What's the cutoff to be considered "low cost'?

[Brandon Board]

Hi everyone,

I hope this email finds you well. We are working on classifying and tracking student savings in courses/sections with low cost materials, and we're trying to establish a clear definition for what constitutes "low cost." For those that do something similar already, I'm hoping to get your perspective on the following:

• When you refer to a course material as "low cost," is there a specific dollar amount you use as a threshold ($40, $50, etc.)?  How did you arrive at that specific amount?
• Are there other metrics or factors you consider?  Perhaps comparing sections to one another, in case some sections of a course use more affordable materials than others.  For example, materials for Section A are $250, but for Section B are only $125...neither is below the low-cost threshold, but one is still significantly more affordable.  Is that worth calling out?  I feel like this is probably too complicated, but I'm curious if others have addressed this particular situation at all.

Thanks for your perspectives.

Brandon

Brandon Board, MLIS | Digital Services Coordinator

Waubonsee Community College Libraries

Sugar Grove, Illinois

630.466.6643

Schedule an appointment with me!

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[Taylor Miltenberger]

Hello,

The state of WV passed legislation stating that to be considered low-cost, a course fee cannot exceed $75, so this is what I use. I'm not sure what metrics they used to arrive at this amount, though. 

Best Regards,

Ms. Taylor Miltenberger

She/Her

General Life Science Coordinator

Allied Health Department

Blue Ridge Community And Technical College

tmil...@blueridgectc.edu

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From: cccoer-...@googlegroups.com <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Brandon Board via googlegroups.com [*] <bbo...@waubonsee.edu>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2025 12:35:18 PM
To: 'Elder, Abbey K [LIB]' via CCCOER Community Email; 'Mussehl, Vince' via SPARC Open Education Forum
Subject: What's the cutoff to be considered "low cost'?

 

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[Ishita Edwards]

The threshold varies from district to district, and state to state.

At the Ventura County Community College District in California the LTC or Low Textbook Cost threshold is $40 or less. Some would like to see the cap lowered to $30 or less. 

Ishita Edwards, Ph.D., Professor of Economics,

Ventura County Community College District

On Aug 29, 2025, at 9:50 AM, Taylor Miltenberger <TMIL...@blueridgectc.edu> wrote:



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[Lisa Storm]

Hi!

Hartnell College uses $40 as the Low-Cost ceiling. Our Senate considered this very carefully after discovering that the Students chose $30 as the ceiling. Our faculty just couldn't agree to lower it more because it is virtually impossible to find textbooks at a lower price.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cccoer-advisory/59d1b77effd24bbfa8e49f6d9ceb45bb%40blueridgectc.edu.

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Lisa Storm

Administration of Justice and Business Faculty| Agriculture, Business, and Industries

Academic Senate Open Educational Resources Coordinator

411 CENTRAL AVENUE | SALINAS, CA 93901

831.755-6745 Direct |  | 831.759.6038 Fax

lstorm@hartnell.edu | www.hartnell.edu

 

[Mark Smith]

We also chose $40 for the low-cost ceiling.

 

Warm Regards,

Mark

 

Mark Smith, Ph.D.

McKinney Campus Provost

Collin College

2200 W. University Dr., C332E

McKinney, TX 75071

mas...@collin.edu

972-548-6800

 

 

From: cccoer-...@googlegroups.com <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Lisa Storm
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2025 1:02 PM
To: Taylor Miltenberger <TMIL...@blueridgectc.edu>
Cc: Brandon Board via googlegroups.com [*] <bbo...@waubonsee.edu>; 'Elder, Abbey K [LIB]' via CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>; 'Mussehl, Vince' via SPARC Open Education Forum <oef...@sparcopen.org>
Subject: Re: What's the cutoff to be considered "low cost'?

 

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[Alexis Carlson]

Hi Brandon. Please consider a low cost threshold per credit. It seems people fail to mention the price per credit when throwing these numbers out. 20 per 3 credits or 1 credit, etc.

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 29, 2025, at 2:05 PM, 'Mark Smith' via CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



We also chose $40 for the low-cost ceiling.

 

Warm Regards,

Mark

 

Mark Smith, Ph.D.

McKinney Campus Provost

Collin College

2200 W. University Dr., C332E

McKinney, TX 75071

mas...@collin.edu

972-548-6800

 

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[Ross, Heather]

At our university, we’ve long looked for ways to accurately collect this information and share it with learners given the systems we use. Throughout that time, we’ve considered low-cost to be $35 or less. We now think that we have a way to gather the information and share it, but we’re also raising the limit to $50 for a few reasons:

 

1. We’re in Canada and the exchange rate with the U.S. fluctuates, meaning some items sold here might be affected (not-to-mention any added costs related to tariffs).
2. In an effort to move courses to using OER, we’re making use of Mobius and just starting to test out ADAPT. If a student has only one course per year it would cost them $35 CDN + tax for Mobius and $35 USD + tax for ADAPT.

 

 

Heather M. Ross, BA BEd MEd (she/her)

Educational Development Specialist

University of Saskatchewan

Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning 

Ph: 306-966-5327

Find information about open educational practices, including open textbooks, on:

http://open.usask.ca

 

 

 

 

 

From: cccoer-...@googlegroups.com <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Alexis Carlson <alexis...@gmail.com>
Date: Friday, August 29, 2025 at 12:09 PM
To: Mark Smith <mas...@collin.edu>
Cc: Lisa Storm <lst...@hartnell.edu>, Taylor Miltenberger <TMIL...@blueridgectc.edu>, Brandon Board via googlegroups.com <bbo...@waubonsee.edu>, Abbey K via CCCOER Community Email 'Elder <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>, oef...@sparcopen.org <oef...@sparcopen.org>
Subject: Re: What's the cutoff to be considered "low cost'?

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411 CENTRAL AVENUE | SALINAS, CA 93901

831.755-6745 Direct |  | 831.759.6038 Fax

lstorm@hartnell.edu | www.hartnell.edu

 

 

 

 

 

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[Harmon, Sarah]

Heyyas all—

 

Thanks for bringing up this topic, Brandon. As you can see, there are a number of ways to address this.

 

For the 3 colleges in the San Mateo County Community College District, we did the same as Hartnell College: We’re at $40, even though the Student Senate for California Community Colleges has recommended $30 and the Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges has backed that amount. For our district, we kept our definition at $40 for the same reasons that Lisa mentioned.

 

Best,

--s

_____________________________________________________

Sarah Harmon, Ph.D.

OER/ZTC Project Manager

Adjunct Professor of Linguistics

Cañada College

Office: Building 13, Room 346

Email: har...@smccd.edu

Google Text: 650-260-5338

To schedule an appointment with me, please use my Calendly Scheduler

 

From: cccoer-...@googlegroups.com <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Lisa Storm

Sent: Friday, August 29, 2025 11:02 AM
To: Taylor Miltenberger <TMIL...@blueridgectc.edu>

Cc: Brandon Board via googlegroups.com [*] <bbo...@waubonsee.edu>; 'Elder, Abbey K [LIB]' via CCCOER Community Email <cccoer-...@googlegroups.com>; 'Mussehl, Vince' via SPARC Open Education Forum <oef...@sparcopen.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Re: What's the cutoff to be considered "low cost'?

 

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[Monique Belair]

My colleague, Boyoung Chae, developed OER/Low-Cost labeling policies for Washington state community and technical colleges which have also been codified into the state law. Four rounds of statewide studies helped to establish these. 

In the OER and Low-Cost Implementation Guide the criteria for Low-Cost is defined as the following:

To be designated as a Low-Cost course, the combined cost of the required course materials should be $50 or less. This label is to tag the courses that use other affordable course materials that do not necessarily fit into the criteria of OER label. Additional considerations are listed in the Low-Cost Labeling Policies section of the implementation guide.

I hope this is helpful!

Monique

Monique Belair (hear my name)

she/her/hers why add pronouns?

Project Manager - WA Open ProfTech

Educational Resources & Innovation Team

360-704-3942

SBCTC Vision

“Leading with racial equity, our colleges maximize student potential and transform lives within a culture of belonging that advances racial, social, and economic justice in service to our diverse communities”

Book time to meet with me

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