Research Article:

Inclusive Access billing preferences

Julia Seaman, Bay View Analytics
Jeff Seaman, Bay View Analytics

As inclusive access programs come under increased scrutiny from student advocacy groups and the Federal government, the team at Bay View Analytics has steered some of our efforts towards understanding the scope of the debate, and the perspectives of those involved. These programs exist under a variety of names — day one access programs, automatic purchase programs, unlimited access programs, etc. — but generally involve commercial publishers providing digital access to textbooks and other classroom curricula to every higher education student in a course, as a subscription.

The controversy surrounding inclusive access stems from how these programs are disseminated: opt-in, where students elect to participate, or opt-out, where students are automatically enrolled and billed as part of their tuition. During the Spring 2024 academic semester, we asked a nationally representative sample of faculty and administrators for their opinions on inclusive access billing preferences.

Data collected in Spring 2024

3,240 higher education faculty responding, of which 2,101 expressed an opinion on Inclusive access billing.
602 higher education administrators responding, of which 478 expressed an opinion on Inclusive access billing.

Data comes from the 2023-24 Higher Education OER Survey, supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Online Learning Consortium. More information on this project and full report available at https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/oer

We asked both faculty and administrators their opinions on inclusive access billing preferences. The specific question for both was:

Inclusive Access and Equitable Access programs allow the institution to bill students directly for course materials. What billing policy do you believe is best for students?
Students should be billed with no option to decline the charge

Students should be billed by default, but be able to opt-out of the charge

Students should only be billed if they opt-in to the charge

Don’t know

1. Faculty

Faculty strongly prefer the "opt-in" model of inclusive access billing, with 61% of those with an opinion reporting that they believe that this "Is best for students." An additional 30% prefer students be billed by default, but that they can opt-out if they so choose. Only 9% of faculty prefer students be billed for Inclusive Access with no option to opt-out.
Faculty billing preferences

2. Academic Administrators

The results for Academic Administrators mirror those of faculty in that they strongly prefer the "opt-in" model of inclusive access billing, with 61% of those with an opinion reporting that they believe that this "Is best for students." An additional 31% prefer students be billed by default, but that they can opt-out if they so choose. Only 8% of academic administrators prefer students be billed for Inclusive Access with no option to opt-out.
Administrator billing preferences

Detailed results

There are very few differences in faculty opinions about Inclusive Access billing between different groups of faculty and where there are differences they are small.

A. Level of course taught:

Faculty teaching introductory level courses are the least likely to prefer an opt-in billing method, but even here the preference is held by a majority of faculty (56%). Very few faculty teaching at any level prefer billing with no option to opt-out.
Billing preferences by course level

B. Tenure Status and Years teaching

There are only small differences in faculty Inclusive Access billing preferences by tenure status of the faculty member, with tenured faculty slightly more likely to prefer the opt-in approach, or by the number of years teaching, where both faculty with the least amount of experience and the most are slightly more likely to prefer the opt-in approach.

C. Discipline

The one area where there is a difference in the pattern of faculty preferences is by the discipline of course being taught. Faculty in the social sciences, languages, humanities, and arts are more likely to prefer the opt-in approach for billing. Faculty teaching mathematics and statistics are the only group with less than a majority (42%) preferring the opt-in billing system (with 12% preferring that the billing be by default with no opt-out option). Faculty teaching Business Administration also differ from the pattern seen in other disciplines with 19% in favor of the no opt-out approach.

Billing preferences by discipline

The majority of our survey respondents agree: students are best served when offered a choice of how to procure their course materials. That both faculty and administrators in these nationally representative samples are united in this opinion is especially noteworthy, as their belief that inclusive access programs should be opt-in stems from direct experience and interaction with higher education students, day in and day out. Their perspectives are valuable, and an important element to consider as the debate surrounding inclusive access billing continues.

Bay View Analytics, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, conducts annual, national surveys of faculty and administrators on topics related to curricula adoption and tracking awareness levels of Open Educational Resources (OER) — learn more here.