Why Use Open Textbooks?

Introduction

If you're introducing faculty to open textbooks for the first time, you may find that sharing research and benefits is an effective way to start the conversation. Read on for key findings and resources. 

Students' Financial Concerns

Florida Virtual Campus’s Office of Distance Learning and Student Services conducted the Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey (2022) Links to an external site. of more than 13,000 students. Key findings include:

  • 53% of students said that they had decided against buying a textbook because it was too expensive
  • 44% took fewer courses because of the cost of textbooks
  • 38% did not register for a course
  • 24% dropped a course

Open textbooks are a solution to these academic and financial concerns.

Student and Faculty Benefits

Open textbooks address not only financial issues, but pedagogical ones as well. The open licenses mean that faculty and students can create and edit textbooks that reflect the latest research as well as better speak to their local communities. Content can be updated to reflect recent changes in the law, or breakthroughs in science, and it can be localized so that students see themselves and their communities in the resource. Learning content is strengthened by including diverse voices and perspectives. 

Faculty may choose to involve their students in the production or review of content (a process often called open pedagogy). Student involvement can take a variety of forms, and may include student-generated case studies, stories, interviews and multimedia.

If you're interested in learning more about open pedagogy, here's an introductory video: Getting Started with Open Pedagogy Links to an external site..

Student and Faculty OER Perceptions

The Review Project from the Open Education Group provides a summary of empirical research on how students and faculty perceive Open Educational Resources' (OER) and their impact on learning.

Several thousand students and faculty members have shared their perceptions across more than a dozen studies that have focused on perceptions of OER. In no instance did a majority of students or teachers report that the OER were of inferior quality. Across multiple studies in various settings, students consistently reported that they faced financial difficulties and that OER provided a financial benefit to them. A general finding seems to be that roughly half of teachers and students find OER to be comparable to traditional resources, a sizeable minority believe they are superior, and a smaller minority find them inferior. -- https://openedgroup.org/review

Here's a 5 minute recap:

"A Review of the Effectiveness & Perceptions of Open Educational Resources As Compared to Textbooks Links to an external site." by Research Shorts Links to an external site. on YouTube (CC BY 3.0) Links to an external site.