Our textbook provision schemes offer a variety of benefits for you and your course. We can give you the flexibility to choose what’s right for you and your students, whether that’s the format of the textbook or the online resources you’d like them to use. With the increase in blended and remote learning, providing textbooks ensures students have access to their resources when needed. With textbook provision, you can know that your students don’t need to physically visit the library in order to use their textbook or undertake the reading you’ve set. They can access their books from anywhere, meaning you and your students know you have everything you need available at your fingertips.
Read our case study from existing customers at leading UK institutions.
For the last year, lecturers on the Sport Business course at a leading university in England have been providing their first year students with a custom, printed textbook during their first week at the institution. This textbook contains a selection of chapters from all their modules on the course in once place. This was created by course co-ordinators and Sales Representatives at Taylor & Francis as part of our textbook provision programmes, where the book is provided free of charge to students and the cost is absorbed by the university themselves.
One of the reasons for providing this custom-made textbook is to “give students something tangible in induction”. The Programme Manager for the course explained, “The first few weeks are a bit of a whirlwind and students are given lots and lots of information. We find giving them a textbook and slowly easing them in with, first the textbook, then electronic sources, and then the physical library afterwards has worked and creates better engagement.” Another initial benefit to providing this textbook to their students is that it helps them to feel like they’re part of the course. Although custom textbooks can be created for individual modules, the Sport Business course wanted something that would show they are “a cohesive unit, we’re not siloed into our individual modules.” As every student receives the same textbook, they all feel like they are a part of the same team.
From both a course and institutional perspective, the benefits are plenty. Textbook provision ensures that “all students get a book, no matter whether they can afford them or not”. There’s also a clear benefit for student engagement, with the course, textbooks and with their university experience as a whole. “There’s no excuses there. You say to a student, ‘Have you read the chapter?’ No? ‘You’ve got the textbook.’ It’s different. It makes the process a little bit slicker.” Good habits are formed early in the course and the textbook can be used alongside other sources and reading materials to increase independent learning skills. Within this university, it’s seen as good practice, with other course leaders showing an interest in producing their own textbooks, both on a course and modular level. The response has been “overwhelmingly positive from academics” because lecturers are able to “pick and choose from various textbooks what sort of chapters the students should read”.
Not only is the feedback from institutions and academics positive, but students can see and experience the clear benefits too. For Sport Business, the feedback from the last year has been “very positive” with students able to ease into academic research at their own pace. Additionally, changes have been able to be made this year, as this is an ongoing project that can be changed with the course and the modules. Student feedback showed that individual chapters and books were hard to find, but because the textbook can be evolved each year, the team have been able to remedy this. This has enabled students to “include more references” within their projects. Another change the team have been able to make this year, which is as important as the academic aspect of the textbook, is including QR codes within the first few pages. These personalised QR codes will go to static addresses on the university website, linking to things such as the Library and student health and well-being resources within the institution. In a recent survey performed by Taylor & Francis, 55% of UK and EU respondents reported the worsening of student wellbeing in 2021. This makes the ability to edit textbooks and add these kind of resources incredibly important to helping students with their mental health and overall university experience. The Programme Manager for Sport Business adds, “That’s another reason we do [custom textbooks] as well. It’s to add more of those shoutouts to the sort of places we think students will need in the first six months.”
The Sport Business course and students at this North West university have experienced great results and feedback from utilising custom textbook provision. Student engagement has increased and all students are equal when it comes to being able to access the resources they need for their first year at university.
Taylor & Francis offers the flexibility you need as an academic, whether you’re interested in eBook platform integration or simply purchasing books for your students. The majority of Taylor & Francis content is available as both print and eBooks and we work with some of the top eBook platform providers, such as Vitalsource, Kortext and BibliU. To find out more about how Taylor & Francis can help you and your students, reach out to us today.
I work at Bournemouth and Poole College electrical department, we supply our students with the EAL level 2 book for our full-time students, and the level 3 book for our apprentices. We find this benefits the students as they have all the information and resources to hand and can even do extra work at home if there is a topic in which they struggle. I have been buying my books for the last 4 years from Taylor & Francis and the service we receive from them is second to none, once the order is placed the books, if in stock, are delivered very quickly, and if they are not in stock they will give me updates on when they come in. Due to the service and the price, I will always order my books through Taylor & Francis.
Information that we would need from you in order to implement Inclusive Coursebook Provision includes:
Would you like print or eBook?
Would you like the deal provided through your local campus bookshop, eBook platform integration, or directly through Taylor & Francis?
How many copies are needed of each title?
The best way to get in touch with us is to fill out our online form.