The Great Bundling Of Course Materials

I live in L.A. where lots of people have dreams about making it big in movies and television. I see it all the time. My wife works in television and is constantly being approached. Even the Cantor at my synagogue loves appearing in shows. This explains a dream I had last week: I was approached by the Rabbi about consulting on a movie the synagogue was producing about the student loan crisis. What did the dream mean? I asked my brother – a modern day Joseph – who offered the following: “I can tell you what that dream means. First, there will be seven years of lots of student loans. Then we’ll have seven years of no student loans. We need to save the loans for when there’s no loans!”

Given the widening gap between free college/student loan forgiveness Democrats and Republicans talking about deprioritizing degrees and supporting alternative pathways, my brother may not be far off. Either way, I’m spending too much time thinking about student loans.

One overlooked reason students have had to borrow so much is that the cost of course materials is not included in tuition. This has two deleterious effects. For the ~35% of students who buy all recommended course materials — averaging over $1,000 per year — that’s additional expense that often involves borrowing; one survey found 43% of students reporting the need to take out additional loans to cover the cost of course materials. And for the ~65% of students who don’t – typically due to affordability – they’re often underprepared and are more likely to drop out or fail. 33% of students report they decided against taking a class due to the high cost of course materials.

I recognize I’ve been an apostle of unbundling. My first book, College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, foresaw the unbundling of degrees. And my second book, A New U, established how the emergence of last-mile training is making faster + cheaper pathways to good jobs available for millions of young Americans. However, despite recent, unprecedented enrollment declines, there are still 16 million students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities – a number that continues to dwarf those pursuing faster + cheaper alternatives. Sixteen million students continue to buy a bundled product. But while colleges and universities bundle remedial coursework, general education courses, and advanced courses in the major along with libraries, real estate, dining, sports, student activities, research, healthcare, and all kinds of advising and support from countless associate deans, it boggles the mind that they don’t also bundle the materials that often make the difference between success and failure.

Some colleges and universities do include course materials as part of tuition. Many online universities have been doing it for years because they’ve seen it remove a barrier to student success. But few traditional colleges and universities do so.

Here’s what we know about the impact of bundling course materials with tuition. When University of Iowa began bundling course materials for introductory chemistry, 70% of students had begun working on assignments by the first day of class (vs. 2% in the prior unbundled model). And when Copiah-Lincoln Community College began bundling course materials for its gateway developmental math course, pass rates increased by 17, and students receiving an A increased by 15%. Copiah-Lincoln’s decision to bundle course materials helped improve retention by 10% and completion by 8%. As these case studies come from self-interested publishers, they may be of limited value. However recent research by Michael Moore at University of New Hampshire suggests that class passage rate goes up by 3-4% overall and as much as 13% for underrepresented minorities when course materials are in students hands on the first day of class.

It makes no sense for universities to build the technology and logistics infrastructure to do this independently. Where can colleges and universities go to get started? Pearson and Cengage offer solutions, oddly enough both called Inclusive Access. McGraw-Hill has one as well, called… you guessed it: inclusive access. Companies like VitalSource and RedShelf bundle course materials, but limit their offerings to digital materials. Then there’s Akademos, an online bookstore platform that now also offers a one-stop shop for bundling course materials. As Akademos deals with both physical and e-books, it’s the only option I’m aware of for bundling any and all course materials.

Finally, it appears students support the bundling of course materials. One survey puts the number at 77%. So here’s the lesson: if colleges and universities are going to bundle – and they’re not going to stop until demand for bundled degree programs declines a great deal further – one of the first things they should include in the bundle is course materials.