Day1Access is a textbook program that offers students digital textbooks and resources chosen by their instructors, all available through Canvas before the start of the semester.
The program, which aims to make materials more accessible for students, has seen considerable growth in its second year.
“By providing digital materials from day one, Day1Access saves students valuable time,” said Tod Petrie, senior associate director of retail operations at the Illini Union, via email. “(Students) no longer need to search for or purchase books from external sources, allowing them to focus on coursework immediately.”
After a successful pilot in 2023, the program has grown from just three courses to 34, covering 234 sections. Day1Access is available to both undergraduate and graduate students across various disciplines.
“Our priority was to ensure that we could effectively manage the program and meet the needs of both students and faculty,” Petrie said. “After thorough planning and preparation, we launched the pilot phase in Fall 2023.”
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Day1Access is the result of years of planning, with initial preparation beginning in 2016. Before implementation, the University had to work with the Illinois legislature to adjust existing laws.
“Once those adjustments were made, we formed a task force in Spring 2022 to assess the feasibility of the program,” Petrie said via email. “This task force conducted extensive research, benchmarking our efforts against peer institutions that had already adopted similar initiatives.”
After gathering the data, the team settled on a model designed to get course materials to students quickly and affordably.
The Day1Access team, including Petrie and Sara Didio, senior assistant director of course materials, encourages participating instructors to include information about the program in their syllabi.
Details and pricing are listed in the University Course Explorer along with the corresponding course, allowing students to see the cost of the materials and the course description before registering.
“Many courses participating in the Day1Access program require students to utilize the digital materials for essential activities such as tests, quizzes and homework assignments,” Petrie said via email. “This makes the program particularly valuable, as students are required to purchase the materials to complete the course.”
Along with providing academic resources, Day1Access is projected to reduce textbook prices. For Fall 2024, students are projected to save an average of 55% on traditional print materials and 31% on digital resources.
“If it says on the website that you get your course materials through Canvas at a reduced price, I feel like that could be beneficial to most people,” said Rimma Berezhnaia, sophomore in Engineering.
As the program expands, the Illini Union website has published a detailed chart showing the savings for each course involved in Day1Access.
While the program aims for increased affordability, there are several reasons why students may decide to opt out, including already owning the materials, preferring physical textbooks or finding cheaper alternatives.
“At first, I thought it was sort of an initiative geared towards lower-income students, but now that I hear that it’s not like a free thing, I’m kind of hesitant about it,” said Sophie Chiewtrakoon, junior in Information Sciences.
Day1Access automatically adds a fee to a student’s account when they enroll in a course that uses the program, regardless of whether they use the resource. This fee represents the reduced price of the course materials compared to the publisher’s standard pricing.
“They should let the students know, ‘Hey, by the way, you can get the book at the bookstore,’” Berezhnaia said. “They should give (the students) options for sure.”
The opt-out deadline varies by course and semester. For Fall 2024, the deadlines were Sept. 9 for 16-week and Term-A courses and Oct. 28 for Term-B courses. Detailed instructions for opting out are available on the Illini Union Bookstore website.
“I have some hesitations about saying anything now until I learn more, but I think to name it something like that and then it not be free — what’s the point of an initiative like that if it’s not even free?” Chiewtrakoon said.
