Path 7: Choosing and Providing Access to Course Readings
How to Choose and Provide Access to Course Readings
With the move to online courses comes the need for digital course materials and eBooks in place of physical textbooks and course packs. With the course materials services at Western described below, you don’t need to sacrifice options or quality as you transition your course. The Book Store and Western Libraries both offer support to faculty to source online course materials and provide easy access to students.
Adopting Your Course Materials via the Book Store
The Book Store will work with you to source digital materials—including both free and paid content. Once sourced, students can easily search by course name and access all digital course materials through the Book Store eBook webpage.
Online course materials are sourced through Campus eBookstore Inc (CEI), the leader in distribution of digital course materials in North America. The CEI platform provides The Book Store with access to over 302,000 digital resources.
Once your course materials have been sourced by the Book Store, your students will be provided with a personalized booklist in their Student Service Account. This list includes all required and suggested readings.
If digital resources are not available, you will be made aware of alternative options when choosing the books for your course.
Submit your course adoption requests online at The Book Store at Western website. If you have any questions, please email coursematerials@uwo.ca..
To prepare a digital custom course pack, simply email your materials (in PDF format) to askccb@uwo.ca, including a Table of Contents if applicable.
Adopting Your Course Materials via Western Libraries
The Course Reading Service from Western Libraries helps your students save money and get seamless access to their readings via OWL.
Western Libraries will source materials in your reading list through our collection of over 10 million items, and make them available online by linking to items in our digital collections, scanning excerpts from print, securing copyright clearance from the rightsholder, and purchasing new titles for the library. Staff will follow up with alternative options when material is not available online.
To get started, send your syllabus to coursereadings@uwo.ca or add individual requests via the OWL Course Readings tool.
The Western Libraries Course Readings Service [5 min]
Discover Western Libraries’ Course Readings Service with Alison Wetheral, User Experience Specialist at Western Libraries.
Accessing Open Educational Resources
Both the Book Store and Western Libraries offer support for the discovery of open educational resources (OER). These are teaching and learning materials that are openly licensed, freely available, and created with the intent to use and reuse. OER are available in a wide range of formats including textbooks, streaming media, ready-made course materials, etc. Read more about finding open education resources.
How to Find Online Course Materials [3 min]
Get an overview of how to find online materials for your course from Kristin Hoffmann, Research and Scholarly Communication Librarian at Western Libraries.
