Reporting Open Course Materials to the Bookstore

Support student access to affordable course materials

Instructors can support student access by reporting the Open Educational Resources (OER), library-licensed, and no-cost materials they use in their courses to the UC Davis Bookstore.

Reporting no-cost and library-licensed materials to the Bookstore helps:

• make course materials easier for students to find and access
• identify courses that use no-cost or library-licensed materials
• support campus tracking of OER use and impact
• help lower the overall cost of Equitable Access by reflecting the full mix of paid and no-cost materials used across courses

Even with courses that use freely available materials easily linked or uploaded into Canva, reporting the materials helps ensure that students can easily access all required materials for their classes through a single system. 

The more consistently these materials are reported, the better UC Davis can recognize and support the use of affordable course materials across the university.

The Process for Reporting to the Bookstore

After you finalize the materials you plan to use in your course, the next step is reporting them to the UC Davis Bookstore. This ensures that the course is identified as using no-cost or open materials.

When Course Materials are Reported

Course materials are reported quarterly. Depending on how your department manages course material submissions, the exact process may vary. Typically:

• An initial email is sent to the academic department coordinator during the first week of the previous academic quarter to let them know that adoptions are now open for the next term.
• A follow-up email may be sent directly to instructors a few weeks later if needed.

How Course Materials are Submitted

UC Davis uses a tool called Verba Collect to gather course material information.

• While some instructors use email to submit materials, Verba Collect remains the official and preferred submission method whenever possible.
• If you are an instructor, faculty member, or coordinator and need access to Verba Collect, please fill out the account signup form.

Your submission process may follow one of two paths depending on your department structure:

Option 1: Submitting through a department coordinator

Many departments designate an academic coordinator who collects course materials from instructors and submits them on their behalf. If your department uses this process:

1. Respond to your department coordinator when they request your course materials.
2. Let them know that your course uses Open Educational Resources (OER) or no-cost materials.
3. Provide links to the resources students will use.

Your coordinator will then submit this information through Verba Collect.

Option 2: Submitting materials yourself in Verba Collect

Some instructors have their own Verba Collect account and submit course materials directly. If you submit materials yourself:

1. Log in to Verba Collect when prompted by the bookstore.
2. Enter your course information.
3. If your materials are open educational resources, manually add them as “OER Material.”
4. Provide links to the resources students will use.

Once materials are submitted, they are saved in Verba Collect and used to populate the Equitable Access Bookshelf, which students use to view and access their required resources.

What Counts as OER?

OER are teaching and learning materials that are freely available and openly licensed, allowing instructors to use, adapt, and share them. Examples of commonly used open textbook platforms include:

• OpenStax
• LibreText
• Pressbooks Open Textbook Library

If your course uses materials from one of these platforms, you can report them as OER.

Reporting Collections of Open Materials

Some instructors do not use a single textbook but instead curate a collection of readings, videos, and other resources. If you are using a collection of open materials:

• Provide a description of the content when submitting materials, and links to the individual resources if applicable.
• Alternatively, the UC Davis Library can help you create a digital course reader that compiles your materials into a single resource.

In some cases, a digital reader can be assigned an ISBN, which makes it easier for the bookstore to report and manage the materials. These readers may include:

• curated open resources
• instructor-created lecture notes
• collections of open-access articles or chapters

Digital readers can be hosted through platforms such as Pressbooks, LibreTexts, or other library-supported tools. Contact aggieopen@ucdavis.edu for support in building your digital reader.