1. Open Education
  2. Affordable Course Materials
  3. Affordable Materials Course Designator

Affordable Materials Course Designator

Do you teach a course with zero-cost or low-cost course materials? NIU students are able to search for and filter courses with affordable course materials (defined as required books, textbooks, ebooks, streaming video, CDs, or DVDs) at the time of registration.

To make this functionality possible, two course attribute values are used by schedulers in MyNIU: one for courses with low-cost textbooks (total course materials cost of $40 or less) and the other for courses with zero textbook costs. Department schedulers can add these attribute values to any courses in MyNIU that meet the criteria of low or zero-cost textbook courses. 

To ensure that the courses you teach with free or low-cost course materials are identified for students in MyNIU, please notify your department course scheduler and department chair of your upcoming term courses that should be designated as either low-cost or zero-cost textbooks.

Frequently Asked Questions

NIU students are able to search for and filter courses with affordable course materials at the time of registration.

Learn More About Course Textbooks Search and Filter in MyNIU

What about used books or rental prices?

If used books and/or rentals of required materials are available to everyone from the bookstore for $40 or less, then the course can include the low-cost or no cost designation. However, if only a limited number of used books or rentals are available, the designation should be avoided because access is not equal for all students.

For a series of courses that all use the same required textbook, how should these courses be labeled in the system?

For the time being, courses in this situation should not be designated as zero or low cost. As we considered courses of this nature, the consensus was that since the student would ned to have access to the means to purchase the textbook prior to entry into the course sequence, there is still potentially a barrier to enrollment based on materials costs.

We will revisit this example and consider how else we might be able to capture and communicate the financial benefit to students.

I'm a course scheduler. What are the attributes that I should apply in MyNIU?

The following attribute values can be applied to any courses which your department has determined meet the criteria of low or zero cost textbook courses:

Attribute Code: TEXT

  • Course Attribute Value: LOWCOST (for courses with total course materials cost of $40 or less)
  • Course Attribute Value: ZEROCOST (for courses with no course materials cost)

We recommend that departments apply both attribute codes to zero-cost materials courses in order to make them more visible to students who are searching for courses with affordable materials.

I teach a course with a textbook that when purchased new from the NIU bookstore costs more than $40, but an ebook version is available less than $40 directly from the publisher. In the past, the NIU bookstore has been able to secure used copies of the textbook. Is this sufficient to have the course designated as low cost for students?
From an equity perspective, as many students rely on using their financial aid to purchase textbooks from the NIU bookstore and there isn't a guarantee moving forward that used copies of the textbook would be available for all students, this specific course wouldn't qualify for the low cost course designation.

Contact Us

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu

University Libraries

Phone: 815-753-1995
Email: lib-admin@niu.edu

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