Episode 38: Course Materials Strategies: A Path to Improved Student Outcomes feat. Raj Kaji, CEO, Akademos Inc.

High tuition is not the only barrier to higher education. It is only compounded by the increasingly high costs of textbooks and other academic resources required to pass a class. Students have little room to push back against the system. They have no choice in which books an instructor will select. Some relief can be found in used textbook marketplaces, but publishers maintain their margins by regularly releasing new editions and placing limited-use restrictions on access codes for digital resources.

A significant percentage of students will avoid buying books, even though they are fully aware of the academic risk involved. Other students will buy books and go without food or paying other living expenses. The textbook marketplace has become yet another barrier to higher education for lower-income students.

Raj Kaji, CEO at Akademos, Inc., joins podcast host Kiran Kodithala on this episode of Illuminate Higher Education to dissect this issue. Akademos was founded in 1999 by a university professor that saw first-hand how the exorbitant costs and complexity of textbook distribution weakened classroom learning. Many students were unable to afford the books they needed, often coming unprepared to class without their required materials. Akademos partners with colleges and universities to help alleviate this problem by serving as an e-commerce and course content management platform.

For a brief overview of their conversation, read the Q&A below. Then, listen to the full podcast episode for all the details.

Q: Why is this issue so important?

Faculty have always been responsible for choosing the books and materials students will require to complete the class successfully. Whether students obtain those materials is up to them—a recent study shows that up to 65% of students chose to not buy at least one book because of affordability issues. Students are choosing to go through a class underprepared because they cannot afford the resources. There is also data that suggests students make the choice to go without resources knowing full well that they will receive a lower grade, but it is an acceptable compromise given their financial situation.

This single challenge—expensive textbooks—bleeds into several other issues. Universities are spending tens of thousands of dollars maintaining physical bookstores for students who cannot afford books anyway. The stress of financial hardship makes it more difficult to succeed in college; when financial insecurity means students cannot buy class materials, it compounds the risk of dropping out.

Q: Why can’t students turn to other third-party retailers like Amazon to find less expensive materials?

Interestingly, Amazon recently tried to enter the higher education market and compete with companies like Akademos. They did not last long. The higher education space has many unique needs that many large retailers are not prepared to handle. For example, we must have a system or database that helps understand what resources faculty members need to be purchased for their students. Many universities offer some type of financial aid for textbooks and materials, and the way that money changes hands can be more complicated than a buyer-retailer credit card transaction. A platform dedicated to higher education also has more bandwidth to explore integrations with learning management systems. We are positioned to really roll up our sleeves and work directly with institutions as strategic partners, not just e-commerce vendors.

Q: Why do colleges and universities need a course content strategy?

A course content strategy is necessary for higher education institutions to know what types of content students need to be successful and to make those resources available to students at the beginning of the class. Previously, a class may have required one or two physical books; now professors can incorporate multiple types of digital content, from passive ebooks to interactive assessments and simulations. All these things have an impact on the learning experience, but they all also cost money, so there needs to be a metrics-driven strategy in place to help determine what learning materials drive the best learning outcomes. We often have these consultative conversations with our clients, but many already lack benchmark data. Colleges say they want to lower costs for students, but they do not have a clear picture of what those costs are today. Our platform can help give them the necessary data to inform that strategy.

Listen to the full podcast episode for all the details. 

After you listen, connect with Raj Kaji on LinkedIn or Twitter @NirajKaji. Learn more about Akademos, Inc. by visiting Akademos.com and following on Twitter @AkademosInc.

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This episode is brought to you by N2N’s Illuminate App, the iPaaS for Higher Education.

About N2N Services

Founded in 2010, N2N is committed to serving educational institutions and helping them figure out how to serve their students, faculty, and staff using the most innovative technologies and solutions available in the marketplace. Over the last decade, N2N has served over 300 academic institutions and enabled their student success journeys.

N2N Services Inc. is a leader in enterprise application integration and strategic advisory services for higher education, At N2N, we are committed to providing the highest quality solutions and collaboratively building student-centric solutions.

Learn more at https://illuminateapp.com/web/higher-education/.

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