October 2, 2023
Student carrying overflowing stack of textbooks across campus.

The University of Iowa’s inclusive access program, ICON Direct, hit a new achievement with a total of over $9 million in student savings to date.

ICON Direct is the University of Iowa's initiative for ordering digital content from specific publishers and delivering it to students to address rising textbook costs. To date, 22 publishers have content available through the program. During the 2022–2023 academic year, 880 course sections with 19,475 students used ICON Direct to deliver course content, with the average amount saved by students during that academic year being $184.

“We are excited to see the program continue to grow and provide benefits to students,” says Valerie Henessee, ICON Direct eText coordinator in the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology (OTLT). “Beyond the cost savings, students have also told me they appreciate the digital nature of the materials as it keeps their backpacks lighter and features like text-to-speech and flashcards enable them to study on the go.”

While digital textbooks and publisher platforms are the focus of the program, Top Hat Classroom Pro, a student classroom engagement tool, and open educational resources (OERs) are also available through ICON Direct.

“Instructors tell us how much they appreciate students having their digital textbooks in the ICON classroom on day one,”  says Vicky Maloy, assistant director of OTLT Academic Technologies. “The publisher platforms are extremely popular because they encourage student engagement.”

Orders for Winter and Spring Now Open

The order period for winter 2023 and spring 2024 ends on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2023. You can place your textbook orders using the ICON Direct Order Tool.

Please reach out to Valerie at ICON-Direct@uiowa.edu for assistance.

New to ICON Direct?

Curious about using ICON Direct in your courses? Attend 5 Reasons to Use ICON Direct on Monday, Oct. 23, from 3 to 4 p.m. Join this virtual session to learn what makes ICON Direct the perfect fit for certain courses and why you should take advantage of this opportunity to order materials that are essential for student success in your course through ICON Direct.