The All-In digital access program, purchased through NC State Stores/Wolfpack Outfitters provides a cheaper alternative to access course material saving students money.
The university adapted the program during fall semester 2017. After receiving positive feedback from students and professors, NC State expanded the capacity of courses offering All-In, with the main goal to make learning more affordable.
Jeff Halliburton, director of NC State Stores, and Chris Walsh, assistant director of Book Division, explained the All-In digital access program in further detail.
Halliburton described how All-In program differs from other forms of course material saying that students experience the benefits of the course work before buying it.
“The primary difference with this, is that on the first day of class any course that has selected the All-In program, those students will be able to connect to the course material through Moodle,” Halliburton said. “In this model we use what is called an opt-end model. For the first two weeks through the add/drop week, every student gets access to those materials for free.”
Halliburton and Walsh mentioned that All-In program offers more learning materials than a traditional textbook.
“Some of the courses are strictly textbook only,” Halliburton said. “For the other portion of the courses, you get the book plus a lot of other interactive learning materials. You will be able to have interactive work within the text. A lot of them will have quiz components built in, where many times if you had purchased a bundle before, it would be a book and an access code.”
Walsh explained the program also offers material that appeals to professors as well. Professors can track a struggling student’s study patterns to know how to help them succeed in their class.
“There are a lot of features for faculty members in e-text,” Walsh said. “Professors will be able to see if you were studying, and what time and how long you were studying.”
According to Halliburton and Walsh, students saved thousands of dollars based off of results from this past fall 2018 semester alone.
“Overall we have reported savings of about 470,000 to 500,000 dollars,” Halliburton said. “That represents about 50 percent savings overall for one semester only. You are looking at an 80 percent discount all the way up to probably the most expensive would be 20 percent.”
Walsh described how the program makes the cost of course material less expensive.
“We have contracts [with] three of the big publishers — Cengage, McGraw Hill and Pearson — that give discounts off of inclusive access price, which is going to be less than the other list price we were paying before,” Walsh said. “Therefore, we are passing that savings onto the student.
According to Walsh classes such as Biology 181 and 183 have become a $50 semester course. Before All-In digital access, the course was approximately $200.
No new studies have indicated the impact this new course material has on a student’s success in a class. Walsh expressed his interest with the impact All-In could have on graduate students.
“We see such low sell-through for high level courses, particular graduate level courses,” Walsh said. “We just brought in a ton of 500 and 700 level books into this program. I am going to be really interested to see what that looks like. If we are able to take one of these $200 books and drop the price down to $35, are the students going to see the value in that?”
