FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
The Office of the Provost recently sent a memo to FAU faculty and instructors with the course materials deadline for the upcoming semester; see deadlines for all semesters at Adopt Textbooks. The memo provides links to resources to assist with your textbook and course materials adoption.
Textbook Adoption and Affordability Initiatives
Textbook affordability has been a long-term issue in higher education. Since the 1990s, students have spent, on average, $500 or more per semester on textbooks. In a 2022 survey by Florida Virtual Campus, 53.5% of student respondents said they did not purchase a textbook, while almost 25% dropped a class for the same reason. Textbooks and learning materials' affordability impact the ability of students to participate in courses, keep up with assigned readings, and successfully complete them.
The State of Florida and FAU have adopted textbook affordability initiatives to encourage the use of free and low-cost materials to support student success and decrease their education costs. One way faculty can help is to use open education resources (OER) and library-licensed materials. OER is defined as textbooks or other learning materials that can be remixed, shared, and used for your teaching purposes; see examples.
Another way is to assign library-licensed materials that can include ebooks (see example), multimedia, journal articles, and other sources to which the library has access due to its subscriptions. They are available to current FAU students and faculty and can be shared by embedding links in your syllabi or Canvas pages.
If you are interested in exploring OER or selecting library-licensed materials, consult your departmental library liaison or the following guides to get started:
- Open Education Resources (OER) Research Guide: https://libguides.fau.edu/oer
Find OER and ways to evaluate them. If you are interested in creating your own OER, see the pages on authoring and licensing.
- Library-Licensed Materials for Affordability Research Guide: https://libguides.fau.edu/c.php?g=687775&p=9105506
This guide provides information on options available and recommended practices for FAU faculty and instructors who want to use library-licensed materials for their courses.
By Kristy Padron, MLIS
Scholarly Communication Services Coordinator
