VIVA: 2025 Virginia Course Materials Survey FAQ
Q: What is the purpose and rationale for the survey?
A: In 2021, VIVA conducted the IRB-approved Virginia Course Materials Survey (IRBNet number: 1735732-7), in response to a request from the VIVA Steering Committee to the VIVA Open and Affordable Course Content Committee to better understand how Virginia students are impacted by the costs of course materials, and the extent to which these costs affect educational equity in the Commonwealth. The findings were intended to assist VIVA, its members, and SCHEV to more clearly understand the impact that course material costs have on Virginia higher education students. Since there have been a number of changes in the course materials landscape since the 2021 survey, VIVA’s standing committees believed that conducting another course materials survey would benefit the consortium in understanding students’ current-day experiences, as well as analyzing how results compare to 2021. What is more, several other state systems have issued or are planning to issue similar textbook affordability surveys and renewed survey data would allow VIVA to compare and benchmark across states.
The outlined research approach attempts to build on the work done in the first iteration of the Virginia Course Materials Survey, while also including questions around student experiences with inclusive and equitable access programs, as well as revising and/or removing questions that had a low distribution. Inclusive and equitable access programs, known to students as "access codes," came up repeatedly in the 2021 survey so it was important to address these programs in the revised instrument.
Q: How will the survey be distributed?
A: The Virginia Course Materials Survey will be distributed as an email invitation and URL to participating Virginia public and private non-profit academic institutions through their respective survey distribution offices. These campus partners will manage the survey distribution through email to a random sample of at least 20% of students or 100 students, whichever is greater, who are 18 years of age or older and not in the prison population. If institution is not able to generate a random sample, they may distribute the survey to the entire student body, and students in the excluded populations will be informed of their ineligibility to participate through the consent form. The researchers will not be able to link student names or email addresses to responses since the institution will distribute the survey.
Q: Will the researchers provide recruitment messages?
A: Yes, the researchers will provide IRB approved initial and reminder recruitment messages to each participating institution that will include an institution-specific survey URL.
Q: What are the inclusion criteria?
A: The study population includes students who are 18 years of age and older, who are enrolled in at least one course at Virginia non-profit higher education institutions, and who have proficiency in the English language to be able to respond to survey questions. This includes undergraduate, graduate, and certificate-seeking students. As vulnerable populations, minors and students in the prison population are excluded from participating.
Q: Are respondents compensated for participating?
A: Respondents can choose to enter a random drawing for Amazon e-gift cards (five $100 Amazon e-gift cards and 180 $25 Amazon e-gift cards). Participants will only be eligible to win one gift card and duplicate entries will be removed before the draw. There is no link between participants' answers to the survey questions and the information form to enter the drawing. The e-gift card drawings will take place two weeks after the survey closes. The e-gift cards will be e-mailed to drawing winners.
Q: Will I get the data associated with my institution if I participate?
A: Participating institutions who meet the following thresholds will receive an institutional report that includes:
Q: How is personally identifiable information being protected?
A: All student personal information will be completely protected during the entire process. Student-level data will not be shared with any organization - only aggregated results are shared. Names and e-mail addresses will only be collected in a separate survey for the e-gift card drawings. IP addresses are collected through Qualtrics.
