This volume takes a comprehensive and broad look at e-text programs across a wide spectrum of programs, institutions, and policies in three parts. The first part showcases several policy papers to contextualize the discussion and highlight the reasons for IAE programs’ structure and the obstacles they face for implementation. The second part is an in-depth exploration of various case studies that provide a detailed description of IAE programs, including information about program elements, program structure, program size, and insights into how programs are operationalized, and their shortcomings and benefits to students and stakeholders. The final part is a selection of research papers that offer evidence-based support for the adoption of IAE programs in terms of student success, access, engagement, costs, and a variety of other student and institutional outcomes. There are approximately 300 institutions of higher education that currently have some form of Inclusive Access or Open Educational Resources E-text (IAE) program in the United States, but there is little scholarship that engages on the topic of assessing these programs’ effect on student success. The results of the research studies included in this volume will inform faculty, administrators, and policy-makers who seek to support the development, adoption, and implementation of IAE programs based on their potential positive effects on student success and other outcomes.

The Evolution of Affordable Content Efforts in the Higher Education Environment: Programs, Case Studies, and Examples provides both inspiration and guidance for those beginning work on affordable content and evidence of the growth that has occurred in this arena over the last decade. While some institutions have been providing students affordable content options for over 100 years, many others have found the need to launch new programs in response to the escalating costs of higher education and the impact that has on student learning. This book provides examples from different types and sizes of institutions and includes voices from a wide range of contributors including faculty, instructional designers, academic technologists, librarians, bookstore staff, and more. The Evolution of Affordable Content demonstrates the range of affordable content options that are possible today-from openly licensed content to library licensed materials and all inclusive purchase models to institution-wide student textbook rental models.

Learning resources are often considered key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world. However, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet, openly and for free, as open educational resources (OER). This study, building on previous OECD work on e-learning, asks why this is happening, who is involved, and what the most important implications of this development are. The report offers a comprehensive overview of the rapidly changing phenomenon of open educational resources and the challenges it poses for higher education. It examines reasons for individuals and institutions to share resources for free and looks at copyright issues, sustainability, and business models, as well as policy implications. Giving Knowledge for Free will be of particular interest to those involved in e-learning or strategic decisionmaking within higher education, to researchers, and to students of new technologies.

This book is about the promotion and development of digital solutions for inclusive education, including a variety of hardware, software, digital learning materials, and digital learning content currently available on the market. All of these technological solutions serve as support materials and building blocks for inclusive learning environments but, at the same time, can involve hidden risks which may inadvertently create even greater gaps in inclusive education. This book provides strategies and methodologies that promote the development of opportunities for using digital technologies to support inclusive education. It provides an, understanding how to close the current digital gap while ensuring that the digital technologies selected do not support new risks of exclusion from the digital learning environment, strengthening and augmenting the already existing digital divide.

How do we help college students become independent learners in their disciplines? In this collection, the editors and contributors argue that we do so by supporting students in learning from texts, which entails recognizing reading as a problem-solving process, supporting students to take responsibility for the intellectual work in their classes, and creating strong classroom communities that help students develop identities as scholars.