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Textbook Adoption

Textbook and instructional materials affordability and transparency

Textbook and instructional materials affordability and transparency is governed by Florida Statute 1004.085 and Florida Board of Governors Regulation 8.003. These documents provide state universities with guidance on two aspects of affordability and transparency: textbook and instructional materials adoptions and posting of syllabi for general education core courses.

Submitting Textbook and Instructional Materials Adoptions 

  • Follow your department’s textbook and instructional materials process. 
  • Report textbook and instructional materials adoptions for all course sections even if textbooks and instructional materials are not required. 
  • Report textbook and instructional materials adoptions for all course sections even if you use no cost textbooks and instructional materials.
  • To submit your textbook and instructional materials adoption online, please use the Adoptions Insight Portal and log in using your NID and NID password. 

Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) Initiative 

UCF strives to support instructional materials affordability through reduced costs to students. The Affordable Instructional Materials (AIM) Initiative is a University-wide collaboration that includes the Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs, the Division of Digital Learning, the UCF Libraries, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL), the UCF Bookstore, and other University stakeholders.

The AIM Initiative focuses on efforts in the areas of Open Educational Resources (OER), Library-Sourced Materials, First Day, and Affordability Counts. These efforts combined provide a comprehensive (two-fold) structure to reduce course materials costs for UCF students by removing barriers around access to the educational content required to help them succeed academically, while also establishing a mechanism by which to recognize faculty who make an effort to help scale this important work.

Affordable Instructional Materials Options

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.” UNESCO Recommendation on OER, 2019

The Center for Distributed Learning (CDL) and the UCF Libraries are working collaboratively to support faculty and students in two principle areas: adoption and creation/adaptation of OER.

The UCF Libraries collaborate with faculty to identify library-sourced eBooks, journal articles, videos, and other digital materials, including open educational resources, to use as alternative traditional textbooks. Numerous eBooks are available as one-to-one replacements of course texts and are searchable in the UCF Libraries’ eTextbook Portal. Additionally, the UCF Libraries provide shelf space for physical course reserves intended to supplement access to course materials, and the digital tool Leganto can integrate into Canvas to provide links to reading lists and digital course reserves.

Contact the Textbook Affordability Librarian for more information on library resources and services related to course material adoptions. For questions related to Leganto, please contact the Learning Resources Librarian.

Commercial publishers and other for-profit entities are working with UCF to offer students discounts on educational content and/or courseware solutions. Currently, the initiative is focusing on implementing an inclusive access program through the UCF Bookstore called First Day.  

The Affordability Counts program, managed by Florida International University (FIU) was created as a direct response to the increasing costs of textbooks in higher education. FIU Online’s team established the initiative to recognize faculty who actively make changes to their courses in an effort to advance course material affordability across state universities and colleges.  

Frequently Asked Questions about Textbook Adoptions

Textbook and instructional materials adoption is a process by which faculty provide the university with information on required and recommended textbooks and instructional materials for each of their courses. UCF Regulation 2.032 Textbook Adoption outlines the process at UCF and requires that all textbook and instructional materials are submitted no later than 60 days prior to the start of the semester. 

Faculty members are responsible for choosing the textbooks and instructional materials that are required or recommended for their courses, either individually or in collaboration with colleagues. Report your textbook and instructional materials adoptions following your department’s or school’s process. 

Providing students with timely information about their required and recommended textbooks and instructional materials allows them to explore purchasing options, budget wisely, and, in some cases, begin interacting with course materials before the start of the class. It also helps decrease overall education costs, which makes a college education more affordable. 

To make certain that course materials are available before the start of classes, please: 

  • Submit your textbook and instructional materials adoption as early as feasible. This allows the UCF Bookstore time to ensure that the textbooks and instructional materials can be sourced. 
  • Order custom books and bundles several weeks before the adoption deadline.
  • Select textbooks and instructional materials for adjuncts who will be hired late.
  • Confirm that your textbook and instructional materials adoption is accurately showing on the UCF Bookstore’s Course Materials website.

All course sections must have an adoption submitted even if they do not require or recommend students purchase textbooks or instructional materials. If you recommend textbooks or instructional materials, ensure that these are submitted as “recommended” textbooks or instructional materials when adopting. If you do not require or recommend textbooks and instructional materials, you may select “No Materials Required” when submitting your adoption.

A request for an exception to the deadline must be submitted prior to the deadline on a Request for Exception to Established Textbook Ordering deadline form and must include a reasonable justification for an exception. This form must be approved by the department chair or director and the college dean prior to submitting it to the provost for final approval.  

Changes to textbook and instructional materials adoptions after the deadline must be accompanied by a Late Textbook Adoption/Change Justification form and must include a justification for why the materials are being changed. This form must be approved by the department chair or director and the college dean prior to submitting to Academic Affairs for processing.