UA Programs Saved Students $6M on Course Materials in FY19
Of the roughly $6 million that UA students saved on course materials last fiscal year, most of it – $5.2 million – was from Inclusive Access, a program that provides online course materials at considerably lower prices than printed textbooks. Electronic textbooks in PDF form saved students $34,000.
Programs offered by the University of Arizona BookStores and University Libraries helped students save more than $6 million on course materials in fiscal year 2019.
Most of the savings resulted from inclusive access, a program that provides online course materials at considerably lower prices than printed textbooks. The program helped students save $5.2 million in the year that ended June 30 – up from $3 million the year before.
Through inclusive access agreements with publishers, course materials are made available to students via D2L. The materials are available for free until the add/drop deadline. At that point, students are charged for the materials at prices lower than competitive market rates. Before the deadline, students can opt out of inclusive access and purchase traditional textbooks instead.
In fiscal year 2019, 430 courses used the program, with students paying, on average, about half what printed textbooks would have cost.
One of the primary advantages of inclusive access is that all students "start on a level playing field" on the first day of class, said Cindy Hawk, assistant director of the BookStores book division.
"No one is getting behind because they haven't purchased yet," Hawk said. "Faculty can immediately jump into the course content without worrying that some students don't have the textbook yet. And everyone has the same content, where with a print book, sometimes students acquire older editions as they attempt to save money."
Inclusive access materials aren't just electronic versions of textbooks. Materials offered through the program are interactive and customizable, allowing instructors to update and add content. Special features for students include highlighting, bookmarking, text-to-speech conversion, and video and audio presentations. The materials can also include quizzes and homework.
Faculty interested in using inclusive access for their course materials can make the request when submitting information to the BookStores about the textbooks they plan to use for upcoming courses. The BookStores' book division then contacts the publishers to see if the books are offered via the inclusive access model.
Hawk noted that inclusive access is possible thanks to cooperation among various units on campus.
The inclusive access program, she said, is in partnership involving the D2L team, University Information Technology Services, University Libraries and "faculty who have embraced it."
In addition to the savings resulting from inclusive access, students saved more than $34,000 by purchasing textbooks in PDF form. By buying used course materials from UA BookStores, they saved $396,000. Through textbook rentals, they saved $140,000.
Another program that helped students save money was the use of open educational resources, which are teaching and learning materials, such as textbooks, audiobooks, videos and online courses, that are free for anyone in the world to access.
Open educational resources resulted in $143,000 in savings from July 1 to December 31, 2018. Data from Jan. 1, 2019, to July 1, 2019, was not yet available.
The 12 UA courses now using open educational resources include The Physical Universe, which uses the open textbook "Astronomy," and introductory physics I and II, which use "College Physics."
Similar to Inclusive Access, open educational resources provide day-one access to course materials for students.
"Students aren't waiting around to decide whether to buy the course materials or waiting weeks for them to arrive in the mail," said Cheryl Cuillier, the open education librarian at University Libraries. "If students don't have those course materials on day one, they're really handicapped in their ability to be successful in that course."
In another effort to ease the financial burden on students, 100 incoming first-year students each year are given $100 credits for course materials purchased from UA BookStores last year, amounting to a total savings of $10,000. Students won the credits through contests at orientation events at the beginning of the fall semester.
Student employees collectively saved more than $43,000 on course materials over the last fiscal year through a book loan program provided by UA BookStores.
Since fiscal year 2013, students have enjoyed nearly $22 million in savings from used course materials, electronic course materials – including inclusive access, which began in 2016 – price matching, open educational resources, course material rentals, and scholarships related to course materials.