Automatic Textbook Billing: Higher Education's Next Frontline

There are quite a few scams going around these days hoping to snare young college students who are too na?ve and trusting to know any better. What if I told you there is a major scam being run by the powers that be, all across the nation, under the guise of helping our students? This scam is so nefarious that it slips under the nose of most administrators and even supposes itself to be more ‘equitable’ while robbing student of their funding, threatening to undo any hope they may have had at achieving a college education.

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It's robbing our students of millions…

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?? This scam is called automatic textbook billing (ATB), and it’s robbing our students of millions. In automatic textbook billing, students are charged, typically one flat fee per course, per semester, for their textbooks as part of their total fees and expenses when registering for classes (Simon et al., 2024). Many would consider this fair at first glance. Students pay a one-time fee, and all their course materials are covered; everything from their textbooks to their access codes. However, this is horribly lopsided in fairness, and what’s worse, it comes with horrendous hidden ‘costs’.

?? The three main issues here are economics, the ethics, and the data privacy issues. Students are frankly being ripped off in pricing, their being marginalized in front of our very eyes, and their data privacy is being sold off like prized heirlooms at an estate sale. The first matter I wish to tackle here in this article though is the economic considerations of the matter. After all, the whole supposed point was to save students money.

?? There are many things to consider when we look at how money changes hands around textbooks. As an advocate of OER, this is something that I have become rather familiar with. McGraw Hill, Cengage, and Pearson collective host a significant portion of the textbook and course materials market and they use their cornering of the market to punish the price-tag of these materials, often tripling the rate of inflation (Hilburger, n.d.). Monopolies and near-monopolies are powerful entities in economics and this trio is no exception. In fact, their claim on this sector of the market is believed to be as high as 80% (Weyland, 2022).

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College and university students are often fiscally vulnerable…

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?? The danger lies in the fact that college and university students are often fiscally vulnerable populations. The claim coming from textbook suppliers is that ATB is a force for equality. Though this is certainly not the case. Students are all given one flat fee for each course they take in a semester, and this fee is the same for nursing students with their notoriously expensive texts and philosophy students and their typically cheaper materials (Simon et al., 2024). This one size fits all policy is leaving students in the dust to be forgotten by their institutions of study. There is simply no benefit to the student in billing them for their textbooks by hiding it in with the rest of their semesterly fees.

?? The problem is that many students are on the verge of being unable to afford an education for the price of their course materials alone. As stated above, higher ed students are highly vulnerable in terms of their fiscal health. As many as 63% of students report resigning from their course work being the result of the inability to pay for their course materials (Weyland, 2022). So, when we boil things down to the contrast between the hypothetical of the nursing student and the philosophy student mentioned earlier, a new scene begins to take place in front of us.

?? To that end, the intended purpose of ATB falls flat on its face, an embarrassment to its own endeavor. Research shows that the average costs incurred by students through ATB are almost double that of traditional methods of separately billing for course materials. This figure is $832,397 for costs associated with course materials billed via ATB compared to $426,320 for the alternative (Simon et al., 2024). So, ATB is clearly ineffective for even its intended purpose, a red flag many in higher education administration would do well to heed.

?? What’s more, while ATB is enough of a thorn in the side of higher education, it’s rather irking to see students in more financially efficient majors having to supplement the majors who are firmly in the grasp of the textbook monopoly (Simon et al., 2024). I personally take issue if I may insert my own views in for a moment, with the idea that there is this completely hidden extra level of students being forced to subsidize the monopoly.

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Community college students don’t have the wiggle room to play with bizarre hidden fees.

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?? I’ve mentioned before in previous articles, the fact that students come from many different backgrounds in terms of socioeconomics and as a result, one size fits all policies like ATB just simply will not work. Community college students in particular are at a disadvantage because they don’t have the wiggle room to play with bizarre hidden fees in their course work each semester. The solutions then will always be tailor-made approaches for the nuanced backdrops surrounding students and their approach to higher education.

?? Let’s not forget, when we ensure each student and their socioeconomic considerations are taken into account in the realm of higher education, we ensure that the student is seen, heard, and attended to. Our purpose as educators is to craft personalized learning plans that meet the needs of the student body, a fact which is especially important for community colleges. This ensures that the wide, diverse range of students are taken care of during their time in higher education, that they receive treatment unique to their needs yet equitable to their peers, and that they are included as active participants in their own education.

?? All that I just mentioned is awful enough on its own merit. What is worse though is the final hidden price students are burdened with, their data. Students are often stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to books and materials obtained through ATB. On the one hand, not having the materials means failure or a significantly reduced grade. On the other hand, buying these ATB materials means handing over their personal data to these large companies who turn around and use the students’ data for their own profit driven ends (Weyland, 2022). The terms and conditions for the use of these materials are predatory in nature, ensnaring the student to give their data and be completely vulnerable to manipulation, or just not take the course; leaving them unable to obtain the education they sought after (Weyland, 2022).

?? This is bad enough in and of itself, the misuse of data from students who have little real choice in the matter. It’s worse when you realize that many of the data collectors have been known to use the information for discriminatory purposes (Weyland, 2022). To go into full detail on this matter, while important, is sadly beyond the scope of this article. I wholeheartedly recommend that everyone who reads this article take the time to go back and read Tina Weyland’s full work on the topic. I’ve cited it below in references, it’s worth the read.

?? Here, I feel obligated to mention the OER content that I have been working on. For what it’s worth, both Weyland and Hilburger mention OER in their respective works cited here. OER content, for those unfamiliar, are course materials that are either entirely free or at the very least extremely cheap. It’s time to take the steps necessary to further the proliferation of OER materials and course content if we are to stem the tide of overpriced materials and sneaky ATB practices.

?? So, let’s recap here. Automatic Textbook Billing (ATB) is bad. So bad in fact, those of us in higher education must actively strive to stamp it out in our schools. It’s not for our sake; it’s for the sake of that bright-eyed 18-year-old who’s wondering how they’ll pay rent and pay all the countless fees stacked against them. It’s for that first-generation student who wants to make their parents proud. High priced textbooks are eating students, and consequently, higher education, alive.

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The thing to do is to educate others on the nature of Automatic Textbook Billing…

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?? The thing to do is to educate others (It’s in our blood) on the nature of ATB. Bring it to the attention of other faculty members that ATB has got to go, even if it’s not on your campus specifically. I normally attempt to remain on the sidelines in my reporting. I cannot here though, too much of our students’ future rides on their ability to afford school. That starts here with us. Network with others to this end in your institution, the higher up in the administration you can sound the alarm bells too, the better; as to allow them to come to your side in these matters (Simon et al., 2024).

?? The ideas of the last paragraph is the work of the speakers at the OEN conference in Providence that you see below in the references. Regardless, it’s effective thinking regardless of one’s location. I hope I have done that here, raise alarm and eyebrows for my fellow higher educators. It’s on each and every one of use to enshrine protection for the future of the college students, and the future college students traversing our halls.

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References

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Hilburger, C. (n.d.). Keeping up with... automatic textbook billing. American College and Research Libraries. https://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/keeping_up_with/automatic_textbook_billing

Simon, N., & Clifford, M. (2024, October). Fighting Against Automatic Textbook Billing: The Data War. Open Education Network Conference . Providence; Rhode Island.

Weyland, T. (2022). Student Data Privacy and Automatic Textbook Billing. OLA Quarterly, 27(1), 38–42. https://doi-org.ladelta.idm.oclc.org/10.5399/osu/1093-7374.27.01.09