Textbook & Supply Adoptions

Textbook and Supply Adoption Due Dates- Emails from VERBA go out about 3 weeks prior to these dates....GTCC must show cost of course materials, kits and uniforms on the first day of Registration for the upcoming term.  

  • Spring Semester - October 31st
  • Summer Semester - March 1st
  • Fall Semester - April 1st 

The VERBA-COLLECT Course Material Adoption tool is now available and is emailed directly to Faculty for completion twice a year.  VERBA COLLECT allows you to include all required books, software, access codes, supplies, and kits and uniforms in one adoption for each course.  VERBA will also show an affordabilty score for the course materials you select.  All past adopted materials and alternative formats available and estimated pricing to students will also be displayed and make it easier to enter adoptions.  Look for this email in October and March each year. If you have not received your e-mail with a personalized link to your required course adoptions, please contact anyone at the Campus Stores and we will be glad to send it. Generally this only goes out to department leadership. 

GTCC follows the course materials affordability guidelines from the Higher Education Act renewal of 2010 to show students the FULL and FAIR Cost of Attendance beginning on the 1st day of GTCC's course registration.  By submitting your adoptions on time, you ensure that GTCC can advertise accurate pricing and ordering information on the bookstore website for all required course materials and supplies to students and parents on the first day of registration.   

LOW COST ALTERNATIVES AND OER: 

eBooks:  VitalSource eBooks are a popular lower priced digital format from which students can print. VitalSource books are easily adopted and usually costs a lot less than a traditional textbook. Printing on campus in the labs is very reasonable and most publishers allow printing through VitalSource.  VitalSource is the premier eBook vendor to ensure ADA compliance and compatability. 

Inclusive Access: Course materials can be loaded into Moodle/CANVAS through GTCC's DayOne access program. All students have access for the first 10 days of classes but do have to make a purchase at the Campus Store or website to continue in the course.  An optional printed book is usually available with purchase of DayOne access.

Duplicated Items:  The original OER, GTCC uses our very own Copy and Print Center in the Facilities building to reproduce non-copyrighted materials and resell them as low cost alternatives for students to reference for any course. Just submit your original materials to your campus store for duplication and we will put them on the shelf for students to purchase.  You can stop in and meet with the Copy and Print Center Staff or swing by your campus store to see an example of this low-cost alternative.

Custom Publishing:  If you have materials from 2 or more sources, but want them all in 1 book you can usually do this through LADD Custom Publishing or Xanedu.  They obtain all copyright clearances for you and are usually very affordable for students.  Contact the store for more information and we can put you in touch with current GTCC Faculty member utilizing one of these custom publishers.

OER:  There are many, many new forms of OER such as OpenStax.org, NCLIVE.org, CengageOpen just to name a few. NCLive.org is a new initiative to reduce the cost of course materials for the TOP 30 freshman and sophmore level transferrable courses between the NCCCS and the UNC system.  GTCC's Libary and Bookstore can both provide assistance in using NCLive.org materials for your course.  Many are low cost or no cost to GTCC students.  If you adopt one, please be sure to enter this on the Adoption Site so that we can give you credit and let your students know.  If you needs suggestions on OER just stop in and we can assist you.   

Department Meetings:  We make office visits for GTCC Faculty....As always the Store staff is more than willing to come to your office or deptartment meeting to discuss affordability, ADA compliance, OER options and much more.  We strive to bring the best values to course materials in the formats that work best for your courses and students.  

VERY IMPORTANT:  ADA COMPLIANCE QUESTIONS FOR FACULTY TO ASK PUBLISHERS BEFORE ADOPTING: 

Are the videos captioned and audio recordings transcribed?There should be transcripts for audio recordings and captions or subtitles for video. If there are not, ask the publishing representative if they would provide a captioned version in a timely manner if a student who needed them registered for your class.

Screen readers (assistive technology used by people who are blind) read real text.  They cannot read images of text or text embedded in Flash animations/movies/simulations.

How accessible are the E-books?  Digital books should conform to the EPUB standard (currently version 3.1).  Are they available through VitalSource the campus stores provider of digital books? 

  • Can all interactivity (media players, quizzes, flashcards, etc.) be completed by keyboard alone (no mouse required)?  People who are blind or people who have upper mobility disabilities cannot use a mouse. They use the keyboard to navigate and interact with the Web. It is required that any interactive elements on the publisher's website (or on a DVD included with the book) be operable by a keyboard alone if they are used in your course. For example: An interactive exercise that requires dragging and dropping is not keyboard accessible, so unless there is a keyboard option to dragging and dropping, that sort of exercise should not be used in your course.
  • Is there any documentation available (VPAT or White Paper for example) that confirms accessibility or usability testing results?  A VPAT is a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. It is used by many organizations to report the level of accessibility of their software products. If the publisher doesn't have a VPAT or any research that confirms the accessibility of their product(s), don't just take their word for how accessible they are. 

What type of accessibility support is available to students? Ask your publisher to let you know. 

Does your tool work on mobile devices? Is it optimized for mobile devices?

Your students use mobile devices all the time, so it’s important that they can access your course content from their phones and tablets as well. But it’s also important to ask if the tool has been optimized for mobile devices — this ensures that content displays correctly and is functional on smaller screens.

Does your tool require a plugin (Ex: Flash, Java, etc.)? Plugins are likely to cause problems for students. Desktop browsers are dropping support for plugins and most mobile devices don’t support them either.

Will students need to install any software? If so, students may not be able to use the tool on campus, especially if they are logging in from a computer lab.

Please contact eLearning or Disability Access Services at GTCC if you have questions about your course materials before you adopt them in the Bookstore adoption email.  Please provide an ISBN if possible.  Thank you.