UTRGV Connections
Course Marking at UTRGV
What is Course Marking?
Marking course sections that use Zero-Cost and Low-Cost course materials has become a new addition to college and university landscapes. This has been brought about by legislative mandates and the want to provide equitable access to course materials to students.
At UTRGV we define these courses as
- Zero-Cost – Courses that have no associated learning material costs (not including supplies like calculators, scantrons, goggles, etc.).
- Low-Cost – Courses that require all learning materials to total less than $40 when purchased.
Course materials are textbooks, courseware/access codes, and software; course materials DO NOT include supplies such as lab coats, goggles, scantron sheets, calculators, or other reusable items.
How to Mark Courses?
Course Materials Reporting Form
UTRGV Faculty can begin the course materials adoption process by completing the Course Materials Reporting Form. This form ensures compliance with these state laws and allows proper marking of zero-cost and low-cost courses. This simple form is connected to UTRGV faculty profiles and will automatically pull assigned course information for the upcoming semester. After entering UTRGV credentials, faculty can click through the question prompts for each assigned course to complete their course marking requirements.
All required course material types (eg. textbooks, open educational resources (OER), course packets, YouTube videos, access codes, library licensed eBooks, mobile apps, etc.) should be indicated in the form. For faculty using zero-cost or low-cost materials, information will be gathered to mark courses properly in the course schedule. For courses without any required materials, course material information should be recorded by flagging “No Textbooks Required.”