NIU Libraries wants to help you get the classroom materials you need at a price you can afford. Here a few strategies that might help:
Yes there is!
As a commitment to education affordability, this course uses course materials that are either open educational resources (OER), available from the University Libraries under fair use guidelines, or identified as low-cost (under $40).
No, course equipment and supplies are not included in the $40 or less designation. Required course materials are defined as books, textbooks, ebooks, streaming video, CDs, or DVDs required for success in a course.
Yes, if a course requires access to online content with an additional fee, it should not be designated as low-cost if that puts the total cost of course materials over the $40.
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 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.
Two new Attribute values are live in MyNIU and can be applied to any courses which your department has determined meet the criteria of low or zero cost textbook courses:
Attribute Code: TEXT
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.
In MyNIU, students can apply a filter to class searches, or can search by keyword to see all eligible classes.
Filter by Class Attribute Example
Search by Keyword Example
View in Class Details Example
Phone: 815-753-0595
Email: citl@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-1995
Email: lib-admin@niu.edu