IOER Program

What is course-marking?

“Marking course sections that use zero-cost ($0 cost to the student) and low-cost (less than $40 in total) resources as required texts is a growing part of the college and university affordability landscape. 

“Course Marking” is commonly done by adding some notation to a course section in the course registration system so that students can readily see that notation when making course selection decisions.” – Penn State

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Why?

The purpose is to give transparency and agency to students, so they may better plan for course material costs. This supports a transparent cost of attendance and “eliminating hidden costs…” More states are requiring course marking for public institutions. Virginia public institutions are required by law, § 23.1-1308, to mark courses as zero-cost or OER. 

Hollins competes with public institutions. 

Impact of zero-cost resources on an institutional level. The Literature has a positive relationship between: 

Increased end-of-course grades - University of Georgia (2018) & Houston Community College (2020), The impact of open educational resources on student achievement: A meta-analysis (2024)

Decrease in Drop/Withdrawal rate - Efficacy of Open Textbook Adoption on Learning Performance and Course Withdrawal Rates: A Meta-Analysis (2019), The impact of open educational resources on student achievement: A meta-analysis (2024)

OER Benefits - from Marking open and affordable courses: best practices and case studies

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How would we mark them? What are the obstacles?

Department chair role – 

• During the Spring 2025 schedule review, department heads can request their faculty to note if a course is zero-cost or less than $40 for course materials

Next Steps – 

• This will likely go to the faculty senate
• Conversations with the registrar in J-Term (per the emergency Ad Hoc committee for registration)
• Discussing STELLIC attributes and implementation with the registrar in Spring for a Fall 2025 or TBD rollout

We do some course-marking

National Trends

What are the average costs of textbooks in the U.S.? 

$1,200 annually for books and supplies (2022-23)

Average textbook price between $100-$150

We are already required to list if there are course fees, so we should shift our perspective this is another fee associated with the course, so we want to be transparent with that as well. 

In the eCampus bookstore form, an instructor can add notes in the "Coruse book comment" field. This is an option/function that isn't well-publicized. 

Zero cost IS NOT feasible for certain disciplines. We want to emphasize that. 

We know faculty care about their students and their access to course material. 

We want to provide the data to the faculty to help them contemplate: are there alternatives to their course materials? What are their expectations for textbook costs? 

We aren’t using this course materials cost data to scrutinize certain disciplines and depts with high cost. Just provide this data for you all as a point of information, to provide perspective on how much textbooks cost in similar disciplines. Bio and Eng is not a comparison, to see the average. 
 

EXISTING COURSES:

When department chairs review the course catalog in the spring, they could ask faculty which courses are zero cost and also include if they are low cost, BASED ON THE DATA. 

NEW COURSES:

Would NEW courses be marked as zero or low cost when submitted for faculty approval, just as courses are marked open for first years, for example?