The structure of the current state IPM at Algonquin College is as much a product of the desired design and structure as it is a response to existing regulatory requirements. This section elaborates on some of the technical and regulatory considerations that are part of the eText/IPM initiative at Algonquin College.

Mandated acquisition with choice of format

As noted above, the Institutional Pay Model (IPM) is a form of inclusive access pay model whereby students in courses that are part of the IPM are charged for their required resources (e.g. textbooks) for that course by the institution, as part of their tuition and ancillary fees. As part of Algonquin College’s development and implementation of the IPM, the majority of course materials that are charged and delivered through the IPM are delivered digitally as electronic textbooks or eTexts. At the College, then, though eTexts and inclusive access pay models are separate and distinct concepts, the two are generally treated as meaning the same thing.

In terms of course resource acquisition, inclusive access pay models like the IPM can be thought of as mandated acquisition models. In a non-inclusive access model, though faculty members may declare one or more required resources for their course, students retain the choice as to whether or not they ultimately purchase the required resources. In an inclusive access model, however, students are automatically opted-in and charged for the required resources as determined by a faculty member’s adoption of said resources; students repeating a course are not charged again for the resource. At some institutions, it is possible to opt-out of the inclusive access pay model; at Algonquin College, no full opt-out—i.e. opting-out of having the required resource in some form—is possible.

Considering that almost all of the resources that are part of the IPM are delivered digitally, students who wish to have their course materials in a physical format have two options:

1. Print pages from their digital materials themselves at their own expense and/or by using print credits allotted to students in accordance with the Information Technology fee (700 black and white pages per eligible student per term for the 2017/2018 academic year, reducing by 200 pages per subsequent academic year)
2. Apply for an eText fee exemption: each semester, after the 10-day withdrawal period, students who have a physical version of an IPM resource can present it at the campus bookstore to receive a refund of their IPM fee. For an exemption to be approved, the physical resource must be the same edition as the IPM resource. Additionally, a physical resource that is approved for use for a fee exemption is stamped to indicate that it was used for the fee exemption process; the same copy of a physical resource can only be used for an exemption once per term, preventing multiple students from receiving a fee exemption for the same copy of a resource.

Thus, while not all students may have the same format of resource, the IPM guarantees that a student will have the required resource in some form.

Fees and Perpetual Access

The fees for the IPM are assessed in accordance with regulations from the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, formerly the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities, set forth in the Minister’s Binding Policy Directive on Tuition and Ancillary Fees (rev. 2013). Specifically, these fees fall under the category of compulsory ancillary fees that are introduced independent of the requirements of Article 19 (i.e. fees which have been “jointly agreed to by the college administration and student government representatives and approved by the board of governors”, p. 10), instead falling under Article 20 (i.e. fees which may be “introduced or increased without observing the protocol referenced [in article 19]). The nature of using a fee assessed under Article 20 has two main implications which bear on the implementation of the program:

1. The bureaucratic burden of needing to have each program’s IPM fee be approved is eliminated, a noteworthy feature given that modifications to fees would similarly need to be approved.
2. The digital resources that are mandated and delivered through this fee must be, per Article 20, Section V, “the property of the student” (p. 11). The Operating Procedure associated with the Binding Policy Directive provides additional clarification for program specific learning materials, stating that such learning materials must be retained by the student upon completion.

Thus, the student must have perpetual access to any resource charged to them as a compulsory ancillary fee through the IPM.

The Refund Policy section of the Minister’s Binding Policy Directive creates additional regulatory consideration, especially where the distribution of course materials might be required. First, per Article 37, a college “cannot require a student to waive his or her right to a refund as a condition of the student’s enrolment in a full-time program” (p. 15); a student will always have the right to a refund as described in this section. Per Article 38, if a student withdraws within the first 10 business days of a semester (or period for which the student has paid fees), the withdrawing student is “entitled to a refund of the full tuition and ancillary fees [emphasis added] for the semester or program period less $500” (p. 15). This would include necessarily any fees paid for course materials through the IPM:

1. If the IPM resources are physical, some mechanism would need to be put in place to recover the physical course materials that are charged as a compulsory ancillary fee for the withdrawing student. For resources recovered through this mechanism, it is not clear whether any limitation can be put on the state or condition of the resource (e.g., whether it must be unopened/shrink-wrapped; like-new)
2. If the IPM resources are digital, access to the resource can be revoked, and any local copies/versions of the resource that the student may be holding can be invalidated.