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VIVA: Virginia Course Materials Survey

Virginia's Academic Library Consortium

This guide has variable layouts and houses the majority of the "sub" pages for VIVA's website.

Virginia Course Materials Surveys

In Fall 2021, in cooperation with our member institutions, VIVA conducted a Course Materials Survey for Virginia students in higher education.  The survey, approved by the George Mason University IRB as 1735732, built on the work of previous states and regions and included a special emphasis on educational equity. More than 5,600 valid student responses from 41 institutions were received, reflecting an overall response rate of 10%.

The overarching research questions were:

  • What is the impact of course material costs on educational equity among Virginia students?
  • What course content materials do students find to be most beneficial to their learning?

The survey was completely anonymous and took approximately ten minutes to complete.  Respondents were able to choose to be entered into a random drawing for five $100 Amazon gift cards and 180 $25 Amazon gift cards.

Key documents for the 2021 Virginia Course Materials Survey are available in the left column. If you have any questions about the survey, please write to us at viva@gmu.edu.

Update

VIVA is currently working with Bay View Analytics to conduct a 2025 Virginia Course Materials Survey. There have been a number of changes in the course materials landscape since the 2021 survey and understanding students’ current-day experiences and how results compare to 2021 would benefit the consortium's efforts to level the academic playing field for Virginia students. 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 revising the survey to include questions around student experiences with inclusive and equitable access programs, as well as revising and/or removing questions that had a low distribution.

The research questions are:

  1. What is the impact of course material costs on educational equity among Virginia students?
  2. What course content materials do students find to be most beneficial to their learning?
  3. What barriers are presented to students due to course material costs and how can those barriers be categorized and addressed by stakeholders?