Marking Affordable Courses at KU
Affordability Course Marking provides students with the ability to better plan for class material costs by marking courses that use affordable class materials
What is an Affordable Course?
Affordable is shorthand for courses that exclusively use no-cost and low-cost resources as required course materials. Course materials refer to textbooks, workbooks, homework systems, and other primary and secondary learning content — see Scope below for more information.
What is Course Marking?
Marking course sections that use no-cost and low-cost materials is a growing part of the college and university affordability landscape.
Marking affordable courses has been legislatively mandated in seven states since 2015, including Oregon, California, Washington, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, & Louisiana. Many other institutions, including Kansas State University and Pittsburgh State University in Kansas, have implemented or are in the process of doing so as a matter of policy.
The effort to mark affordable courses at KU was advanced and supported by KU Student Senate in 2019/20, with support from KU IT, Bookstore, Libraries, Enterprise Project Management Office, Student Information Systems, and Registrar.
Why Mark Affordable Courses?
Marking affordable courses provides greater transparency and agency to students at the point of course selection and enrollment. This is well-aligned with the textbook provisions of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which requires institutions receiving federal funding to provide course material costs to students for the purpose of registration, “to the maximum extent practicable.”
How courses are marked
Those courses identified as affordable will be thus marked in two places: classes.ku.edu and Enroll & Pay. The Enroll & Pay markers are textual: No Cost and Low Cost.
The classes.ku.edu markers are visual — with accessible alternative text, using a series of simple icons designed by KU IT, which appear in the Credit Hours column.
The No Cost icon is a blue book marked with a white zero “0”. A course marked with the No Cost icon has zero required course material costs.
The Low Cost icon is a blue book marked with a white capital letter “L”. A course marked with the Low Cost icon has a cumulative required course material cost of less than $45.
The Default icon is a black book marked with a white dollar sign “$”. A course marked with the Default icon has a cumulative required course material cost equal to or greater than $45. Courses not reporting any information will be marked with the Default icon.
The absence of an icon indicates a course type that is typically not associated with required course materials, such as Discussion (DIS) sections and Thesis/Dissertation (THE) hours. In unique circumstances, materials may be required despite the lack of an icon, such as if an internship includes required books or other materials.
The icons as they appear in Enroll & Pay and classes.ku.edu
The absence of an icon indicates a course section type that is typically not associated with required materials, such as Discussion (DIS) sections and Thesis/Dissertation (THE) hours. In some circumstances, materials may be required despite the lack of an icon, such as if an internship includes required books or other materials.
Scope
Course materials are defined as primary required teaching and learning content:
- textbooks and their equivalents
- digital learning platforms,
- homework systems, etc.
Other supplies, such as
- clickers
- lab coats and goggles
- required calculators and other technology, etc.
are not considered course materials for the purpose of course marking.
In other words, a course that requires a clicker or lab safety gear can still be marked as an affordable course if it utilizes otherwise free or low cost material.
Recommended materials are not addressed by this project — because they are optional and students may acquire or not without negatively impacting their ability to succeed in the course, according to their own preferences and needs.
Timeline
The Course Marking Project Team began meeting in Fall 2019. In Fall 2020, course marking will be available for the Spring 2021 Enrollment Period — starting in October 2020.
Due to overlapping timelines for instructors to report their material adoptions and active enrollment, courses will be marked according to the best information available, updated nightly via an automatic process. In other words, markings are subject to change as new information becomes available.
A course section marked with the Default icon may become a No Cost or Low Cost section if the instructor reports adoption of no or low cost materials. Similarly, it’s possible that a course marked as no or low cost could become a default marked course if the adoption changes, for example due to changing instructors and late course assignments.
Feedback
The Course Marking Project Team is committed to making every effort to consider and reflect student, faculty, & staff needs and feedback in design, implementation, and future development.
We’re seeking to provide clear guidelines, information, and training to all interested parties, and to streamline participation by leveraging existing platforms and workflows.