Faculty can select their course materials via the Barnes & Noble College (BNC) Faculty Course Materials Adoption site.

For questions about books or materials, pricing, or digital vs. physical availability, please email Barnes & Noble at SM8505@bncollege.com for clarification.

Adopting Course Materials

Course materials adopted less than 45 days before the first day of class may not be available in time.

How do I adopt course materials?

The Faculty Course Materials Adoption Portal lets you log in with your Fairfield University NetID via a link in Blackboard. You can also access the portal through the link in your Adoption Reminder emails.

As faculty, you will land on the Course List and see all your courses for the term/semester, as recorded in Banner. Here, you can submit your adoptions by using your adoption history, searching the catalog, and more.

To Re-Adopt from a past term, use the One Click Re-Adopt function. Don’t forget to select which term/section you want to use when doing this!

I found the course materials for my class, but I'd like to make some changes to the options. How can I do this?

After selecting the material, you should see a textbook with the heading “Note for Bookstore”. Use this textbox to make your requests. Examples include:

“Please do not include the digital/print version.”

“Students may purchase older versions of this textbook.”

Barnes and Noble ensures that both the digital and print versions of course materials are always available, unless specifically requested otherwise by the instructor. This approach aims to reduce barriers for students who may require either digital or printed formats for accessibility purposes. In cases where a student requires a format that is not currently offered by the bookstore, accommodations will still be made to ensure they can access their materials - though this may cause delays in acquiring materials for the first day of class.

I plan to merge my courses in Blackboard. How does this impact my adoptions?

You must select the same course materials for each section. If one section offers the digital version but another does not, students may have trouble accessing their materials.

I want to use a course material that is not currently available through the Adoption Portal. What are my options?

If the material is free for students (OER, available via the library, etc.), you can link to the material in your syllabus or Blackboard course.

If you are using any course materials that students are required to pay for (subscription or one-time fee), contact the bookstore to request that materials be made available through this program as soon as possible. Please be aware that some requests cannot be accommodated and others may take over two months to complete.

I want to use Perusall in my class with paid materials. What do I need to do?

If you are using Perusall and use a course material with a cost associated, you must indicate your intent to use Perusall at the time of adoption through Barnes and Noble College. After selecting your text, include a note that you will be using Perusall. If you were provided with an ISBN from Perusall, include that int he note. If no ISBN is available, any other information to assist the BNC team in finding the content would be helpful.

Accessing Adopted Materials

When/how will I get access to my course materials?

We strive to have all items ready for the first day of class. Once adopted, the material in question is added to our tracker document and sent to our BNC team to be paired in VitalSource, the provider of our ebooks.

You should have access to your course materials 30 days prior to the start of the course via the BNC Course Materials link in your Blackboard course.

If you recently adopted your materials, or the bookstore is working on adopting new material for you, there may be a delay.

How can my students access publisher courseware?

If you are using publisher courseware (Pearson, Cengage, etc.), you must add the LTI (learning tool integration) to connect the publisher content to your course.

Within your course, choose Add Content (+) and select Content Market from the drop-down menu
In the content market, find the tool for your courseware
Specific instructions to connect your Blackboard course to the publisher’s courseware vary by publisher. We’ve compiled some of the more popular publisher instructions here: Adding Publisher and other Third Party Tools from the Content Market in Blackboard Ultra

What if I accidentally deleted the BNC Course Materials link from my Blackboard course?

You can add the course materials link back to your Blackboard course by emailing academiccomputing@fairfield.edu your course information or by following these steps:

Within your course, choose Add Content (+) and select Content Market from the drop-down menu
In the content market, find the BNC Course Materials tool
Select the add to course button in the bottom right of the tile.

Support and Contact Information

Questions about course materials, access to either the Red Stack Direct student portal or the opt-out tool, and the Barnes & Noble LTI in Blackboard should come to the bookstore.

Questions about a publisher LTI in Blackboard (needed to use the courseware product we are providing access to in our LTI, for example Pearson MyLab, Cengage MindTap, etc.) or using courseware to manage the course should be directed to the publisher representative working with the faculty.

Information Technology Services Knowledge Base

Barnes and Noble Textbook and Courseware Adoption FAQs