Educational Materials are an integral part of the academic experience and are necessary tools to train and educate the next generation. When considering the scope of educational materials, it can be easy to think about textbooks and textbooks only. For the purposes of this paper, educational materials encompass a wide array of books, articles, texts, audio-visual materials, course packs, and other teaching and learning tools that instructors and students draw on to advance their knowledge in a given field of study. In the 21st century classroom, educational materials can take entirely new forms. There is no post-secondary student in Canada in any program, whether at a college, university, or polytechnic, whose education is not impacted by decisions around educational material availability, cost, and format.
From the perspective of students, it is therefore imperative that educational materials be accessible, affordable, innovative, and of the highest quality.
Students cannot succeed if educational materials are not accessible and affordable. Accessibility of educational materials means a variety of things, including their physical or digital availability, the ability of all students including those with disabilities to use them and their presence in a variety of different formats. Affordability means that all students can access the materials they need to fully participate in and benefit from their studies, without experiencing undue financial hardship.
An innovative and high quality education is largely based on the ability of students to tap into the widest array of ideas, information, and knowledge possible. For post-secondary in Canada to be high quality and innovative, the educational materials students use must constantly evolve. This evolution must not be limited to the content of the materials themselves, but also occur in the platforms and tools that make content available.