The ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ and its supplier ofΒ textbooks and other course materials, Barnes & Noble College, offer a program called First Day, which provides discounted digital course materials to students enrolled in many courses. This semester, students who participated in this program saved an average of 48%.
Currently, ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ students must βopt-inβ to participate in this program. Last year, state law changed to allow universities to choose either an βopt-inβ or βopt-outβ model for these discounted course materials. Under an opt-out model, students would automatically be enrolled in this program and would have to manually opt-out to avoid charges being added to their student accounts.
ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is not changing its current opt-in model. The opt-in model requires students to manually choose to participate in the program and receive discounted course materials.
First Day is just one part ofΒ ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) initiative, which focuses on reducing studentsβ course material costs. Many Library-Sourced digitalΒ textbooks are made available to students at no cost. And Open Educational Resources (OER) are course materials in the public domain or released under an open license free of charge. Together with First Day, these programs have saved students more than $11 million since 2016.
