The OER Knowledge Cloud makes use of cookies. By continuing, you consent to this use. More information.
Fixing the broken textbook market
Nagle, Cailyn · Vitez, Kaitlyn · U.S. PIRG Education Fund [corporate]

PublishedJune 2020
PeriodicalEdition 2, Pages 1-20
PublisherU.S. PIRG Education Fund
CountryUnited States, North America

ABSTRACT
The high price of college textbooks remains one of the most significant out of pocket expenses for students. The cost of textbooks has increased at three times the rate of inflation, and although that trend seems to have plateaued in the past few years, the high barrier of overall cost remains. The move from traditional print copies to temporary digital materials has eliminated many of the traditional cost saving measures students have historically employed. When students are forced to pay for an access code, which is an expiring login to a publisher platform that a student would use to submit their homework, the stakes are higher than ever.

So, how are high course material costs affecting students today? The Student PIRGs implemented a national survey in Fall 2019 to find out. We asked nearly 4,000 students to share their experiences with us, across 83 institutions serving over 500,000 students. We found that despite publishers’ talking points that access codes and other digital materials have answered student’s cries for help over costs, there has been little measurable improvement in key textbook affordability measures over the last six years since our last national survey. The broken textbook market continues to fail to meet student needs, and leaders at institutions of higher education should take further action to aid students.

Keywords textbook · textbook market · open textbooks

LanguageEnglish
RightsCC BY
URLhttps://uspirg.org/feature/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
Export optionsBibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar



AVAILABLE FILES
Fixing-the-Broken-Textbook-Market_June-2020_v2.pdf · 11.4MB18 downloads



Viewed by 217 distinct readers




CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.

Click a star to be the first to rate this document


POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS

Fixing the broken textbook market: How students respond to high textbook costs and demand alternatives
Senack, Ethan; U.S. PIRG Education Fund; The Student Public Interest Research Groups
The cost of college textbooks has skyrocketed in recent years. To students and families already struggling to afford high tuition and fees, an additional $1,200 per year on books and supplies can be the breaking ...
Match: U.S. PIRG Education Fund; open textbooks; United States; North America

Open 101: An action plan for affordable textbooks
Vitez, Kaitlyn; The Student PIRGS
Skyrocketing textbook prices for common university courses are adding insult to the burdensome debt students assume to pay for college. This new report investigates those high textbook prices for common courses at ...
Match: Vitez, Kaitlyn; open textbooks; United States; North America

Affordable textbooks: A policy guide
Senack, Ethan; The Student Public Interest Research Groups; U.S. PIRG Education Fund
The purpose of this guide is to provide policy guidance to thought-leaders and decision-makers from all levels of institutions and government – from individual campuses considering policies that support open textbook ...
Match: U.S. PIRG Education Fund; United States; North America

Opening up to OERs: Electronic original sourcebook versus traditional textbook in the introduction to American Government Course
Brandle, Shawna M.
Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever ...
Match: textbook; United States; North America

2012 Faculty and Administrator Open Educational Resources Survey
Donaldson, Robin; Nelson, David; Thomas, Eric
To examine the open educational resources (OER) climate in Florida’s postsecondary institutions, the Florida Distance Learning Consortium (FDLC) conducted an online survey of higher education faculty and staff between ...
Match: textbook; United States; North America

OER: A Pathway to Enhance Student Access and Motivation
Tolman, Anton O.; Gurell, Seth; Harnish, Richard J.; Bridges, K. Robert; et al.
Some readers may ask why a chapter on OER is included in a book about technology in teaching psychology. Although OER texts can be ordered in print form, the reality is that most of them are downloadable as PDF files, ...
Match: textbook; United States; North America

College students in Rhode Island have saved nearly $900K on textbooks in a year
Roddy, Kate
Through the same initiative, over 40 professors in the state have adopted openly licensed textbooks.
Match: textbook; United States; North America

SPARC: Landscape analysis
Aspesi, Claudio; Allen, Nicole; Crow, Raym; Daugherty, Shawn; et al.
SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a global coalition that works to enable the open sharing of research outputs and educational materials in order to democratize access to knowledge, ...
Match: textbook market; United States; North America

Open source textbook report: August 9th, 2016
Corcoran, Kevin; Bedard, Martha; University of Connecticut
This report covers the state of Open Textbooks and Open Educational Resources from a national and state perspective, and describes the actions taken to date to raise the awareness of the appointed legislative task ...
Match: open textbooks; United States; North America

Open source textbook report
University of Conneticut; The Conneticut Conference of Independent Colleges; Conneticut State Colleges & Universities
Since 2006, the cost of college textbooks has increased by 73% - more than four times the rate of inflation. Many students have opted for cost avoidance. In the report, Fixing the Broken Textbooks Market, it states that ...
Match: open textbooks; United States; North America