Humanities departments struggle with digitized versions of texts as opposed to paper copies, which are not widely provided by the program
To many students, Equitable Access (EA) is the program that provides access to textbooks and class reading materials without having to hunt to find them externally. Equitable Access provides undergraduate students access to required class materials for a fixed price of $169 per quarter. Students are automatically opted into the program but have the option of manually opting out, which can be done until the twentieth day of instruction each quarter.
Through the program, required texts appear neatly on Canvas’ digital bookshelves as soon as each quarter begins. No fuss, no stress and no heavy stack of books to carry from lecture to lecture. Equitable Access provides books in “traditional” form only when a digital option of the text is not available, according to the program’s website.
For others, however, Equitable Access has presented significant challenges and disadvantages. In fields that emphasize textual analysis, such as languages and various humanities disciplines, many have found that exclusively digital access to texts is simply not sufficient for the kind of study required.
Tobias Menely, a professor of English at UC Davis who also serves as chair of the department, explained how those in the English department struggle with lacking access to physical books.
“The mandated use of digital textbooks undermines standard pedagogical practices in disciplines that teach textual analysis,” Menely said via email. “The methods of critical and interpretive reading we teach — including annotation, scanning, passage analysis and comparison — cannot always be practiced effectively with digital texts.”
Menley is one of the instructors of ENL 122, which focuses on works by English poet John Milton. Menely explained that he has resorted to requiring students to purchase a paper copy of “Paradise Lost,” one of the primary texts the course covers.
“They can’t take the course without a paper copy of the book because they can’t read the poem in the way I need them to — slowly, attentively, recursively, with quick access to notes, with a pen or pencil in hand — with a digital edition,” Menely wrote. “Many of them are signed up for EA, but for my course they still need to purchase the book. The course simply can’t be taught with the digital editions mandated by EA.”
Grace Delmolino, a professor of Italian at UC Davis who specializes in medieval literature, provided historical context regarding physical books.
“The physical book is a very old technology and [it has] been perfected in a way that digital books have not been,” Delmolino said. “In the Middle Ages, people would read books in a format where they were presented with a physical page that had not just the main text they were studying but also a gloss, which is a commentary that explains what’s important in the text.”
Delmolino said that digital texts hinders students’ abilities to easily transition between original texts and their “gloss.”
“That is still the model we use to study great works of literature: You have your text and then you have a gloss,” Delmolino said. “The digital format makes it almost impossible to go back and forth between these two things in the way that you need to to understand these texts.”
Madison Ford, a fourth-year comparative literature and Italian double major, has chosen to opt out of the Equitable Access program. Though she made use of the program in her lower-division courses that required expensive textbooks but didn’t necessarily indicate a close, interactive reading, Ford’s literature-based major courses often require a variety of books that she believes are studied best as paper texts.
“Having a physical copy makes it easier for me to keep track of my notes as I can easily bring it with me everywhere without having to worry about finding a charging outlet,” Ford said. “It’s easier to take notes since I can write in the margins and keep track of old annotations that I want to look back at and reference.”
Tiffany Jo Werth, a professor of English at UC Davis, commented on the problem of lacking permanent access to annotations and notes within a physical text purchased through the program.
“Student access to the books is limited to the quarter in which they’re taking the class,” Werth said. “So, after the class is finished, that virtual book is no longer available for you on your virtual bookshelf — any annotations or any kind of engagement that you had with that text is gone. There is no sense of it lasting beyond the duration of the quarter.”
Professors have also noted that even when they order specific texts through the program, the copy that students receive on their digital bookshelves does not always match with the text they have selected to study.
Delmolino noted that when she ordered a modern translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s “Decameron” for the course ITA 114, which is focused entirely on the work, the program incorrectly matched students with a translation different from what she requested.
“I ordered this particular translation after evaluating the options and determining this was the best one — it’s readable, it’s clear and it had good notes and commentary,” Delmolino said. “Equitable Access ordered a random translation which was already free online since it was in the public domain. It had no notes and wasn’t viable for a course where we were going to be reading 1,000 pages of the text.”
Werth experienced a similar error through the program, where the version of the text of “The Man in the Moone” for the ENL 189 seminar class was not granted to students. After a student shared that he had a difficult time reading the text, she examined the site and noticed the error.
“I opened Equitable Access and it showed the cover of the edition of the version I ordered, which is a very nice edition — very clear, great introduction and great notes,” Werth said. “They had the cover image of the text I’d ordered and inside was a facsimile edition of the text from the 1700s. No page numbers, no notes, nothing.”
As of this quarter, the Undergraduate Council and the Division of Student Affairs joined together to offer a pilot program to provide print copies of books through Equitable Access. The program will take place during spring quarter and will allow instructors to propose a rationale as to why a particular text needs to be available to students in print and offered through Equitable Access. If proven successful, the program could be implemented as a permanent option and will therefore allow some books to be granted in physical form.
Despite issues that have arisen with the program, Equitable Access has been designed to benefit students and staff. In an ideal world for some at UC Davis, the program could be adapted slightly to host more print availability for students and staff. Until then, many students at UC Davis may choose to proceed with caution and research before selecting to opt in or out of the program.
Written by: Rachel Gauer — features@theaggie.org