Students registering for Fall Quarter classes will find a new feature on Ohio University's website - textbook pricing.
The textbook information available for each class is visible by clicking expand all at the top of the Course Offerings listings pages. The list is not yet comprehensive.
The provision of textbook and course material information and approximate costs is a new element of the Higher Education Opportunity Act
said Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit in an e-mail to sent to students Tuesday. In establishing this requirement Congress wanted students to have access to information about textbooks and course materials and their estimated costs before they registered for classes.
The bill, which passed last spring, requires universities to post the textbook information by June 1.
Some faculty said they were hesitant about posting textbook lists before they are finalized.
We're anxious about putting info up there that might not be completely reliable said Joe McLaughlin, chairman of the English department, adding that the system will improve over the next few years.
Debra Benton, the university registrar, recommended students wait until about July to purchase textbooks.
We don't want students to go out immediately and purchase things and then find out that it has changed Benton said.
Benton chaired the Textbook Steering Committee that designed and evaluated new software called Textbook
which allows people to view the information and provides it to bookstores. Graduate student Ilya Kogan, along with the Office of Information Technology, was in charge of designing it.
We had to develop a new piece of software because there wasn't anything available commercially
said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
Designing the new software provided no financial cost, Fidler said. However, it cost time because people had to be taken off other projects to work on it.
Previously, the university provided textbook information directly to individual bookstores. Now all bookstores will be able to find this information through the software.
(The process with the bookstores) is a fragmented
haphazard process. This will allow the information to be centralized for the first time
McLaughlin said.
The new law brings both concerns about the quality of students' educations and hope for better deals on textbooks.
There will be some students who pick their classes based on the price of the textbooks
Fidler said.
Student Senate President Robert Leary said that he believes the additional information will provide students with more time to obtain their textbooks. Students may now be able to buy more books cheaply online instead of purchasing them from bookstores.
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