Is ‘Equitable Access’ Derailing the Campaign for Free Course Materials?

"For a few years at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Melody Rood helped award faculty members small grants to create open educational resources — course materials that are openly licensed, available for anyone to modify and update, and often free to use.

But library administrators ended the program last year — a decision that Rood, the student-success and open-education librarian, directly attributes to having First Day Complete on the campus. That program charges participating students $19 per credit hour for access to all the materials they need, regardless of what’s required for each class.

“It just didn’t make sense” to continue allocating limited library resources to the grant initiative, Rood said, when “we can’t even guarantee that students are saving money anymore.”

Collegewide programs like First Day Complete are increasingly popular. They’re seen as a way for colleges to negotiate lower overall course-material costs with publishers and ensure that students are prepared for the first day of class. Nearly half of all degree-granting institutions have reportedly adopted some version of “inclusive access” or “equitable access” programs, according to the Association of American Publishers.

But a number of course-affordability advocates say these programs — especially those that are labeled “equitable access” and charge a flat rate by semester or by credit, rather than charging by course — risk devaluing and undermining open educational resources, or OER. Building awareness and interest in OER, they added, is already an uphill battle...."