Access and Affordability
JCU Textbook Affordability Project (TAP)
James Cook University
Claire Ovaska; Alice Luetchford; and Dr Deborah King
Overview
This case study examines James Cook University (JCU) Library’s Textbook Affordability Project (TAP), a two-year HEPPP-funded initiative (2024-2025) designed to reduce textbook costs for first-year students enrolled in core subjects. These subjects typically have higher enrolments, delivering greater impact and value for the project’s investment. Further, TAP activities were recognised as involving most Library teams and staff. As a result, TAP was designated a whole-of-Library project to foster collaboration and enable the sharing of expertise across teams. Library staff adopted innovative strategies to enhance textbook affordability for students, actively collaborating with first-year academic stakeholders through diverse forums, activities, and initiatives. To support this goal, three high-quality, academic alternatives to traditional commercial textbooks were presented to JCU subject coordinators:
- curated subject reading lists that utilise Library-paid resources and open-access materials
- open educational resources (OERs) through adoption, adaptation, or creation
- Library-subscribed etextbooks with favourable publisher licensing conditions.
TAP has been a valuable experience for the Library. During a time of institutional change, it has reinforced our commitment to placing students at the heart of everything we do. Through TAP, JCU Library staff have deepened their understanding of how our work contributes to institutional efforts to support JCU student wellbeing and success.
Using this case study
Key stakeholders
Several key stakeholder groups were involved with TAP, with Library staff playing the most pivotal role. Achieving textbook affordability across all JCU subjects and year levels is a long-term objective that cannot be accomplished within a two-year timeframe, making the ongoing commitment of Library staff essential. Accordingly, Library staff were a key audience for TAP advocacy and training, to encourage them to adopt practices that enhance JCU student textbook experiences.
First-year academic staff were another critical stakeholder group for TAP as they shape every aspect of students’ learning experiences, including prescribed textbooks and weekly readings. Time-poor academic staff often default to traditional practices, such as prescribing student-purchased textbooks from academic publishers, as a convenient way to ensure resource quality. It is also common for them to align subject delivery with the structure of a commercial textbook.
Expectations, policy directions, and funding opportunities set by senior institutional leaders are recognised as key drivers of successful institutional textbook affordability initiatives (da Lima-Lopes & Biazi, 2021). Accordingly, significant project time was invested in evidence gathering and reporting to demonstrate TAP’s return on investment in enhancing the JCU student experience.
Although students are discussed last, they were the primary focus of TAP. However, they were not simply statistics or a cohort associated with a subject adopting a TAP-recommended textbook alternative. Grounded in evidence-based practice, the project actively sought to incorporate the JCU student voice to inform and enhance TAP activities.
Background information
JCU student data highlights significant levels of disadvantage and financial hardship. In 2023, JCU Library estimated that 72 first-year core subjects prescribed textbooks that could cost students an average of $119 each. This equates to approximately $2.19 million in textbook costs for first-year students – on top of their other study and living expenses. While many student expenses are beyond the control of universities, research shows that prescribed textbook costs can be influenced to improve student wellbeing and academic success (Lambert & Fadel, 2022). The Library launched TAP with the goal of providing JCU students with a zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) experience – to reduce financial barriers to learning and to support student wellbeing and academic success.
Project description
TAP was a whole-of-Library initiative, involving diverse staff activities and generating an extensive range of outputs. The following summary presents the overarching trajectory of TAP delivery and excludes detailed team-level work such as publication of OERs, advocacy with academic staff, redefining Library collections to enhance student access to textbooks, and improving the discoverability of Library OER collections.
2023 Initiation phase
| Defined project scope |
|
| Conducted needs assessment |
|
| Secured project approval and funding |
|
2024 Implementation phase
| Onboarding |
|
| Project website |
|
| Library staff advocacy training |
|
| TAP OER grants |
|
| Student feedback |
|
| Reporting and analysis |
|
| Celebration |
|
2025 Consolidation phase
| Project reflection and revision |
|
| New strategic focus |
|
| Continuation of key activities |
|
| Reporting and analysis |
|
| Celebration |
|
2026 Continuous improvement phase
| Textbook affordability |
|
| Extension |
|
Key outcomes
Major outcomes have been achieved across key TAP stakeholder groups. Library staff have adopted new approaches and embedded them into business-as-usual operations, ensuring that progress on student textbook affordability will continue beyond 2026. While it was never expected that two years of TAP advocacy would persuade all first- and later-year academic staff to adopt textbook affordability practices, substantial progress has been made, establishing a strong foundation for ongoing improvements at JCU. Senior institutional leaders have also demonstrated their support for TAP principles.
The Library is proud to have contributed to enhancing learning experiences for JCU students.
A case study of TAP’s implementation in JCU’s College of Healthcare Sciences (CHS) estimated that CHS first-year students could have saved approximately $645,240 in textbook costs over two years, based on a conservative average textbook price of $120. Additionally, JCU student data indicated a significant reduction in failure rates for first-year 2025 semester one students in CHS subjects that adopted TAP solutions. While multiple factors may have contributed to these improvements, TAP appears to have played a positive role. At the time of writing, results for semester two subjects were incomplete.
From 2026 onwards, textbook affordability will remain a key priority for JCU Library, supported by new extension initiatives. TAP identified weaknesses in JCU’s prescribed textbook data, and in response, the Library will launch its subject readings platform as the definitive source for prescribed textbook information. This advancement will provide JCU leaders and librarians with robust data to strategically target future affordability efforts. The Library’s Collection Development team will also trial unlimited-user licence etextbook collections, while Library leadership explores opportunities within the new needs-based Commonwealth funding model to further support open education activities. Through these efforts and TAP normalised business-as-usual activities, JCU Library will continue to lead sustainable, evidence-driven improvements in textbook affordability and JCU student success.
Learnings and recommendations
Champion statements
“Working on a special project is a privilege – especially when it aligns with your personal values, turning every workday into a source of joy. It takes you beyond routine tasks and gives you the freedom to be creative, building something from the ground up. I developed expertise in new areas and grew as a leader. It was, without doubt, the most valuable professional development experience of my career to date.”
— Project team member
“Being part of this project has been a true career highlight. It represents the culmination of many years of advocacy and commitment to my personal philosophy of open education, open access, open pedagogy, open practice, and open scholarship. Beyond this, the project has delivered significant benefits for our students, the university, and the wider community. It has been a privilege to be involved in such an impactful initiative.”
— Project team member
“I could not afford any textbooks, so it was amazing having [JCU Library] free resources. I would not have been able to get as much out of my course without this service, and I REALLY appreciate it.”
— JCU student
“My grades definitely got a lot better as I was able to access this textbook for both learning and assignment purposes. I cannot afford to buy textbooks, and so if I have to pay for one, I simply don’t have access to it for that semester.”
— JCU student
“The work has directly enhanced student learning experiences and engagement. The most rewarding aspect has been receiving verbal thanks from several students… who have found the resource [Library resources] invaluable for their studies.”
— Academic staff member
“This has made the delivery of the course material more standardised and has created reusable digital artifacts that are deployable across a range of subjects and courses.”
— Academic staff member
In practice
Advice to share:
- Share success stories: Positive stories strengthen institutional commitment to open practices and may require little investment. For example, send a thank-you email to open ebook authors that includes an impact story and links to more information, and share it with their senior leaders.
- Experiment: Special projects create opportunities to explore new approaches and develop skills. Not every attempt will deliver as expected – but each step forward is progress, not failure.
- Be bold: Step outside your comfort zone and tackle challenges that intimidate you. Lean on your network and use tools like Google and AI for support. In the end, you’ll realise it was just another task – and you nailed it!
- Engage library staff: Broaden the reach and benefits of your project by actively involving library colleagues. Keep them informed with regular updates, provide training opportunities, and empower them to advocate for the initiative—fostering shared ownership and collective impact.
- Pivot priorities: If circumstances change mid-project, collaborate with your team to reassess goals and adjust plans to ensure the best possible outcomes.
- Maximise benefits: Plan for multiple uses of the content you create. For communications/messaging, ensure wording is reusable, e.g., in a report, social media posts and then on to a FAQs, to maximise the return on your effort.
- Consider project legacies: Every project concludes, so plan for lasting impact. Implement processes and documentation to sustain benefits and capture key insights through thorough reporting – ensuring future library initiatives build on your success.
Further resources
References
da Lima-Lopes, R. E., & Biazi, T. M. D. (2021). Open education resources in the global scenario: Highlights and challenges. Ilha Do Desterro, 74(3), 17–39. https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2021.e79735
Lambert, S., & Fadel, H. (2022). Open textbooks and social justice: A national scoping study. National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). https://www.acses.edu.au/research-policies/15394-2-2/
Acknowledgement of project team
The authors gratefully acknowledge JCU Library staff, whose contributions were essential to the initiation and success of this project, particularly Bronwyn Mathiesen, Sharon Bryan, Elizabeth Pritchard, Sara Boyle, Christia Heath, Helen Hooper and Claire Swift.
Acknowledgement of peer reviewers
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following reviewer who kindly lent their time and expertise to provide peer review of this chapter:
- Lisa Grbin, Scholarly Services Librarian, Deakin University
How to cite and attribute this chapter
How to cite this chapter (referencing)
Ovaska, C., Luetchford, A., & King, D. (2025). JCU Textbook Affordability Project (TAP). In Open Education Down UndOER: Australasian Case Studies. Council of Australian University Librarians. https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/openedaustralasia/chapter/jcu-textbook-affordability-project-tap/
How to attribute this chapter (reusing or adapting)
If you plan on reproducing (copying) this chapter without changes, please use the following attribution statement:
JCU Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) by Claire Ovaska, Alice Luetchford and Deborah King is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
If you plan on adapting this chapter, please use the following attribution statement:
*Title of your adaptation* is adapted from JCU Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) by Claire Ovaska, Alice Luetchford and Deborah King, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
About the authors
name: Claire Ovaska
institution: James Cook University
Claire Ovaska is a Co-Convenor of the ASCILITE Open Educational Practices Special Interest Group (OEP SIG). Prior to 2026, Claire was the Open Education Project Specialist at JCU and managed the HEPPP-funded Textbook Affordability Project (2024-2025) and JCU Open eBooks. Starting in 2026, Claire is now the University Copyright Manager at the University of Southern Queensland.
name: Alice Luetchford
institution: James Cook University
Alice Luetchford is the Open Education Librarian at James Cook University. This role includes the development of open education resources such as ebooks using the publishing platform, Pressbooks. Alice is currently on a number of university and national working projects and committees relating to open education resources and open scholarship.
name: Dr Deborah King
institution: James Cook University
Deborah King is a Liaison Librarian in the Education Engagement Team with a special focus on Open Education, supporting student learning and contributing to the learning, teaching and research goals of the University.
