As covered in this semester’s first issue, Eastern’s new Eagle Learning Materials program was released at the beginning of fall 2026 for students to access their textbooks and materials all in one place for a baseline fee. While it seemed too good to be true, students were eager to get involved to save money and organizational time.
While to some students this seemed like a dream come true ($200 for a full semester of textbooks is significantly low for majors like nursing), others chose to opt out and forego the opportunity to partake in the program.
As for the students who opted in, it seems to be causing more struggle than help thus far.
One anonymous student shared in an interview how their experience has played out since opting into the Eagle Learning Materials program. “The Eagle Learning Materials program has been helpful for me since it has saved me money on textbooks. I had spent about $300 on textbooks each semester before the program began, but I did not have to do that this semester,” they said.
The student’s saving of money, unfortunately, did not make life particularly easier: “While the Eagle Learning Materials program has been helpful for me, it has also been quite inconsistent. There was one textbook that I was not able to get until the middle of the second week of this semester,” they said. “In another course, one of the textbooks that the professor had requested was not included in the list of materials for the course under Eagle Learning Materials. The professor had to inform the bookstore about the situation before they fixed the issue…in another course, the bookstore gave me and my classmates a different textbook than the one that my professor had asked for, and she had to ask for the issue to be fixed.”
The amount of classes in which the student had issues with their textbooks in just one semester open room for questions and concerns regarding the reliability of the program.
Another student, Sarah Hopkins, spoke out on her experience using Eagle Learning Materials so far this semester. “I actually opted in and still wound up paying for my books by outside sources like Amazon. I only did my one online class through the bookstore/elearning and it was a bit of an annoying process,” she said.
Considering the cost of the program each semester, the thought of students still not having total assurance that their books will be available to them or that they may still need to purchase texts elsewhere is unjust.
Hopkins shared that she felt “frustrated” with her experience and “wish(ed) (she’d) opted out.”
Granted, it is the first semester of Eagle Learning Materials being live, and students, professors and even the bookstore are still adjusting to its use. Despite its prominent digital elements, there are always people working behind the scenes to improve a system and make it usable for students, so it is important not to make harsh judgements after what is virtually the trial run of a brand new concept.
It is up to the students to decide whether they will show grace and trust the program to provide what it promises in future semesters.
This semester, however, it seems that the general consensus is that students struggled to adjust to the program and access what they needed this semester. The lack of available materials and miscommunications between professors and the bookstore became a major frustration for its users. Hopefully, in the future, Eagle Learning Materials can be developed in a foolproof way so that students and faculty alike can make use of it without anxiety.
