How Can We Save Students Money

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How Can We Save Students Money?

• Melonie Rasmussen
• David Lippman
• Pierce College Ft Steilacoom

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Some ideas

• Free / reduced cost textbooks
• Textbook loan scholarships
• Textbook rental programs
• Calculator rentals
• Free online homework
• Improved placement
• Challenge tests
• Transcript-based placement
• Others??

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Free / Reduced Cost Texts

• Open texts
• Free of cost
• Allow you to modify the material
• Some allow you to print and sell
• http//oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/
• http//www.collegeopentextbooks.org/
• Flat World Knowledge

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Free / Reduced Cost Texts

• Custom printing
• Publishers reduce cost because it kills the
  national used book market
• Some offering mixing of materials from different
  books
• Anyone had experiences?

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Textbook Loan Scholarship

• Students apply in first 3 days of quarter,
  awarded by end of 1 week
• Books handled by library
• Book is loaned for 1 quarter, can be renewed,
  then is returned
• Some funding from college mini grants, outside
  donations
• Publishers have donated books
• Other programs may have their own loaning programs

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Textbook Rental

• Dozens of online sites, for example
• http//www.chegg.com/
• http//www.collegebookrenter.com
• Some colleges are running on-campus programs
• Needs lots of seed money and support from
  bookstore, but should be self-sustaining after
  that.

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Calculator Rentals

• Handled by library
• Charge 15/quarter
• Self-sustaining
• Free online calculators / computer algebra
  systems

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Free Online Homework

• College-supported systems (Angel, etc.)
• WAMAP.org
• Algorithmic questions like Webassign / MyMathLab
• Full course management system
• No videos, tutorials, or links to textbook

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Improved Placement

• Challenge Tests
• Challenge COMPASS placement
• One test per level, administered in WAMAP
• HS Transcript-based Placement
• Place based on HS transcript, if within one year
  of graduation (example)

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Other ideas?