Student Choice (Students)
Last updated
Last updated
As a student, you may choose to opt-in or opt-out of digital course materials adopted through your institution's digital content program. "Student choice," as it is called, is subject to the conditions of your institution's "opt-in" or "opt-out" policy. A digital course material on "offer" is associated with a particular term and section, that has a price and length of access. Students can accept or decline an offer.
For institutions with an opt-out policy, students automatically pay for digital course materials adopted by their instructors unless they choose to opt-out of receiving those materials. Most institutions adopt an "opt-out" policy.
For institutions with an opt-in policy, students must elect to purchase the digital course materials adopted by their instructors.
Order Tool enables students to review the digital course materials that have been adopted by their instructors for past, current, and future academic terms. Please note, Order Tool can only display digital course materials adopted under your institution's digital content program. Therefore, you must refer to another source to see all the materials required for your courses.
To review digital course materials for your courses:
Select My Account from the Order Tool drop-down menu bar. Then select the "Courses" view.
Select the academic term for which you wish to review your course materials.
Review your courses for a term.
You will see all your courses for the selected term. If digital course materials have been adopted by your instructor, they are displayed under the Courses header. Order Tool will always display whether you are, at that moment, slated to receive the digital course material or have received it already.
Order Tool presents the following information for each course.
Course subject number and course title.
Whether your "student choice" period is open and time remaining for the course.
Title, edition, ISBN, author, and publisher
Indication of a Title Exemption and details of whether or not you will receive, and purchase, the digital course material.
The cost of the digital course material to you.
The cost of a digital material if purchased at retail price.
As a student, you may only opt-in or opt-out of the course materials for a particular course during open student choice periods.
Student choice periods are set by your institution. They can also vary by course; for example, a student choice period can be open for one course but closed for another. Order Tool will indicate if, for any given course, the student choice period is open or closed. This determines whether you may accept or decline course materials on offer for a term.
If all student choice periods are closed for your courses in a particular term, Order Tool will indicate that at the top of your Courses view.
As a student, you may be granted a payment waiver for the materials in one of your courses.
A payment waiver in a course indicates that you will not be financially responsible for purchasing those digital course materials.
If you are granted a payment waiver, you will be automatically opted-in to the course materials and will not be allowed to opt-out (since you are receiving these materials for free).
Payment waivers are not common. Typical examples of students who are granted payment waivers include the following: high school students taking college credit, students enrolled in special scholarship programs, and student-athletes. Payment waivers are determined by your institution.
As a student, you are not allowed to opt-out of digital course materials identified with a title exemption.
Your institution may deem that certain digital course materials are exempt from its student choice policy. Typically, this assertion is made because the title can only be acquired through your institution's digital content program.
If your institution has an "opt-out" policy and a digital course material is exempt, then you will not be able to opt-out of the material. If your institution has an "opt-in" policy and a digital course material is exempt, then you are automatically opted-in to the material and cannot opt-out.
As a student, you will opt-in to course materials by checking the box next to that material's information. You will opt-out of course materials by unchecking the box. To apply your changes, click Save at the bottom of the screen.
If a course material's checkbox is unchecked, then you will not receive the title or be charged for it by your institution.
If a course material's checkbox is checked, you will receive the title and be charged for it by your institution.
If you make a change to your digital course materials, you will need to review your institution's student choice policy terms and conditions. If you agree to the terms, check the box, and click Save to apply the changes.
If changes are made without saving, a pop-up warning will appear.
You will receive an email notification confirming your choice. The email notifications will contain a link to return to Order Tool if you wish to change your choice while the student choice period is open.
Order Tool will report the payment waiver reason applicable to the course material when you click the tooltip icon to expand the menu details.
