Selecting Course Materials
I’ve worked to lower my course costs, and I’ve noticed a real difference in student completion of assignments and grades. If you decide that you will not require course materials, or that you will provide no-cost Open Educational Resources (OER's), let the Campus Store know so they can post that information for students on the Campus Store website.
4.3 SELECTING COURSE MATERIALS
As you select books, media, and other material for your courses, there are many campus resources who can assist you in ensuring all class materials are accessible to all CSUN students.
Ordering Books
Lowering Course Costs
Did you know that reduced course materials costs have a statistically significant effect on the percentage of CSUN students who pass a course Links to an external site.? The CSUN Affordable Learning Solutions Program (AL$) offers support to faculty in finding quality free or low-cost course materials, including information on Open Educational Resources, library holdings, and audiovisual resources. You must report your course costs for each class you teach to the bookstore, your department, or AL$, even if you are asking students to buy books elsewhere, or if you are not requiring anything to be purchased, as some classes are designated by cost in the students' Schedule of Classes (no cost and under $50 required course costs). Questions? Fill out this consultation form Links to an external site. to get started!
Placing Materials on Reserve
Another way to ensure that all students can access your course materials is to place a copy of your book or video on Course Reserves at the University Library, facilitated by the Course Reserves & Curricular Resources (CR/CR) department. Please read the Information for Faculty page for all services and guidelines before submitting a request. For physical books and ebook orders, fill out their online form, and students will be able to access the material per your specifications (course info, loan period, semesters, etc.). Faculty-owned materials may also be placed on reserve by dropping off at the Main Floor Guest Services Desk with the printable form. Having materials on reserve can be especially helpful in ensuring full class participation during the first few weeks of the semester when many students have not yet been able to purchase books. The Library also offers an Instructional Materials Scanning service, so that you can place scanned materials (in accordance with Fair Use Copyright Best Practices) in your Canvas course. Streaming video services are also provided.
Music courses (MUS), physical media (DVDs, CDs, etc.), and K-12 classroom materials are processed by TCC/Music & Media. For more information, visit TCC reserves and Music & Media reserves.
Streaming Media
The Library offers thousands of streaming titles for faculty to use in the classroom (and off-campus) and subscribes to many streaming video databases including Asian Film Online, Counseling & Therapy in Video, Psychotherapy.net, Academic Video Online, Docuseek2, Swank, and Kanopy. To request a video for class, please use the Streaming Video Request Form online.
Ensuring Materials Are Accessible
As part of CSUN’s commitment to excellence through diversity and inclusion, and in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California State University Executive Order 1111 Links to an external site., CSUN adheres to the CSU’s Accessible Technology Initiative (ATI). This is a responsibility shared among everyone on campus; for you, it means all course materials you offer (online, through Canvas, etc.) need to be fully accessible to all students.
The ATI Coordinator from your college and the Universal Design Center (UDC) can assist you to ensure that your students can navigate and engage with course materials, regardless of ability or preference. The UDC website offers tips for captioning videos, entering descriptions for images, making PDFs accessible, and other key strategies for ensuring universal access. They offer training in universal design and accessibility techniques through their workshops and through self-paced Canvas modules. And they offer resources such as Canvas Ally to help find and fix accessibility issues. And because all videos used in your course must be captioned, captioning of instructional materials is offered through the National Center on Deafness (NCOD) at CSUN.
The Universal Design Center (UDC) defines accessibility from Section 8 of the Quality Learning and Teaching (QLT) framework. To learn more about accessibility and the QLT framework, consider signing up for Faculty Development's Get Up to Speed with Online Teaching program and eLearning Institute; CSU Online Course Services Links to an external site. also periodically offers training programs on using the QLT framework.