Textbook Affordability

Textbook Cost: $0

“Textbook Cost: $0” (TXT0) is a special designation for a class. The TXT0 designation indicates that students will not be required to pay for any course learning materials. Course learning materials include textbooks, readings, workbooks, lab manuals, access codes, or other content. Equipment, tools, or supplies needed to apply the learning occurring in the class are not considered course learning materials.

TXT0 classes may rely solely on Open Educational Resources (OERs) or may utilize a combination of OERs, freely available web resources, library resources, and/or faculty-authored materials. For more info, see TXT0 Frequently Asked Questions.

Instructors must use Kuali to add the TXT0 designation to their classes.  Students can then use the TXT0 filter in StarGPS to see all classes with that designation. The TXT0 designation is also shown on the Course Schedule.

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.”  (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, “Open Educational Resources“)

The UHWO OER Committee is dedicated to empowering UHWO instructors to consider ways to take more ownership of their teaching materials, and to adopt or create OER to benefit their students.

Some of the benefits of OER

• Save costs for students.
  OER drastically reduces the amount of money students spend on educational materials.
• Expand access to educational materials.
  Students anywhere in the world can access OER at any time.
• Ease-of-distribution.
  OER are easy to distribute widely with little or no cost.
• Supplement class materials.
  OER can augment traditional learning formats, where there may be clear deficiencies on certain topics.
• Social responsibility.
  Provide educational advancement for all, student or not.

For more information about Open Educational Resources, including how to find, evaluate, and adopt them, please click on the button below.

Open Educational Resources

Course Reserves

The Course Reserve collection in the Library grants students access to textbooks and supplementary readings that their instructor has requested be made available to students in short increments. The format of this collection allows for maximum student usage, as most items are only available for 3-hour loan periods for library-use only.

The full list of items currently on Course Reserve can be accessed by clicking on this link. This list is updated as requests are made and processed.

For more information about Course Reserves, including details about how students can find and use these items, as well as details about how instructors can place items in this collection, please click on the button below.

List of Textbooks on Course Reserve
More About Course Reserves

Lending Library for HE Courses

In partnership with ASUHWO, and thanks to funding from both ASUHWO and a Title III grant, a lending library of textbooks for certain high-enrolled (HE) courses debuted in Spring 2019. These items will be placed on Course Reserve in the Library, so all students are encouraged to frequently consult the Course Reserve list before the semester begins, and during the first few weeks of the semester, to ascertain whether their textbooks will be available in the Library.