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K-State faculty invited to develop open or alternative textbooks

By Donna Ekart

The K-State Student Governing Association and K-State Libraries are announcing the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative for Kansas State University. Recently funded through Student Centered Tuition Enhancements with a supplemental allocation provided by K-State Libraries, the initiative offers awards to K-State faculty working individually or collaboratively to deliver open or alternative textbooks in their courses. $60,000 is available for multiple awards of $1,000-$5,000 each. Continue reading “K-State faculty invited to develop open or alternative textbooks”

Textbook enhancement in iSIS

The iSIS enhancements to add a textbook icon to students’ enrollment shopping carts and course schedules occurred in mid-March, just in time for fall enrollment. Students with multiple courses in their enrollment shopping cart or on their class schedule can now see all of the textbooks associated with their courses in a single view on the Varney’s website shopping cart, by clicking on the textbook icon.

textbook icon displayed in iSIS

Clicking that icon will display a list of all the required textbooks for the listed classes. For full instructions, see Viewing your textbooks in iSIS Help.

Reminder about textbook information and reporting

March 22 marked the beginning of fall enrollment, warranting a reminder about the availability of textbook information in K-State’s course schedule and the need for faculty to report textbook information when they know the textbook they will use. In addition:

Textbook reporting requirements

(Editor’s note:  This information is from an e-mail memo sent by the Office of the Provost.)

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 is designed to ensure that students have access to affordable textbooks and supplemental materials. According to the act, universities must make information about required textbook and supplemental materials available to students on their online course schedules by July 1.

To meet the requirement, K-State bookstores (K-State Student Union and Varney’s, Manhattan campus), Follett’s (Salina campus), and KVESS (College of Veterinary Medicine) are working with K-State to collect textbook and supplemental information and post it online.

Textbook information must be correct and only provided when faculty know the textbook they will use. In addition:

  • If there is no textbook for a course, this information must be provided to the bookstore.
  • If a faculty member does not yet know textbook information, the default statement “to be determined” will be listed, and the textbook information submitted as soon as the decision is made.
  • Faculty members who typically have worked through Claflin Books and Copies in Manhattan may continue to do so, but also need to complete the request for textbooks from the K-State Student Union Bookstore so the textbook information can be made available to students.

Continue reading “Textbook reporting requirements”