Eastern Arizona College (EAC), a two-year, public institution prioritized equity, service, and convenience when they partnered with Akademos as their online bookstore platform. The school serves approximately 4,500 students and offers associate degree and certificate options at their multiple campus locations.

Student readiness, success, and retention are key metrics for Academic Affairs offices across higher education. Changing your course material purchase and delivery service might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you’re brainstorming ways to improve those metrics, but it shouldn’t be dismissed.

Today’s college students are accustomed to subscription models and flat-rate fees because so many of them grew up with these services. Equitable Access is an innovative course material delivery model that offers students access to their course materials on the first day of class for one low fee, embedded into the cost of tuition.

Here are some of the top ways implementing an Equitable Access model can positively impact your students:

Edgecombe Community College (ECC) is enhancing the student experience and improving affordability.

Edgecombe Community College (ECC), a public, two-year institution, launched an online bookstore to enhance the student experience and improve affordability. The college now offers all required textbooks and course materials through the online model and plans to rebrand the Campus Store to support the community in new ways.

The new platform provides students convenient access to low-cost course materials and the right tools for a successful academic experience

We are excited to announce our newest partnership with Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, a public tribal community college that serves the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation headquarters at New Town and its surrounding neighbors. NHSC will not only offer this convenient, cost-effective, and efficient course materials platform, but students will be offered a new program that provides them a voucher to purchase a laptop through the online bookstore. The voucher program offers a greater level of accessibility to all students no matter their location. The new bookstore will launch December 1st to support the spring 2021 semester.

Offering Dell technology through the Akademos course materials platform provides options for low-income and remote students

Working closely with our partner schools, we have seen that having the right materials at affordable prices doesn’t just mean textbooks and other course materials. If students lack the right technology - laptops, software, dependable internet access - they can struggle just as much as they would without course materials. This is especially true for students in rural areas and low-income families who don’t have the resources to buy their own or travel to school or the library to use technology labs. Add a global pandemic on top of that and you have a whole new subset of students who may not be able to get to campus for class, never mind the campus store or library. Integrating Dell offerings directly into the online bookstore has provided much needed support and accessibility for all students. You may say, what is the big deal about offering technology through an online bookstore? Isn’t that a given? For Akademos, it’s not just about what is offered, but why. And more importantly, how can we assure everyone who needs it, gets it.