety of formats including read free online.

For printed copies, standard shipping will ensure the book arrives within 7-10 business days. Expedited shipping will ensure the book arrives within 4-5 business days.

All digital items are available instantly upon purchase. The assets are placed into the student's 'My Flatworld' account.

Your students have indefinite access to read online. Once purchased, students have six months to download any digital materials, but once downloaded the files do not expire.