First Day

First Day is a program offered by Barnes & Noble College (BNC), owners of our campus Bookstore, designed to reduce the cost to students of access to publisher-provided online resources. Working with publishers, BNC is able to offer students short-term access to publishers' online resources for less than if students were to purchase the same access from the publisher directly. Students gain access for the duration of the semester and First Day costs, which vary based on the resource, are added to the student's WSU bill automatically. When working with BNC to adopt their course materials, instructors can choose to enroll their courses in First Day. This results in all students in the course being billed the First Day price for course materials automatically unless they decide to opt-out using the BN First Day link instructors add to their Brightspace courses.

Students

The First Day cost covers your access to online course resources for the duration of the term.
All First Day charges will be added to your WSU bill.
Your First Day charge covers everything related to that course resource (e.g. textbook). You should never have to pay the publisher directly or pay additional fees related to that specific book or resource.
If you decide to opt out of First Day, you must do so before the deadline, typically a week after the start of the course.
You need to opt out of each course separately if more than one of your courses uses First Day.
The First Day cost varies based on the resources selected by your instructor.
Generally, you do not use the First Day link in your Brightspace course to access the actual online resources. Your instructor will have either added additional links in Brightspace to those resources or you will access them using your browser from outside of Brightspace. There may be exceptions for certain ebooks. You might also use the First Day link to obtain an access code that you will use elsewhere. Your instructor will provide instructions.
If you purchase a printed version of the textbook in the Bookstore, you still need to opt out of First Day if you don't need access to the digital version of the book.
Be careful when opting out of First Day, even if you found another way to access the textbook. Your instructor may require access to digital resources beyond the textbook. Ask your instructor if you have questions.

Opt out

To opt out of First Day automatic billing, select the BN First Day link in the corresponding Brightspace course (Fig 1) and select the Want to opt out? button (Fig 2)

Check cost

To check the First Day cost of a course resource, select the BN First Day link in the corresponding Brightspace course (Fig 1). The cost should be listed next to the resource (Fig 2)

Fig 1. BN First Day link in Brightspace
Fig 2. Opt out or check cost

Instructors

First Day is a billing program offered by the BNC Bookstore and supported by the WSU Business Office. Students are billed automatically for access to all digital resources adopted through the Bookstore if you enroll your course in First Day.
The First Day program applies only when online resources (e.g., ebooks, courseware) are available. Bookstore staff will let you know if First Day can be offered based on your selected resources. Work with your publisher representative to explore digital options for various titles and courses.
Generally, First Day does not replace the process your students use to access your publisher-provided digital resources. Students access them directly or via links inserted into Brightspace through an approved, publisher-specific integration. Contact your publisher representative or TLT (tlt@winona.edu) for more information.
There are some cases where students can access ebooks or access codes through the First Day link in your Brightspace course. Bookstore staff will explain this to you if it pertains to your course.
If you decide to enroll your course in First Day, you must add a special link to your corresponding Brightspace course that students can use to opt out of the automated First Day billing if they so desire.
There are various reasons why students might want to opt out. For example, a student might have arranged to borrow your textbook from a friend and may not need access to the online version.
First Day opt-out dates are set by the WSU Business Office. BNC will inform you of the opt out date prior to the start of the term.
Many publishers offer online, interactive resources beyond digital copies of printed books. If you require your students to use such resources, there are no alternatives, and you have adopted First Day, inform your students of the consequences if they opt out.

Add the BN First Day link to a Brightspace course

Open your Brightspace course and select Content from the Materials menu
Select the content module into which you would like to add the link
Select the Existing Activities button and select External Learning Tools from the menu (Fig 1)
Select BN First Day from the list of available integrations (Fig 2)
The BN First Day link will be added as a topic to the module (Fig 3)
Update the link description as needed to clarify why students need to open it (Fig 4)

Fig 1. Select Existing Activites...External Learning Tools
Fig 2. Select BN First Day
Fig 3. BN First Day link added
Fig 4. Update link description as needed

Check your First Day course materials list

Select the newly created BN First Day link. You should see a list of the resources you selected for your course. If the list window indicates that you have no course materials, contact our BNC Bookstore manager, Tim Kiehne.

Inform your students

Advise your students to select the BN First Day link and opt out before the deadline if they wish to do so. Generally, students who don't want to opt out do not need to use the link at all unless they want to check the cost of a resource.

Questions

If you have any questions about First Day, contact the BNC Bookstore manager, Tim Kiehne

External links

BNC partners with VitalSource (2019)

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