The landscape of higher education has changed dramatically since the ‘90s, when paper registration, physical textbooks, and an on campus bookstore were the norm. The traditional sense of a “textbook” has been replaced by combinations of printed texts, online learning systems, ebooks, videos, podcasts, open educational resources (OER), and more. While this shift has changed how higher education uses printed textbooks, course materials remain crucial for student success. Quality course materials to support instruction can provide learners with content structure, independent engagement, opportunities to practice problem solving and application, and diverse resources for all students. In fact, assessments can use integrated course materials, potentially negatively impacting a student’s grade if they do not purchase the required course materials.

Given the importance of course materials on student success, it can be disheartening and frustrating for faculty if students don’t have their materials by the first week of class! 

So why don’t they have their textbooks?

1. The student perception that textbooks are not needed to learn and do well in the classroom. There is no doubt that an extensive amount of online resources exist to support learning. One student shared that it’s “easier to find a good youtube video than it is to search through the textbook, which is often harder to understand.” This method of retrieving information is made more attractive to students who may lack experience with reading large books, especially when the use of printed textbooks is declining in K-12 schools, often replaced by digital content or other instructional resources.
2. Logistical difficulties purchasing course materials. Course materials are purchased through Oakland University’s partnership with eCampus, an online storefront that prioritizes accessible and affordable course materials with multiple purchasing options. While this provides students choices, one student mentioned that it can be confusing to figure out what they actually need to buy if multiple options are all marked as required for one course. So they “wait to hear from the professors to find out if [they] need the online or printed textbook.” While many textbooks arrive within 2 days of purchase, some may take longer, delaying students’ access to the course materials. Other students simply may avoid purchasing textbooks until they finalize their schedule.
3. Financial stress. Even though ebooks and online textbook retailers have lowered textbook prices, the cost of course materials for an average student per academic year is reported to be $285. The high cost of course materials can negatively impact a student's education, resulting in poor grades or decreased course enrollment, which can hinder timely degree progress. Students may work extra hours or skip meals to pay for course materials, or opt out of purchasing them at all. Those without reliable internet or computer access, and those awaiting financial aid support can also face challenges purchasing materials. 

How to Connect Students to Their Course Materials

• Place your adoptions with eCampus early. This will provide the shortest wait for students to receive their books. While most required textbooks/course materials can be shipped free to campus in two business days, delivery time can be slowed due to late adoptions, materials marked as recommended instead of required, and publisher shipping preferences.
• Be transparent about requirements for course materials in your syllabus and communications. We recommend contacting students when Moodle becomes available to students one week prior to the start of classes, providing detailed instructions for purchasing course materials through eCampus (See our syllabus template). This should include clearly distinguishing between the required and optional resources, and expectations for whether course materials are needed on the first day of class. Additionally, inform students about any temporary access for online components as these grace periods can provide students with valuable flexibility in purchasing course materials. 
• Provide accessible and affordable options for textbooks. Giving students options to purchase books in their preferred format (Rental, New, Used, and Digital) is acceptable and encouraged, so the students can purchase in a fashion that is best for their learning or financial reasons. Explore alternatives to decrease costs of your course materials (5 things you can do to reduce textbook cost), including options through OU Libraries. If students report difficulties with financial aid, refer them to the Financial Aid office to discuss options.

What If They *Still* Don’t Have the Textbook?

While some students may still choose to skip purchasing course materials, we can provide students with support while they are navigating textbook challenges. One simple, yet impactful, option is to make your textbook available at the library for students to use on campus. For online resources, you can reach out to anyone who hasn’t registered for online materials. Not only does this help build faculty-student connections, but sometimes a little direction is all that is needed! Lastly, consider speaking with your textbook publishers to see if there are options for students who are struggling with the cost. With a little preparation and communication on our part, we can help students start the semester strong with all their course materials! 

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About the Author

Sarah Hosch is the Faculty Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and a Special Instructor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Oakland University. She teaches all levels of biology coursework and her interests include evidence-based teaching practices to improve student learning gains and reduce equity gaps in gateway course success. Sarah loves exploring nature, cooking, and exercising. 

Written in consultation with Chris Reed, Executive Director of the Oakland Center

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC. 

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For some of us, flipping the calendar to August unleashes a mental rush of things to do to prepare for fall classes. To help move those impulses into a specific place and time, consider these starting points. While the steps are familiar, each includes timely priorities and updates.  Make a copy of this checklist, and add additional notes and items specific to your needs.

• Have a plan for your own care and flexibility. Too often left to the bottom of the list, then neglected entirely, identify what practices are most essential to your well-being and plan at least a few actions to ensure you have the capacity and margin to meet the semester's demands without burning out. It might be a process to plan for flexibility in your work, getting outside (at natural campus spaces featured in our Teaching in Place series), or reserving time for rest, creativity, or connection with colleagues. For more guidance on how to center wellness in your teaching, join our upcoming Academic Well-Being Workshops.
• Submit course material adoptions to eCampus (even if you don’t have a textbook). Even if you are not using a textbook, submitting textbook selections is necessary for federal compliance and one way to reduce textbook cost. If your course does not have a textbook, select “No Textbook Required,” and designate your low-cost course.
• Make timely updates to your syllabus. The OU Syllabus Guides page includes a recently updated syllabus template with a student-friendly support section revamp led by OU Student Congress.
• Plan and communicate your class AI approach.  Decide how students can—and cannot—use AI in your course, and explain your reasoning. Align your AI policy with your learning goals and assignment design. Our Teaching & AI page offers examples and resources to help you make clear, ethical, and pedagogically sound choices. You can also consult with CETL or e-LIS to work through this process.
• Set up your Moodle course. Moodle courses are available to faculty one month before the first day of a semester. Whether teaching online or on campus, use Moodle to house core documents, a forum for student questions and class communications, and provide assignments and activities as needed. See the Moodle Help Library to explore more options, and get more e-LIS support through their Support Portal (live chat, phone, or online), workshops and one-on-one appointments. Even if you have some experience with Moodle, strolling through the new Self-Paced Online Teaching eSpace can help you reflect on and think about getting the most out of your Moodle space.
• Check out your classrooms ahead of time. Save yourself from that dreaded moment when you unexpectedly have to update your ADMNET credentials and figure out the classroom tech. If you are teaching on campus, visit your classrooms to see what technology, programs, and furniture setup you’ll be working with, such as whether you have GrizzFlex technology for virtual engagement options or need to request materials like microphones or a camera.
• Get an early idea of who your students are. Asking students to fill out a simple form will help you move from hypothetical situations to working with the students you have. Knowing their technology/internet access, schedules, interests, experiences, and concerns will better help you anticipate barriers and opportunities. This Preparing for the Semester Google Form Template can serve as a model you can use and adapt.

Written and designed by Christina Moore, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oakland University. Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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Framed as pauses in our usual practice-focused pace, these reflections offer space to consider not just how we teach, but why—and with whom. They also connect our work to the long-term goals of our programs, showing how individual practices and collaborative efforts contribute to broader outcomes.

For 12 years now our weekly teaching tips have been a commitment to provide accessible, responsive, informed, and practical considerations to sustain our students and ourselves in the meaningful work of education and the challenges that come our way. We believe in the power of offering small steps, knowing they must always be pointed toward our larger goals.

Before offering any “tips” this year, we pause to recognize the roots that anchor our guidance on preparing for the semester. While those roots draw from many sources—research, reflection, and practice—they grow strongest through the people we work alongside. Behind any good thing that emerges from our Center are those who dedicate themselves to teaching and learning, who take to heart that the classroom is the core of every student’s experience and success here (Tinto, 2012), whether that classroom meets on campus or brings students together through online spaces.  

We’re starting our blog this year looking down at where our feet are planted, how we got here, and how our mission is showing up at this moment, put to the tune of a few mantras. 

“The Community Is the Curriculum” in the AI Learning Circle

Dave Cormier’s mantra reminds us that learning is ultimately a product of the people learning together and, therefore, must center and adapt with those people. Our most recent community-centered program was the AI Learning Circle, where we went through a teaching with AI online course together, debriefing and sharing ideas with OU colleagues through discussion forums and live conversations. 

Faculty put a lot of effort into the course activities, developing teaching statements to guide their AI-responsive approaches, using AI tools and critically evaluating their results, tinkering with assignments, and connecting with students, colleagues, and leaders to build community around our intentional approaches to AI. Yet it was the conversations that affirmed diverse perspectives and reminded us that we were in this together. One instructor expressed “feel[ing] less on a deserted island” on how to address the challenges of teaching. For all the possibility afforded by AI tools, good and bad, the Learning Circle enforced a commitment to learning- and person-first teaching before diving into any new educational technology.

“Nothing About Us Without Us” in Pedagogical Partnerships

Coming from the disability community, the saying “nothing about us without us” calls anyone building programs or movements for a group of people to do so with these people. Any student success initiative must include students. Any teaching and learning effort should include the learners as well as the teachers. Therefore, students as partners has been a growing focus of ours. After planting many seeds over the years through student panels and student feedback forums, we mark the inaugural year of Pedagogical Partnerships, which develops intentional, generative dialogue and feedback between faculty and students about teaching and learning at Oakland University. 

The program took root through key people willing to make something new with full minds and hearts: Dr. Cynthia Miree, CETL Faculty Fellow who was the architect for this program, and its emerging student leaders Payton Bucki, Red Douglas, Dominique Hormillosa, Lance Markowitz, and Ariel Williams. These students worked with 13 faculty members on a dialogic teaching observation process they researched and developed, identified strategic ways to promote student partnership including key university events, and submitted an article manuscript to the National Teaching and Learning Forum. Dominique Hormillosa described why student partnerships are key at this moment:

“I think my generation marks a turning point in the value proposition of pursuing higher education. The Pedagogical Partnership helps bridge the gap between instructors and students. If we can combine students’ feedback and instructors’ expertise to improve everyone’s experience, then OU can deliver on its promise of quality education and re-affirm the importance of obtaining a college degree. I’d like to be a teacher myself someday, so it has truly been an honor to work with faculty who have been at this for years.” 

Together we are working to plot a sustainable path forward to ensure Pedagogical Partners can flourish in key areas of teaching-related student success.

“They Need Us to Be Well” in Academic Well-Being

Like many universities, OU has emphasized student well-being and mental health, and we have sketched out our role as teachers in supporting student mental health in kind. Yet as psychologist and educational leader Sarah Rose Cavanagh (2023) develops in detail, “in order for them [our students] to be well, they need us to be well.”  Some universities have expressed a similar sentiment as “Faculty Success Is Student Success,” but the mantra “They Need Us to Be Well” gets at our deeper human needs: connection, joy, enthusiasm, purpose, autonomy, and ever-elusive rest. We may not be accustomed to thinking of these human priorities as a part of the curriculum or course design, and yet, as Cavanagh explains, we are increasingly finding these as key indicators of student engagement and, ultimately, success.  

With expert on employee stress and well-being Caitlin Demsky as a CETL Faculty Fellow this year, we will be able to make significant progress on how to teach to sustain the whole person. Adapting to teaching challenges is always more than a “hack” away: Dr. Demsky’s work will inform how we move through whatever comes our way, even when we don’t have easy answers. She will set the tone with two workshops on Academic Well-Being--Creating a Culture of Care in the Classroom and Caring for the Whole Self: Managing Our Well-Being--and she is available for individual and group consultations on these and related topics as well. You’ll hear from her more through this blog in the coming weeks.

This year, as ever, we’ll keep offering what’s useful and doable, but always tethered to the deeper questions and shared values that make the work matter. We’ll periodically shift from quick tips to longer-view reflections—pausing to consider the broader purpose, patterns, and people behind effective teaching. Because in teaching, as in growing, what lasts is what’s rooted.

References and Resources

Cavanagh, S. R. (2023, May 2). They need us to be well. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/they-need-us-to-be-well

Cormier, D. (2024). Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community Is the Curriculum. Johns Hopkins University Press. The OU community has free access to this book online, or can be checked out of our print library.

Tinto, V. (2012). Completing College: Rethinking Institutional Action. University of Chicago Press. Completing College is available in our print library.

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