Directory of Providers

Interested in joining the AL$ Directory of Providers?

You are encouraged to apply for inclusion in the Directory of Providers by completing and submitting the Provider Program Application .

Printable version of the application  (for those who would like to work on and collect the required information for the application offline). When ready, please use the printable version to complete and submit the on-line application.

Directory of Providers

The California State University Affordable Learning $olutions’ new Directory of Providers is a resource of low-cost and no-cost course materials for faculty and academic departments that help lower the costs for students.

The participants in the program offer course materials in formats that provide significant savings over traditional materials. Each provider has supplied evidence of effective use on at least one CSU campus.

Please note: Inclusion in the Directory of Providers does not confirm that a systemwide license or agreement is in place between the CSU Office of the Chancellor and provider. Campuses are responsible for their own accessibility reviews.

Bibliu logo

BibliU  is a Learning Enablement Platform that leverages digital content management, automation, and analytics to enable more efficient, effective, and equitable learning.

BibliU is proud to enable universities and colleges around the world to improve both student engagement and outcomes, putting digital textbooks, courseware, OER, and monographs at the fingertips of all students, regardless of their economic backgrounds.

Used by: Long Beach, Northridge, Pomona, San Marcos

Contact: Alex McPherson, Sales Lead, BibliU

BVT logo

BVT’s LAB BOOK  provides an interactive eBook with integrated lab and classroom for all of BVT’s nationally-marketed titles, designed for all devices. Students can add notes and highlights, do in-chapter comprehension questions, and explore multimedia. They can also access study resources in the lab, such as practice questions, flashcards, chapter summaries and lecture slides. Instructors can use optional classroom features such as auto-graded assessments, sharing of instructor notes and highlights throughout the eBook, and monitoring student activity and progress within the book and lab. The ability for instructors to customize the content of the book and lab will be available soon.

Used by: Chico, East Bay, Fullerton, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, Northridge, San Bernardino, San Marcos

Contact: Christine Davies, Sales and Marketing Manager, BVT Publishing

flat world logo

FlatWorld —engaging, affordability-friendly digital-first textbooks. Reclaim your time and unlock student engagement with a comprehensive textbook system designed for you and your students. Each textbook comes fully-equipped with a suite of instructor supplements, quiz and homework system at no additional cost, as well as a dedicated support team. Your students will start class prepared and ready to participate thanks to our accessible, digital platform and affordable prices. FlatWorld offers over 140 digital and print textbooks, across 22 disciplines. Textbooks are priced from $24.95 to $39.95. Join the thousands of professors already using a FlatWorld textbook.

Used by: Bakersfield , Channel Islands , Chico , Dominguez Hills , East Bay , Fresno , Fullerton , Long Beach , Los Angeles , Maritime , Monterey Bay , Northridge , Pomona , Sacramento , San Bernardino , San Francisco , San Luis Obispo , San Diego , San Jose , San Marcos , Sonoma , Stanislaus 

Contact: Alastair Adam, Co-CEO, FlatWorld

human kinetics logo

Human Kinetics  offers textbooks, e-books, online courses, courseware, instructor ancillary materials, and study guides in the areas of fitness, strength and conditioning, dance, physical therapy, coaching, kinesiology, physical education, sport mgmt., and several other areas.

Used by: Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Diego

Contact: Kari Testory, Higher Ed Sales Director, Human Kinetics

Kendæll Hunt Publishing Company logo

Kendall Hunt provides custom publishing guidance and solutions for higher education authors to create affordable learning solutions. Faculty can author dynamic content with easy access to guidance (CREATE), revise and remix existing content to best suit course and student needs (CUSTOMIZE), and choose “out of the box” existing content that has been peer reviewed and classroom-tested (9,000 + titles (ADOPT). The materials available in the Kendall-Hunt ADOPT Collection have been classroom tested and peer-reviewed by higher education faculty and are ready for adoption. These resources are also significantly less expensive than the major publishers, which provide Affordable Learning Solutions for faculty and students.

1. Explore a range of case studies: https://he.kendallhunt.com/case-studies 

2. Case Study for CREATE: https://he.kendallhunt.com/sites/default/files/public/Case_Study_Update.pdf 

3. Tools & Process for CUSTOMIZE: https://he.kendallhunt.com/resource/customize-us-custom-textbook 

4. Existing library of KH publications: https://he.kendallhunt.com/catalog  Kendall Hunt has a nationally adopted First Year Experience curriculum which as a CSU faculty member as the first author of the resources.

Not only can discipline based course materials be customized and created but resources for student success programs can be created, customized and adopted in support of the CSU Graduation 2025 Initiative.

Used by: Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, San Jose, Sonoma, Stanislaus

Contact: David Tart, Vice President, Kendall Hunt Publishing, Higher Education Division

macmillan logo

Achieve —Macmillan Learning has several market-leading software solutions which have served over 20 million students in the past decade. Four years ago, we set out to take the best features of each solution and marry them into a platform that is intuitive and flexible. Achieve  is that platform with a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools that incorporates the most effective elements from Macmillan’s market leading solutions - including Sapling, LaunchPad, iClicker and others - into a single, easy to use platform. Achieve offers an ebook, course- and book-specific resources, a gradebook, LearningCurve adaptive quizzing, assessment tools, insights and reporting, and integration options. Achieve is designed to engage all students inside and outside the classroom and at all levels of motivation and preparedness to improve student success. The instructor and student experience is the heart of Achieve, from our initial development, to the ease of use, to our expert customer support - and is available across a variety of disciplines and courses. For a complete list of disciplines covered, please visit https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/digital/achieve#disciplines 

Achieve Demo 

Used by: Bakersfield, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, San Jose and Sonoma

Contact: Suzanne Slope, California Regional Manager, Macmillan

macmillan logo

iClicker —For more than a decade, iClicker’s mission has been to create simple, flexible and reliable classroom solutions to promote active learning. Used by millions of students at more than 1,300 institutions, we are proud to uphold that mission by continuing to partner with students, instructors and technologists to create innovative, pedagogically-sound learning tools. iClicker is an intuitive and flexible student engagement and attendance solution for use in any classroom (online, hybrid, or in-person) that utilizes polling, quizzing and assignments tools to engage every learner, check students’ understanding, and enable instructors to intervene early to increase student success. iClicker features quick setup and an effortless design so instructors can get started in minutes and transform their classroom with actionable, immediate feedback and results.

iClicker Cloud Polling Demo 

Used by: Bakersfield, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, San Marcos, Sonoma, Stanislaus

Contact: Nicole Skwarek, iClicker Manager, Macmillan

macmillan logo

iClicker Insights  Retention Surveys—For more than 3 decades, Macmillan’s Research and Analytics team has been studying how surveys can measure student retention with data from 200+ institutions and 1 million+ students. The iClicker Insights solution offers short surveys that deliver results as early as week 2 of the term in order to allow for earlier interventions. While focusing on the information that can only be gathered by asking students, iClicker Insights identifies students’ distress on topics from sense of belonging, finances, homesickness, intent to return, to class attendance, and course struggles. Intended as a supplement, iClicker Insights data can be uploaded into any early alert or data platform an institution is already using. “The speed at which you can get responses, and the questions that are already validated is really impressive.”

“iClicker Insights is reaching the students who otherwise we would not have noticed. If we didn’t
do the surveys, we would not have known their story and we wouldn’t have known to ask. Now these students have an advocate in us…they know that they matter.”
—Christina Smith, Director of Residence Life, University of Dayton

Testimonial from the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies at Mizzou 

Used by: Northridge

Contact: Mandy Shaffer, Director of Enterprise Initiatives, Macmillan

macmillan logo

iOLab Wireless Lab System  is a revolutionary hardware and software solution for your physics lab that combines measurement devices and components needed for hundreds of physics labs into a single device and links them to a software solution for gathering data and recording results. Instructors can share lab activities with students and students can complete lab-style physics experiments remotely. iOLab can replace or augment your current lab setup and is perfect for online, hybrid or traditional classes. Technical specifications can be found at https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/digital/iolab/technical-specs 

iOlab Video Demos 

Used by: Pomona, San Bernardino

Contact: Suzanne Slope, California Regional Manager, Macmillan

macmillan logo

Your Words. Your Way. ®

That is not just a tagline but rather the foundation upon which our service reputation has been built.

Hayden-McNeil Publishing is a part of Macmillan Learning’s Curriculum Solutions division. Curriculum Solutions brings together the quality and reputation of Bedford/St. Martin’s, W.H. Freeman, and Worth Publishers content with Hayden-McNeil’s expertise in publishing original custom print and digital products for the higher education market.

Our Hayden-McNeil Student Lab  Notebooks are the #1 selling carbonless laboratory notebooks in the market and the gold standard in laboratory education! The benefits to using a student lab notebook are strongly aligned with a successful science curriculum. These include: clear organization and recording of observations allows students to sharpen their inquiry abilities; use as a formative assessment tool, lab notebooks can greatly enhance the student — instructor relationship; dry labbing is eliminated; cheating is shut down; detailed recording of student observations tracks the evolution in student comprehension of scientific concepts.

There is no better way to understand the Hayden-McNeil Advantage than to experience working with us yourself. Our business was founded on the principle of providing the ultimate service to instructors to professionally author and publish their own course materials.

Learn more about Hayden-McNeil Digital Lab Solutions 

Used by: Bakersfield, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, San Diego, San Francisco, San Marcos

Contact: Suzanne Slope, California Regional Manager, Macmillan

macmillan logo

Skyfactor Benchworks  provides program assessment and benchmarking that is professionally developed and validated with results presented in an intuitive dashboard. Skyfactor Benchworks enables institutions to identify issues and areas of focus to make informed investment decisions; better serve and engage students; and continuously improve programs. Areas of assessment include academic programs (business, nursing, engineering, teacher education) and student affairs programs (campus climate, college union, first year, new student, housing/residence life, orientation, student activities, student services).

Skyfactor Student Affairs Demo 

Used by: Channel Islands, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Maritime Academy, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Jose, San Marcos, Sonoma, Stanislaus

Contact: Charlie Friscia, Director of Sales, Skyfactor

ALEKS logo

McGraw Hill ALEKS Math and Chemistry  is a course assistant that helps forge Constructive Learning Paths for students - blending personalized modules with instructor-driven assignments to ensure every student always has another block to build on their knowledge base. ALEKS gives instructors the flexibility to assign homework, share curated content such as videos, review student progress and provide support anytime, anywhere.

Unlike any other Math and Chemistry learning platform on the market, ALEKS meets all students where they are and moves them along their own personalized learning path. An Initial Knowledge Check determines each student’s optimal starting point in the course material by identifying the prerequisite knowledge they already have, as well as the topics they need more exposure to. ALEKS then delivers customized practice to help students progress through the course. ALEKS Progress Knowledge Checks can also be deployed to detect which of the topics students may not have retained, enforce long-term mastery of the material and help students prepare for exams. With ALEKS in attendance, no student is left behind.

Used by: Chico, Long Beach, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Diego, Sonoma

Contact: David Salo, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw Hill Connect logo

McGraw Hill Connect®  helps millions of students reach their potential every year. This course management and adaptive learning solution is built on instructor feedback and provides the tools, technology, and support needed to streamline course delivery and unlock the learning potential of all students. Deliver your course with quality content, course personalization, and proctoring. Drive student success with modern tools, including SmartBook 2.0, ReadAnywhere App, Application-Based Activities, and Writing Assignments that will better prepare and engage students throughout the life of the course. You’ll be able to track student performance with analytics and data tools to guide teaching and remediation.

Used by: Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Long Beach, Northridge, Pomona, San Diego

Contact: David Salo, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, McGraw-Hill Education

Connect Virtual Labs logo

The Lab is Always Open. Keep all students engaged with flexible, interactive lab simulations designed to improve comprehension and confidence anytime, anywhere.

McGraw Hill Virtual Labs  offers more than 135 accessible lab simulations to support your science courses, including Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, Chemistry, Medical Assisting, Microbiology, Nutrition, Physics, and more. Virtual Labs can be used for pre-lab preparation, online lab courses, post-lab review, make-up labs, or used with a textbook to bridge the gap between lab and lecture courses. With simple set up for instructors and easy navigation for students, our simulations and customizable pre- and post-lab assessment content create a genuine lab experience for all students.

Used by: Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Long Beach, Fullerton, Northridge, Pomona, San Marcos

Contact: David Salo, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, McGraw-Hill Education

simnet logo

McGraw Hill SIMnet  is an easy-to-use digital platform that teaches and assesses skills in Microsoft Office Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. It also covers file management and operating systems, thereby enabling student career readiness and employability. McGraw Hill provides quality support for instructors and students using the platform.

Used by: Chico, Northridge, Pomona, San Luis Obispo

Contact: David Salo, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, McGraw-Hill Education

panOpen logo

panOpen  is a courseware platform that enables faculty and schools to use OER more effectively. Traditionally, OER meant instructors had to create everything on their own. panOpen fills that need by providing a library of high-quality, peer-reviewed course material that spans a wide range of subjects while remaining low cost, interactive & mobile ready. panOpen is committed to provide equity and access to all students.

panOpen Demo 

Used by: Los Angeles

Pearson logo

Pearson Higher Education —Research-based content delivered with bookstore partnership Inclusive Access automatically gives all students in participating courses access to their course materials in digital format by the first day of classes at prices 12%-60% less than other formats. eBook content is predominantly delivered in EPUB format to meet accessibility ICT standards (WCAG 2.1, Section 508 & 504 Compliance). Content is continually updated with digital dynamic updates, to provide relevant, current content and save on costs.

Used by: Bakersfield, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, San Jose

Sofia logo

Sofia is designed to help math instructors who are struggling to find an effective math homework and assessment solution that is affordable for students (Sofia includes basic math through Calculus, plus Statistics content). Sofia includes the typical algorithmic homework problems you find in most of publisher-based systems; however, it can be used with any textbook and is easily adapted to Open Educational Resources (OER) materials/texts. Sofia can align with your course design and organization by selecting and customizing pre-built assignments that complement teacher-selected OER and other teaching resources.

By linking directly into your learning management system, Sofia assignments appear native to other class assignments so your students do not feel like they are using a separate platform. Sofia will save you valuable time because assignments are auto-graded and the grades appear in your learning management system grade book.

Students are never without assistance when they are working on their homework in Sofia. Just-in-time learning aids like hints and step-by-step solutions are available for students if they get stuck and - unique to Sofia - is a link to a LIVE TUTOR for real-time, 24/7 help that keeps students engaged and persistent.

In a recent student satisfaction survey, over 93% of students had an overall positive experience using Sofia. Sofia can also help reduce math anxiety. In that same survey, 89% of students responded that Sofia gave them more confidence and improved learning in math. The high-quality content in Sofia is flexible and the cost savings will be significant for your students. The cost for Sofia is only $20 per student for a term of access.

To learn more about how Sofia can boost your students’ math confidence and improve learning outcomes, contact us today.

Sofia Demo 

Used By: In Pilot Phase

Contact: Chuck Myers, Western Regional Sales Manager, Link-Systems International

two hat logo

Top Hat  is a low-cost content provider and student engagement platform accessible via mobile or web. Top Hat works with Universities and their professors to tackle issues such as Student affordability, accessible content development, improving student course engagement, and providing insights to improve learner outcomes. Top Hat welcomes the opportunity to support the AL$ program.

Through their content marketplace, Top Hat gives professors the ability to adopt low-cost, engaging, and customizable course material. The marketplace has a mixture of organically developed Top Hat content, as well as content from their publishing partners such as OpenStax, Fountainhead Press & Bluedoor Publishing. All of Top Hat’s textbooks are designed to be affordable and as engaging as possible for students with interactive elements embedded throughout the text. In addition to this, professors have the ability to customize their version of the text to suit their class’s needs.

Top Hat also gives you the ability to author interactive textbooks, course packs, and other materials through the platform. Those who decide to author with Top Hat are teamed up with an authoring project manager to help them through the process and ensure they have the support they need.

Used by: Bakersfield, Channel Islands, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Sonoma, Stanislaus

Contact: Luke Henshaw, Instructional Partnership Director, Top Hat

vitalsource logo

E-platform provider: Vitalsource  has the best in class eReader, Bookshelf, allowing students to access content online and offline. VitalSource Connect is industry-leading technology for the management of digital delivery of eText and courseware from both inside and outside the LMS Content provider: VitalSource Videoclips is the largest online catalog of video content for course creators. VST Videoclips contain both current event videos as well as educational videos. Content provider: VitalSource has Enhanced the top twelve Open Staxx titles with multi-media, true/false questions, multiple choice, and interactivity.

Used by: Fresno, Fullerton, Long Beach, Pomona

W.W. Norton and Company logo

W. W. Norton’s textbooks and learning tools (InQuizitive and Smartwork) are class tested, not crowdsourced.

InQuizitive  is an award-winning, easy-to-use adaptive learning tool that helps students retain key concepts and come to class better prepared. InQuizitive personalizes individual students’ learning paths so they receive more questions on topics they’re struggling with. Each question includes detailed feedback, and the wagering points feature helps students assess their own understanding. Detailed performance analytics help instructors identify where students are struggling so that they can intervene at crucial points during the learning process. With LMS integration, single sign-on and automatic grade transfer simplifies student access and saves instructors time.

InQuizitive Demo 

Smartwork  helps students become better problem solvers. It offers a variety of interactive question types, extensive answer-specific feedback, instructor flexibility, and LMS integration. Smartwork is available to accompany textbooks in Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Geology, and Economics. Instructors can get started quickly with premade assignments or customize questions and add their own content. Students answer interactive questions that build key skills required of their course. Answer-specific feedback coaches students as they work. Detailed performance analytics help instructors identify where students are struggling so that they can intervene at crucial points during the learning process. With LMS integration, single sign-on and automatic grade transfer simplifies student access and saves instructors time.

Used by: Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Chico, Dominguez Hills, East Bay, Fresno, Fullerton, Humboldt, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey Bay, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, San Jose, San Marcos, Sonoma, Stanislaus

Contact: Andrea Knab, Western Regional Manager, W. W. Norton and Co.

XanEdu logo

XanEdu FlexEd  delivers an affordable, complete courseware solution that enhances student outcomes in any learning environment. FlexEd compliments quality, peer reviewed OER content, such as OpenStax, to guide students through the course content in an easy-to-follow learning path. With a learn, practice and assess approach, individualized student learning is supported through a carefully curated multimodal learning platform. Thoughtfully designed to minimize instructor prep-time, the platform provides instructors the freedom to take advantage of premium content while also customizing their own course curriculum. A flexible DIY interface makes it easy to personalize any content with a simple drag and drop.

Used by: Fullerton and Los Angeles

Contact: Mike Kubiak, Higher Education Product Manager, XanEdu

Content Creation Tools

Commercial and free authoring tools are available for faculty to easily customize their course materials so that their students are only paying for the resources they will use in their course as well as tailor learning materials to their course curriculum.

libretexts logo

The LibreTexts  project is a multi-institutional collaborative effort to improve education at all levels of higher learning by developing Open Access Resources.

pressbooks logo

Pressbooks is online software that enables authors and publishers to design and format any kind of book.

montezuma logo

Montezuma Publishing  has been a recognized leader in the custom course reader market for over 30 years. Offering digital and print course readers, copyright services and more at lower costs than traditional print course materials.

Softchalk logo

Create your own engaging, personalized, and interactive online lessons with SoftChalk  Cloud. Please check with your campus to see they are a participant in the SoftChalk CSU systemwide license.

merlot logo

MERLOT Content Builder  is a free website authoring tool for instructors, students, people in the workforce, and communities to create Open Educational Resources. An account is required to access the Content Builder.

Open Educational Resources

cool4ed logo

The three State of California Higher Education Systems are working together to provide you easy access to quality FREE and OPEN eTextbooks that everyone and anyone can use for teaching and learning. Cool4Ed

libretexts logo

The LibreTexts  project is a multi-institutional collaborative effort to improve education at all levels of higher learning by developing Open Access Resources.

merlot logo

The MERLOT  system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.

OpenStax logo

OpenStax  provides free, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks for introductory college and Advanced Placement courses and low-cost, personalized courseware that helps students learn.

skills commons logo

Your FREE and OPEN digital library of Workforce Training Materials. Preparing the Workforce for 21st Century Employment through TAACCCT .