Materials cost dashboard provides transparency for students, faculty

The investment made through initial strategic plan funds continues to have an impact across campus. The course material costs dashboard shares information about the cost of a key piece to Iowa State degrees. University Library, ISU Book Store and institutional research spent about two years developing the dashboard.

It provides transparency for students and their parents about the cost of course materials while giving faculty more information to make selections for their classes. Iowa State offers students Immediate Access ONE -- a flat-rate, digital-first course materials program launched in fall 2024 charging undergraduates by the semester for all required textbooks, e-books and lab manuals -- and the dashboard shines a light on colleges and departments with low costs and others working to keep costs as low as possible.

"The dashboard allows us to have conversations with faculty about adoption bloat," said Abbey Elder, open access and scholarly communication librarian. "We really want to think about adopting only material that is required, because adding more will cause the cost of Immediate Access ONE to go up for everyone."

Institutional research created the dashboard and trained library and bookstore staff who update the information each summer. The dashboard was included in one of nine priority projects determined in 2022 and supported by $10.5 million to amplify the strategic plan.

What's in the dashboard

The dashboard -- which includes information on every course that uses materials through the bookstore or library -- provides a general overview of the cost of course materials grouped by type -- no text required, e-books, print materials, etc. -- and cost category -- zero cost, under $50 and over $50. The interactive dashboard can filter data to a specific course to see the student cost during the previous year. It also provides information on cost by college, program and course levels as well as the type of materials used in each course.

"The dashboard allows for good peer benchmarking," said Bryce Jacobson, ISU Book Store assistant director. "Those within the same department can look to see what others are using and see if they are achieving higher savings.

"It will really help the bookstore identify trends year-over-year so we can see where the costs are growing or shrinking."

The registered nurse to bachelor of science in nursing program is the lone ISU major with no textbook costs, but several departments and colleges are working toward that goal.

"The agronomy department has been working for a couple of years now to develop no-cost materials across their curriculum," Elder said. "Their entire core course sequence for soil science is moving toward no cost."

Jacobson said the dashboard also is an effective tool in offering transparency to parents wanting to know more about costs.

"The two biggest conversations with parents we have at the bookstore are textbooks and technology costs," he said.

Strategies for lowering costs

Open educational resources (OER) are instructional materials that are free to access and customize, meaning instructors can mix and match OER to fit their needs. Currently, more than 45 courses use OER annually, saving students more than $600,000 this academic year, Elder said. One-third of that savings comes from faculty who used funds from the Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Program to design new OER options.

Working with Elder, Doreen Chung, apparel, events and hospitality management associate professor, published a fashion and consumer design OER after discovering the most recent options were a decade or more old. Consumer behavior, especially regarding fashion, had changed drastically in that time. Instructors interested in locating OER can begin by speaking with their subject librarians.

Course reserves is another option for faculty and can include required digital or print books, book chapters, journal articles, videos and more. Digital materials are loaded into Canvas and available to students 24/7, and print materials are listed there for easier trips to the library. The University Library pays reasonable copyright fees as required.

"Course reserves allow faculty to get the information they really want to share with their students without always having to adopt an entire book if they are only interested in a couple of chapters," said course reserves supervisor Jill Vasquez. "It also gives our faculty peace of mind that there will not be any copyright issues."

Working together

The dashboard came together because the bookstore and library staff have a strong working relationship and are willing to share information to benefit faculty and students. Members of both staff serve on the open and affordable education committee.

"We both had to pull data about what faculty are using," Elder said. "The bookstore gets a lot of data about what is being used across campus, but it may miss some classes when instructors don’t report their adoptions. We took its data and collated it with course reserves to try to determine if no text truly was required or if instructors were using something else."