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Innovative Practices

A Textbook Equity Student Advisory Board

Authors
  • Karlee Colby (University of Iowa)
  • Anne Marie Gruber orcid logo (University of Northern Iowa)

Abstract

Engaging college students in advocacy related to open educational resources (OER) is an important way to raise awareness and encourage OER adoption on campuses in higher education. The student perspective is vital to encouraging instructors and administrators to be responsive to student needs, concerns, and preferences related to course materials access, and to consider affordability and usage rights. This case study describes the library-facilitated Textbook Equity Student Advisory Board at the University of Northern Iowa, a medium-sized regional comprehensive university. The board serves as a two-way communication outlet between textbook equity campus leaders and students, including student government. This article covers how and why the group was formed and the benefits and challenges of forming and running such a group. The group's scope, like the campus-wide program it informs, includes OER and related topics such as automatic textbook billing, library-licensed resources as course materials, and more. Recommendations for implementing similar groups are provided.

Keywords: OER, Open Educational Resources, Student Library Committees, Student Government, Library Advocacy

How to Cite:

Colby, K. & Gruber, A., (2025) “A Textbook Equity Student Advisory Board”, Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education 3(1), 182-196. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/joerhe.17910

Rights:

CC-BY 4.0

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Published on
2025-01-10

Peer Reviewed

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

 Open peer review from Elizabeth Batte

Scope, Objectives, Content

The scope is well covered on student-advisory boards. 


The objective and content on establishing the benefits of student advisory boards and how this group had a direct impact needs to be better established. 



Organization

This article was well-organized and applicable to this section.



Approach and Conclusions

As a case study, the approach and conclusions must be flushed out. I would like to see how they assessed their success in a more concrete manner. The conclusions need to be better supported. What did the team learn from creating the advisory board? What did the students learn from being on the advisory board? How many feel it was beneficial to continue this board in the future? etc.



Writing Style, References

The writing style was well done, however the references were lacking. The ones chosen did well to support the article, but the authors need to provide more references. I want to see reasons why the creation and implementation were done the way they were, based in references. 



Application

I believe this article adds to the encouragement for universities to use student-advisory boards, though this practice is not new.



What are the stronger points/qualities of the article?

This article is well organized and because of that it is easy to infer the benefits of the student advisory group.



What are the weaker points/qualities of the article? How could they be strengthened?

Lack of references. I'd also like to see feedback quotes from the students involved.



Peer Review Ranking: Scope
relevant

Peer Review Ranking: Clarity
Very clear

Peer Review Ranking: Contribution
contributes

Peer Review Ranking: Research Assessment
sound

Note:
This review refers to round of peer review and may pertain to an earlier version of the document.