Getting Started with Inclusive Access (Publishers)

Table of Contents

Digital Course Materials: Inclusive Access program information

  • Ohio University (OHIO) is offering an Inclusive Access (IA) program (branded as Digital Course Materials: Inclusive Access Program) to promote affordability and day one access to course content for students.  

  • OHIO’s program is driven by our faculty. It is their decision to opt in to participating in the program and they work directly with our publisher partners to establish what courses will be offered in the program.  Faculty are also essential in communicating the program and content details to students, so please follow the below guidelines to make sure your publications are set up correctly by faculty members in the classroom.   

  • IA management partner:OHIO’s preferred Inclusive Access partner to manage student opt outs, publisher billing, and reporting as well as access to eTextbooks is VitalSource.  

  • IA pricing:OHIO is leveraging the published OhioLink price points and DRM (digital rights management) parameters for publisher content. If you have pricing updates or would like to discuss pricing more in detail, please contact the IT Service Desk . 

  • IA access:If you offer courseware in this program, outside of the VitalSource Bookshelf and you don’t have an existing LMS integration in place for students to access content easily, please contact the IT Service Desk for next steps. If you do have an existing LMS integration with Blackboard or Canvas, please make sure you remind and support faculty in setting the links up in the LMS for their course. 

Workflow and expectations

  1. Gather course content adoptions:Please work with faculty members directly to gather their course material adoption details. OHIO will set up a shared file in OneDrive for your use. To ensure accuracy in course materials, it's essential for publishers to verify content with instructors before finalizing adoptions. Since course sections can change from term to term, confirming participation with instructors helps us avoid potential issues with incorrect charges for materials. Rolling over adoptions without this verification could result in students being charged for resources that do not align with their current courses. This process safeguards against such discrepancies and ensures that students receive the appropriate materials for their specific course. For best practices and OHIO’s communication requests, please see the Communication Recommendations  section.  

  2. Share course content adoptions:Please enter all information about your adoptions into your shared file so OHIO is aware of the list of participating faculty, courses, titles, and pricing. OHIO will share this information with VitalSource so that they can set your course materials up in their system for managing opt outs, content access when appropriate, reporting, and your payment. We do request that you provide quality data: no typos in titles, proper ISBN information, etc. 

  3. Conduct QA:Please make sure to conduct QA (quality assurance) on your participating course content, especially if they’re new titles to OHIO’s IA program. 

  4. Support faculty:It is your responsibility to advise faculty on how students will access the adopted course content if they elect to stay opted in to the program. If you offer courseware through your own proprietary platform, we request that you train and support faculty in setting the appropriate links up in the LMS for students.

  5. Support students:We request that any student questions regarding course content are addressed by your technical support teams. Please share your student support contact information, so we can publish it to our Service Desk and advise our students. 

  6. Receive reporting and payment:Students registered for a participating course will have a chance to opt out of the program through the VitalSource opt out module within the add/drop period. Under special circumstances, we may allow opt outs outside of this period. After the add/drop period is over, OHIO remits payment to VitalSource who then will manage your payments and reporting as per your negotiated terms with VitalSource.

Important dates

The important dates to follow:  

  • Student registration start dates- We request that your adoption list is completed and shared with VitalSource and OHIO five (5) business days prior to this date.  

  • Class start date- We request that you complete course content QA by five (5) days prior to this date, to ensure instructors have courseware content set up appropriately in their course. 

  • Add/drop end date- The last day to drop a course will be the deadline for students to opt out. For courses that do not start on the first day of the semester, the opt-out deadline will be five days after the start of the course.

Communication recommendations

  • Please work with faculty directly on their wish to enlist their courses in the IA program. If you happen to work with a department or college, please make sure to communicate with each individual faculty so they’re aware of the department’s or college’s decision and are able and willing to support the effort.  

  • Please gather all relevant information about the course and the course material from faculty directly. The information needed for VitalSource to set up the titles correctly are listed as column headers in our shared adoption document. You may also gather information that faculty do not have at hand on our Course Offerings page (select the Term, Subject, and Catalog Number and press Search to generate results).  

  • Please share course content access training material with faculty if your course content is accessed outside of the VitalSource reader.   

  • Remind faculty that they need to enter the course content access and Inclusive Access information in their course syllabus. 

  • Please note if a course is continuing, so students who already have their materials are not charged again in the semester.  

  • Please note,that OHIO’s College Credit Plus and Scholarship students may be exceptions to this program. Please be aware of this during your conversations with faculty.

Get help from OIT

Print Article

Deleting...