Timing: Send to students several days before LMS opens for the term
To further support your Equitable or Inclusive Access program’s success, make sure students who enroll in those sections:
- Understand the concept of Equitable or Inclusive Access
- Trust they are getting a fair price
- Know what to expect - in terms of pricing, access, and future communications from the store
We have observed several best practices that schools with successful IA programs use to achieve this:
- Create an email address using your school’s domain specifically for your Equitable or Inclusive Access program, and appoint a lead manager to monitor it
- Equitable or Inclusive Access manager will have an automatically filtered space to check for incoming communications
- Ensure that the inbox is available to more than one person if the primary manager is unavailable
- Create an Equitable or Inclusive Access program landing page on your school’s website that contains explanations, access instructions, FAQs, and where to go for support
- Place access information front-and-center - with a link to instructions for accessing their Equitable or Inclusive Access materials for various products through the LMS and then on the publisher website—this will cut down on email and phone inquiries from students during rush
- Make a short link to this page that is easy to distribute and remember
- For extra oomph, include the previous term’s total student savings and give credit to Equitable or Inclusive Access-participating instructors for supporting the program descriptions continued on next page
Here is an example email you can use to introduce Equitable or Inclusive Access information and resources to students:
Dear Student,
Welcome to [Equitable or Inclusive Access PROGRAM NAME], [CAMPUS STORE NAME]’s digital course materials delivery program. It provides you access to online course materials that you’d otherwise purchase in the bookstore or on a publisher’s website - like textbooks and courseware - but at significantly discounted prices. This term, your instructor for [COURSE] chose to participate in [IA PROGRAM NAME] so you can get the required materials for the lowest possible cost.
This also means you will have immediate access to your digital materials for a free trial period through the opt-out deadline. After that date, your bursar account will be charged the [CAMPUS STORE NAME] price of [PRICE].
If you do not want to purchase these materials through [Equitable or Inclusive Access PROGRAM NAME], you can opt-out through the link in [opt-out link]. If you opt-out by [OPT-OUT DEADLINE], your bursar account will not be charged.
Click here to view instructions for accessing your materials. (INSERT LINK)
For questions about [Equitable or Inclusive Access PROGRAM NAME], read the [Equitable or Inclusive Access PROGRAM NAME] FAQs (INSERT LINK) on our website. Additional questions can be emailed to [CAMPUS STORE ACCESS EMAIL ADDRESS].
For questions about the Brytewave eReader or your Brytewave account, visit the Brytewave Knowledge Base (https://brytewavesolve.zendesk.com/). For questions about a publisher's website, see the ACCESS FAQ (INSERT LINK) for technical information on publisher partners.
Welcome to [SCHOOL NAME]! We look forward to serving you.
[CAMPUS STORE NAME]
[Equitable or Inclusive Access PROGRAM NAME] Team
[CAMPUS STORE IA EMAIL ADDRESS]
[CAMPUS STORE IA LANDING PAGE URL]
Note that this email example also makes use of helpful tips we’ve learned from successful Equitable or Inclusive Access program managers:
- Link to your Equitable or Inclusive Access landing page and other relevant resources as often as possible (e.g., FAQs, access instructions)
- Be clear about where to go for different issues (campus store resources, publisher, or RedShelf/Brytewave)
- Use a team name (e.g., ACME UNIVERSITY’S INCLUSIVE ACCESS TEAM), even if you are only one person, to encourage the use of the general email address (this will make your life easier)
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