The University of Toronto (U of T) is offering professors a way to access cheaper, and in some cases, free course materials for their students.
Since 2015, the zero-to-low cost course (ZTLCC) program has saved students around $400,000 on course packs across 42 courses, according to an article published on the university’s website. This translates to students saving an average of $81.86 each.
The program allows faculty, instructors, and course coordinators to connect with librarians and digital collection services in order to provide their required materials for a lesser cost or free.
U of T previously conducted their copyright dealings for acquiring course materials with a non-profit licensing service, called Access Copyright. However, in 2014, the university began operating the service themselves, utilizing materials they already had a license for, and obtaining documents or collections that may be used under certain academic criteria, according to the article.
Graeme Slaght, the copyright outreach librarian at U of T, said the cost of course packs can start at $40 and sometimes exceed $200.
Slaght said he found roughly 55 per cent of the material assigned to students through course packs were already paid for by the school, and available in the U of T library collection.
“By making instructors aware of the collection and their rights [to] use it in the classroom, we were able to connect students to these resources,” he said.
Kate Neville, a professor who volunteered to take part in the program, said the library helped her find resources for students in her courses.
“For universities to be centralizing this information so that students can have easier access without having to pay more than they have to, I think it’s a great idea”, she said.
Since Neville joined the program, students in her courses have saved $118 each, according to the U of T copyright office.
Neville used the ZTLCC program last year, and currently uses it for both her undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Carleton University follows a similar policy when it comes to providing course materials, as it opted out of the Access Copyright program in 2011 and manages its own copyrighted collections, while relying on students to act responsibly, according to a statement on the university website.
