Topics: faculty, adoptions, campus stores, cost of education
For campus stores that sell textbooks, the adoption process is fundamental to business health. Several years ago, Salisbury University Bookstore made changes to its adoption process that have brought excellent results for us and made it easier for students to reduce the total cost of college. In the process, we’ve learned some things that other stores may find useful.
Topics: faculty relations, faculty, faculty engagement
If you want to get buy-in for the campus store from faculty, it’s good to know the dos and don’ts of increasing faculty engagement. Set your sights high. Envision the kind of faculty engagement you want for your store, but remember: like any company or cohort, faculty members have their own culture, complete with common taboos.
Topics: campus store, faculty, faculty engagement, higher education
Excellent campus store faculty relations start with understanding your audience. You need to know as much as you can about the context in which teachers are most likely to receive your communication. Part IV of our Campus Store Faculty Communication Guide includes an illustrated guide to the academic teaching environment, a reference you can use to increase the effectiveness of your faculty message.
Topics: faculty, adoptions, communicating with faculty
Your campus store's business health, adoption rate and value to students depend on increased faculty engagement. For that reason, you must be strategic about writing campus store emails to faculty. It’s essential to invest time and energy in developing an interconnected set of emails that increase engagement. If effective, a powerful message entices readers to open your emails and do what you ask them to do.
When you’re planning how you’ll reach faculty, it’s essential to start with a question: What do faculty really need to know?
Topics: faculty, inclusive access, digital textbooks
I just wrapped up my first course using inclusive access, and I have a plea for collegiate retailers: Spread the word about inclusive access. If you can, you’ll have an enormous impact on student lives.
Topics: ed tech, faculty relations, faculty, digital textbooks
Our previous segment of this ongoing series offered a front-lines, first-person view of a teacher’s experience with using eTextbooks in class. In our second installment, we look more broadly at how faculty perceive digital course material options and offer advice for generating more interest in digital on campus. Our goal: provide our collegiate retail readers with insight that eases communication with faculty about cost-saving options that can boost student success.
Topics: faculty relations, faculty, college stores
Good faculty relations are critical to collegiate retail success. Of course, you need cooperation from educators when it comes to adoptions, but, far beyond that, faculty evangelists can boost your store’s campus profile and its bottom line. In marketing-speak, an evangelist is someone who spreads enthusiastic word-of-mouth about your store and services — and they do it for free.
When faculty adopt low-cost digital options like inclusive access or alternative content, it serves the bookstore. Even if it doesn’t boost overall revenues, students are more likely to purchase the lower-priced texts on time. When students have required materials, their grades improve, retention increases and administrators more readily recognize the campus store’s fundamental place in the academic community. There’s only one problem: too many faculty members aren’t aware of digital options. That places the onus on bookstore associates to educate teachers.
Topics: faculty relations, faculty
Want to know how and why faculty treat textbooks the way they do? According to our report, “Winning Faculty Allies in the Struggle for Affordable Course Material Solutions,” many teachers are emperors of their classrooms: They select their books with a keen interest in maintaining academic freedom — and they don’t expect input from others. Find how faculty choices affect the cost of education and how you can help the administration win allies in the effort to reduce course material costs in this exclusive report.
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