API-First Publishing Case Study: How Mentoring Minds Simplified Publishing
Mentoring Minds was founded in 2002 with the aim of levelling the playing field and giving children opportunities through education. Since then, the company has grown to become a national publisher of critical-thinking resources for K-12 students. By partnering with principals and teachers across the U.S., Mentoring Minds encourages millions of students to improve their critical thinking skills.
However, as the world was evolving beyond books, Mentoring Minds had a problem. They needed a new publishing platform to reach young adults in the digital age, and they weren’t sure where to find it.
In a hurry? Here’s what you’ll find in this headless CMS case study:
- The problem with Mentoring Minds' publishing process
- Introducing Core dna's publishing platform
- What is API-powered publishing?
- Publishing platform key features
The problem: Mentoring Minds’ stagnated digital transformation
In the past, Mentoring Minds was creating books using Adobe InDesign, a desktop publishing application, but this approach had its drawbacks.
Many of the company's authors are older, retired teachers and have difficulty working with complicated software, which was slowing down the publishing process. The files created by InDesign were saved locally and needed to be loaded into the CMS manually.
This outdated process meant there was a lack of permission control, versioning, and backups of book content. More importantly, the InDesign files were not reusable in the future for different publishing formats or easily repurposed for new digital learning platforms.
Mentoring Minds realized its outdated publishing process was holding it back, so the company needed a way for less technical users to create content and layouts intuitively, store the content in its CMS automatically, and make the continue reusable for future delivery platforms and formats. Simplicity and reusability were top priorities for Mentoring Minds.
The solution: Introducing the Core dna publishing platform
Mentoring Minds looked to Core dna to build a custom solution to fit their needs. The outcome is an entirely independent, headless publishing platform built with Vue.js.
The platform has a streamlined UI that's intuitive for non-technical users and connects seamlessly with Core dna’s CMS solution. With the new publishing platform, Mentoring Minds has entered the digital age with a sleek web experience that pulls data and content from Core dna, and it’s all made possible with API-powered publishing.
What is API-powered publishing?
As consumers young and old adopt more channels and touchpoints for consuming content, publishers need a way to write content once and publish it anywhere. That’s where a headless CMS with powerful APIs comes in.
API-first publishing means the content created is available via an API, and the end product could be anything from a mobile app to a website.
In the case of Mentoring Minds, having ebook content available through the Core dna API makes it easier to publish its products on its online store. Even more compelling, API-driven content publishing gives Mentoring Minds the option of reusing content with rapidly growing digital learning platforms.
Publishing platform key features
Here's a quick overview of the key features within the new book publishing platform:
1. Uncomplicated workflows
Users have an inbox that shows the projects they're working on and recent content revisions they’ve made. Workflows enable authors to keep track of their work effortlessly.
2. Flexible access control
Administrators have full control over which content authors can access. Authors, in turn, have a clean workspace and only see the books they're permitted to edit.
3. Simplified content creation
Content is organized into books, units, pages, and components in-line with Mentoring Mind's standard textbook layouts. Authors can drag and drop to reorder units and pages as needed. There's even a math editor option to make the design of complex mathematical formulas cleaner.
4. Automatic version control
New revisions are autosaved every fifteen seconds, but authors have the option to save drafts whenever they want. Authors can access previous versions of the content directly from their inbox.
5. Intuitive WYSIWYG editor
Content is automatically placed on pre-built templates and it’s easy to edit the layout using a live editor. Authors can build each page using a multitude of components.
6. Reusable content
Content stored in the Core dna CMS is reusable for distribution to new channels like educational courses within learning management systems. Authors can create content entirely independent from its delivery.
7. Streamlined authoring
Additional features like creating templates and managing books are handled outside the publishing platform. Authors only see the bare minimum of what they need to create great content.
The benefit: Greater educational content for children
With the help of Core dna, Mentoring Mind's authors have a simplified publishing workflow that drives efficiency. Instead of dealing with complicated desktop publishing software, or even the relatively simple interface of Core dna CMS, less-technical authors can focus on what they do best - creating great educational content for children.
Utilizing additional features of Core dna CMS, Mentoring Minds’ content managers can reuse its educational content for a multitude of mediums. The publishing company is no longer held back by having its books formatted in Adobe InDesign, as everything is stored in a flexible format, in one place. Mentoring Minds’ authors will be able to reach newer channels and a wider audience without needing to learn a complex CMS system themselves.
Headless content management, and then some
With the new publishing platform, Mentoring Minds authors are empowered to create content using a simple and intuitive interface.
The company itself has become future proof with cutting-edge headless content management and API-first publishing capabilities. With the new tech stack, Mentoring Minds is now poised to respond to technology trends and deliver educational content to new channels.
Core dna and Mentoring Minds have come together to build a digital publishing platform that will survive the unknowns of the future, simply because APIs can connect Core dna with any new technology, publishing platform, or interface.
Today, Mentoring Minds is in a position to continue its mission of helping young learners positively impact their local and global communities.
Articles written by various members of our team.