Textbook costs
Rising textbook costs have far outpaced the rate of inflation for decades, increasing more quickly than anything except some healthcare services and overall college tuition.
Source: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-of-the-day-or-century-5/
These increases have had a significant impact on students, many of whom struggle to afford their assigned textbooks. The short video below interviews students on how textbook costs affect their lives.
The ten-minute video below interviews students and faculty on their experiences with textbook costs and how open textbooks make a difference.
Multiple large surveys have shown that students take fewer courses, avoid specific courses they would otherwise have taken, drop or withdraw, do worse academically, and simply do without materials due to textbook costs.
Source: Virginia Course Materials Survey Results and Findings (https://vivalib.org/va/open/survey), p. 17.
Textbook costs have a disparate impact on students who are already marginalized, with research showing that those with multiple areas of marginalization face increased stresses in affording course materials.
Source: Virginia Course Materials Survey Results and Findings (https://vivalib.org/va/open/survey), p. 31.
Source: Virginia Course Materials Survey Results and Findings (https://vivalib.org/va/open/survey), p. 32.
Social justice
Increasingly, OER provide opportunities to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in course materials. The one-hour presentation below addresses the intersection of open education and social justice.
The webinar below covers practical guidance for using OER to build more inclusive materials.
- Changing our (Dis)Course: A Distinctive Social Justice Aligned Definition of Open EducationThis paper investigates the degree to which recent digital Open Education literature is aligned to social justice principles, starting with the first UNESCO definition of Open Educational Resources (OER).
- Open at the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open EducationThis book represents a starting point towards curating and centering marginal voices and non-dominant epistemic stances in open education. It includes the work of 43 diverse authors whose perspectives challenge the dominant hegemony.
Pros, cons, and alternatives
The webinar below addresses common arguments for and against using open textbooks and discusses ways to overcome the objections in the higher education landscape.
The short video below covers how to use library resources as an alternative way to reduce textbook costs for students.
