What:

Finding ways to make course materials more affordable, accessible and effective for students is the goal of the national Textbook Affordability Conference 2016 at UC Davis.

The event is sponsored by the National Association of College Stores in collaboration with five other organizations. Registration is now closed, but members of the media are welcome to attend.

When:

Wednesday, April 27, to Friday, April 29

• Wednesday, 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday, 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where:

UC Davis, Ballrooms of the Activities and Recreation Center on the Davis campus

Interactive campus map: http://campusmap.ucdavis.edu/?b=203

Who:

• Adela de la Torre, vice chancellor for Student Affairs at UC Davis, will deliver the keynote address on how student success trumps all other imperatives at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
• Vic Vuchic, chief innovation officer and executive director of the Learner Positioning System for Digital Promise Global, will speak on “Collaboration and Innovation as Course Materials Strategy” at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.
• Mark Milliron, co-founder and chief learning officer of education technology company Civitas Learning, and Lisa Petrides, president of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, will lead a concluding session on “Commitments and Strategies” at 11 a.m. Friday.
• Tony Ellis, vice president of industry advancement with the National Association of College Stores, will attend the event.

Background:

The second annual event will draw together about 175 college store professionals, librarians, faculty members, academic technology staff, publishers and representatives of open educational resource organizations.

Conference sessions will focus on creating a course content model that campuses and partners can implement to develop more affordable, accessible and effective options for students in print or digital forms and using both open and commercial content.

Topics include:

• challenges, benefits and recommendations for adopting low- or no-cost materials
• the new role of the campus bookstore
• partnerships for creating a model that draws on all sources of content for course materials

The National Association of College Stores — a professional trade association representing nearly 4,000 campus retailers and about 1,000 companies serving them — is presenting the event in collaboration with the Association of American Publishers-Higher Education, California Association of College Stores, California State University’s Affordable Learning Solutions, NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and OpenStax.

UC Davis Stores, which returns all of its net proceeds to student programs, is a leader among college bookstores. It was the first college store in the United States to offer online price comparisons and is at the forefront of the transition from print to digital course content. The National Association of College Stores Foundation recently awarded the campus the Innovation Achievement Award for its Inclusive Access program. The digital course content delivery program features material that can be customized by the instructor, audio and video enrichment, and quizzes that help students and instructors track learning.

Directions:

From Interstate 80, take Highway 113 North and exit at the first exit, Hutchison Drive. Turn right or east at Hutchison Drive. At the second stoplight, turn left on to La Rue Road. At the first stoplight, turn right to enter Lot 25, the parking for the Activities and Recreation Center.