Oregon’s legislature passed HB 2919 in 2021. The bill requires that Oregon’s public community colleges and universities prominently display or link to the estimated cost of all required course materials and fees at the time that registration opens for a target of 75% of all courses offered per term. It was informed by a similar policy implemented in Florida.
The purpose of the on-time course materials adoption policy is to provide transparent cost information to students at the point of registration so they can plan their entire budget for the upcoming term. Textbook costs may seem negligible compared to tuition and housing, but the financial emergencies that cause students to drop out may not have especially high price tags. Research from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators shows that most emergency aid, in the form of campus vouchers, emergency loans, and unrestricted grants, is likely to be for dollar amounts of $100–$500. On average, a full-time student in Oregon can expect to spend this amount on textbooks per term.
This report shows that Oregon’s public community colleges and universities are making progress, and have room to improve, in communicating costs to students via the course schedule. The top-level finding is that the reporting institutions were further from the target of 75% on-time adoption reporting in 2025 than when we gathered benchmark data in 2023. Unpacking this result, the reporting institutions also shared best practices that can lead to improvement in the future:
- Some bookstore software includes automated email functionality that makes faculty outreach and reminders more efficient.
- Establishing default adoptions saves time and effort, whether at the instructor level (assume you will assign the same materials the next time you teach the same course) or the department level (all instructors agree to assign the same materials for all sections of a course).
- Textbook Affordability or Open Education committees/advisory groups can do outreach with instructors to encourage on-time adoption reporting.
- Administrators can provide leverage when sending reminders, emphasizing the importance of reporting course materials adoption from a student perspective, and communicating with instructors who consistently miss deadlines.
- When changing vendors, request all institutional data from the old vendor, establish a reporting schedule that takes into account HB 2919 with the new vendor, and change default wording in third-party tools to avoid confusion.
Institutional Data Request
The data requested aligns with the requirements of the bill:
- % of for-credit courses offered that had estimated course materials costs available when registration opened via the course schedule
- Method of prioritizing which for-credit courses did not provide information
- Schedule of dates by which faculty or departments notify their campus store of course materials adoption
- Method of communicating course materials adoption to the campus store, including policies, communication plan, workflows, etc.
- For courses that do not meet the reporting deadline, why? What can improve reporting for next time?
- Data analysis pain points—what do you plan to improve for the next reporting year?
This report covers the 2023-25 biennium. Institutions could decide whether to break out their on-time adoption rate per quarter or report an average rate instead. Each institution also chose their own method of calculating the percentage of on-time adoption reporting because the bill does not establish statewide requirements on methodology. This local approach is also used to estimate the student savings represented by the no-cost/low-cost schedule designation required by HB 2871 (2015).
Institutions were encouraged to share any data, even incomplete statistics, and briefly explain what was/wasn’t reported. This helps us improve for the future.
On-Time Adoption Results
Out of Oregon’s 24 public community colleges and universities, 13 provided data for this report: 8 community colleges and 5 universities. 9 community colleges and 2 universities did not participate this year.
- Statewide, 64% of for-credit courses offered had estimated course materials costs available when registration opened via the course schedule. 4 institutions met or exceeded the 75% target and 4 more institutions had on-time adoptions for over 65% of their courses. The reporting institutions did not meet the target, and came closer to the target when we gathered benchmark data in 2023.
Figure 1. Oregon’s public community colleges and universities are making progress, and have room to improve, in communicating costs to students via the course schedule. Image description.
Figure 2. The reporting institutions did not meet the target this year, and came closer to the target when we gathered benchmark data in 2023. Image description.
- Participating institutions generally reported that they do not prioritize which for-credit courses do not need to provide course material adoption information in advance of registration.
- The schedule of dates by which faculty or departments notify the campus store of course materials adoption is usually set far in advance, in consultation with multiple stakeholders, and varies widely across Oregon. Earlier reporting deadlines give the campus store and other stakeholders more time to populate the course schedule with cost information before registration opens, but if deadlines are too early then instructors may not have been assigned to sections yet.
- The method of communicating course materials adoption to the campus store also varies widely. In some cases, especially with third-party campus stores, the bookstore manages adoption communications from start to finish. Other workflows start with an email to individual faculty and then escalates to administrators if adoptions are late, while still others place responsibility with administrators or department contacts to gather and report information about adoptions. Many reporting institutions take advantage of automated email functions in their bookstore software to find efficiencies.
- Three common themes emerged regarding courses didn’t meet the adoption reporting deadline:
- Courses added to the schedule, or instructors assigned to courses, after the reporting deadline has passed
- Faculty think they don’t have to report if no textbook purchase is required
- Faculty miss or ignore communication
- Three common themes emerged regarding data analysis pain points:
- Turnover in staff, vendors, and software
- Bookstore software limitations
- Reporting systems are too complex
Some bookstore software requires a calendar reminder to pull adoption data on the first day of registration each term if a “look-back” is not possible at the end of the reporting period. This reminder should be assigned to more than one person or role so that it isn’t lost with turnover.
Image Descriptions
Figure 1
Pie chart segments:
- 4 institutions met the target: 75% or greater on-time adoption reporting
- 4 institutions were near the target: 65%-75% on-time adoption reporting
- 11 institutions did not report
- 5 institutions did not meet the target
Figure 2
Column chart comparing data from 2023 with data from 2025:
| Comparison Category | 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide Average | 71.65 | 63.79 |
| Reporting Institutions | 17 | 13 |
| Meets target: 75% or greater on-time adoption reporting | 8 | 4 |
| Near target: 65%-75% on-time adoption reporting | 6 | 4 |
| Did not report | 7 | 11 |
| Did not meet target | 3 | 5 |
