Exploring Alternatives to the Traditional Textbook
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Workshop co-presented by librarians Erin Cassidy and Thom Gerrish to faculty at Sam Houston State University, 24 Feb 2016.
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Exploring Alternatives to the Traditional Textbook
- 1. EXPLORING ALTERNATIVES TO THE TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOK Erin Cassidy & Thom Gerrish Newton Gresham Library 24 Feb 2016
- 2. Outline Scope of the Problem Costs, Burdens, and Risks for Students Issues for Faculty Who Benefits? What Can Be Done Informed Selection of Traditional Textbooks Leveraging Library Resources Open Access Textbooks
- 3. Scope of the Problem Textbook prices have increased disproportionately to other social costs.
- 4. Scope of the Problem $57 $65 $79 $0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $25 $30 $35 $40 $45 $50 $55 $60 $65 $70 $75 $80 2007 2010 2013 Average Price of a New Textbook Data Source: “Average Estimated Undergraduate Budgets, 2015-16.” The College Board. http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets- 2015-16
- 5. Scope of the Problem 73% Increase in college textbook prices between 2006 and 2016. Source: Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.] http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/covering-cost
- 6. Scope of the Problem 161% Increase in college textbook prices between 1998 and 2014. Source: Straumsheim, Carl. (Aug 4, 2015). “Triaging Textbook Costs.” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/04/era-400-college-textbook-affordability-initiatives- take-utilitarian-approach
- 7. Scope of the Problem 945% Increase in college textbook prices between 1978 and 2014. Source: Straumsheim, Carl. (Aug 4, 2015). “Triaging Textbook Costs.” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/04/era-400-college-textbook-affordability-initiatives- take-utilitarian-approach
- 8. Scope of the Problem New “e-textbooks” from traditional publishers aren’t truly improving the issues of student costs.
- 9. Scope of the Problem 40-50% Average cost of an e-textbook, compared to the print edition. BUT… Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 10. Scope of the Problem 180 Average number of days a student can use an e-textbook before the file expires. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 11. Scope of the Problem $0 Resale value of e-textbooks—they are not truly owned, so they cannot be sold. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 12. Scope of the Problem 0 Ability to retain an e-textbook for reference in future courses or employment. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 13. Scope of the Problem Textbooks create a significant financial burden for students and contribute to increasing student debt.
- 14. Scope of the Problem $1,200-1,300 Average estimated undergraduate student budget for textbooks and supplies. Source: “Average Estimated Undergraduate Budgets, 2015-16.” The College Board. http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets- 2015-16
- 15. Scope of the Problem 30% Average number of students who have used financial aid to pay for textbooks. Source: Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.] http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/covering-cost
- 16. Scope of the Problem 23% Increase in cost of a $150 textbook for a student purchasing that book with student loans. Source: Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.]
- 17. Scope of the Problem < $1,000 Average amount owed to a University by a student who drops out for financial reasons. Source: Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.] http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/covering-cost
- 18. Scope of the Problem $3.15 billion Estimated financial aid spent on textbooks per year. Source: Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.] http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/covering-cost
- 19. Scope of the Problem High textbook costs drive student decisions which may impact their academic performance and progress.
- 20. Scope of the Problem 65% Students who have skipped buying a textbook because it was too expensive. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 21. Scope of the Problem 94% Students who felt concern that not buying the textbook would harm their course grade (but did without it anyway). Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 22. Scope of the Problem 50% Students who selected how many and which classes to take based on textbook cost. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student
- 23. Scope of the Problem 82% Students who felt they would do significantly better in a course if the textbook was free online and buying a hard copy was optional. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 24. Scope of the Problem Traditional textbooks may also pose pedagogical issues for faculty.
- 25. Scope of the Problem 3-4 Years Average publication of new editions, regardless of changes in subject matter. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 26. Scope of the Problem 0 Ability of professor to modify or customize a traditional textbook. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 27. Scope of the Problem The traditional textbook publishing model prioritizes the publisher’s benefits over the students and the faculty.
- 28. Scope of the Problem $8.8 billion Average profits of the textbook publishing industry in 2013—with 80% of this market controlled by just 5 publishers. Source: Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market
- 29. Scope of the Problem 15% Average author royalties on college textbooks— rates may go as high as 18-21%, but may also be as low as 7-10%. Source: Lennie, Michael. “How to negotiate the textbook royalty clause.” (Nov 11, 2011). TAA Blog on
- 30. What Can Be Done? Conscientious Use of Traditional Textbooks Leveraging Library Resources Open-Access Textbooks and OER
- 31. Conscientious Use of Traditional Textbooks Selection Timing and Notification New Vs. Older Editions Library Print Reserves
- 32. Leveraging Library Resources Library Reserves, Print and Electronic Embedding Streaming Videos E-Book and Database Content Librarians as Strategic Partners
- 34. Leveraging Library Resources More than 40,000 films available Use complete film or individual clips Films on Demand Academic Video Online PBS Video Collection Kanopy Streaming Video Ambrose Video NBC Learn Met Opera on Demand
- 36. Open-Access Textbooks and OER Definition of Open educational resources (OER) “Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re- share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.” Source: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-
- 37. Open-Access Textbooks and OER Definition of Open Access Textbook “An open textbook is an openly-licensed textbook offered online by its author(s). The open license sets open textbooks apart from traditional textbooks by allowing users to read online, download, or print the book at no additional cost.” Source: http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/model/appendixA.html
- 38. Recent Examples of Open-Access Textbook Adoption Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Virginia adopted open textbooks in 2013. Based largely on TCC’s success, Virginia Community Colleges in 2015 began piloting a statewide program for open textbooks in community colleges. Washington State Community College was also starting a large OER program in fall 2015. Texas A&M University is now offering an award to a faculty member “innovatively using OA textbooks as part of class curriculum,” and encouraging faculty participation in creation and review of OA textbooks.
- 40. OpenStax Adopters – Just the A’s! Complete list at: https://openstaxcollege.org/pages/adoptions
- 41. Open-Access Platforms Open Textbook Library - https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/ MERLOT – Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching - https://www.merlot.org OpenStax College - https://openstaxcollege.org/
- 42. OpenStax College Presentation Nicole Finkbeiner Associate Director, Institutional Relations OpenStax, Rice University (713) 348-2972
- 43. Sources Cited “Average Estimated Undergraduate Budgets, 2015-16.” The College Board. http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average- estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2015-16 Lennie, Michael. “How to negotiate the textbook royalty clause.” (Nov 11, 2011). TAA Blog on Textbook and Academic Writing. http://blog.taaonline.net/2011/11/how-to-negotiate-the-textbook-royalty- clause/ Senack, Ethan. Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: How Students Respond to High Textbook Costs and Demand Alternatives. (Jan 2014). U.S. PIRG [Public Interest Research Group] and the Student PIRGs. http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/fixing-broken-textbook-market Senack, Ethan, and Robert Donoghue. (Feb 2016). Covering the Cost: Why We Can No Longer Afford to Ignore High Textbook Prices. The Student PIRGs [Public Interest Research Groups.] http://www.studentpirgs.org/reports/sp/covering-cost Straumsheim, Carl. (Aug 4, 2015). “Triaging Textbook Costs.” Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/04/era-400-college- textbook-affordability-initiatives-take-utilitarian-approach
- 44. Additional Resources Open Access Textbook: A FIPSE Grant Project - http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/ Open Educational Resources: For Educators (from the University of Texas at Arlington) - http://libguides.uta.edu/oer/educators Adopting Open Textbooks: an archived online course from P2Pu - https://courses.p2pu.org/en/courses/2675/ado pting-open-textbooks/
- 45. Questions? Erin Cassidy Associate Professor, Newton Gresham Library Web Services, History, & Foreign Languages Librarian 936-294-4567 ecassidy@shsu.edu Thom Gerrish Assistant Professor, Newton Gresham Library Science & Health Librarian 936-294-4686 gerrish@shsu.edu
Notas del editor
- From the College Board’s annual survey of colleges.
- Increase in just the last 10 years This is almost four times the cumulative inflation rate (19%) over this same period
- Jump over 16 years
- Jump over 26 years
- It is also worth noting that most e-textbooks have printing restrictions, so students who learn better by reading paper are limited in their ability to consume their e-textbook in their preferred format.
- Especially with courses in a student’s major, they may wish to retain a textbook from a lower course to reference during higher courses or even employment. This is rarely ever possible with e-textbooks from traditional publishers.
- And this average is surprisingly consistent across public and private two-year and four-year universities.
- Comparatively small amounts of money can have a disproportionate impact. Note that this amount, which can cause students to drop out, is LESS than the approximately $1300 which the College Board recommends for students to budget for textbooks and course supplies for a single year.
- Which means that significantly lowering textbook costs could free up to 3.15 billion dollars in local, state, and federal funding for use in reducing other costs of higher education.
- In some contexts, this may be unnecessarily frequent. How much does your subject matter change in 3 years? But in other contexts, this may actually be frustratingly slow. If a major discovery causes significant changes in your field, 3 years can be a long time to work around the outdated textbook.
- In order to select just one textbook which has the most appropriate organization and approach overall, you may have to compromise on how it orders or explains specific topics.
- In a nutshell, we’re allowing commercial publishers to get rich off of our debt-ridden students and our own labors, for which we are only moderately compensated.
- Timing: Do your best to plan your textbook selection in advance of the semester’s start, and submit your booklist to the campus bookstore as early as possible. Advance knowledge gives students more time to seek out the best deal on a used book and/or online bookseller. New Vs. Old: When the publisher promotes a new edition, ask for details on what has been updated. Take the time to compare the new and the older edition. Ask yourself whether your students’ learning will significantly benefit from the updates to the new edition. If the honest answer is no, then continue using an older edition, which students can obtain used for lower costs. Furthermore, by avoiding edition changes when they are not necessary, you enable more students to benefit from selling back their used books—it is extremely hard to sell back books from the previous semester when the bookstore knows that a new edition has been adopted for the next semester, because they do not expect demand for the older books. Print reserves, as you may already be aware, allows you to make a copy of a book available in the library for students to read, take notes, complete assignments, or photocopy specific pages. Using a textbook in the library is not as convenient, so some students may still choose to purchase their own copy, but it does provide an alternative option for economically disadvantaged students. It is important to remember that desk copies or complimentary copies cannot be put on reserve; a reserve copy must be purchased by you or your department, or already owned by the library.
- Reserves – more traditional options, but still quite viable – make a print book available in the library for students to read specific pages, chapters, or the whole book – work with the library to make a book chapter or article available online for a specific class to read – important to remember that there are copyright restrictions which govern what content and how much content can be posted online, so please always contact the library to request postings to electronic reserves, rather than posting content directly to Blackboard yourself.
- Remember that these collections contain content which we have already licensed for use online. If you want to use a video that isn’t already licensed for online use, this will require additional steps to request permission from the copyright holder and a fee is usually involved. You should contact the library for assistance in this process (I will soon be the primary point of contact for this). You should never attempt to “rip” a film from DVD and post it online yourself, as this is a copyright violation.
- The library makes several hundred thousand ebooks available through our library catalog. However, as some of you may already be aware, the restrictions vary significantly between publishers—some books can be accessed by an entire class at the same time, while other titles can only be read by one student at a time. If you’re considering assigning a library ebook as a class reading, we strongly encourage you to contact the library and work with a librarian to determine what restrictions may exist on that book. As for databases, we obviously have far too many options to discuss in detail for finding journal articles, newspapers, government documents, and other content in various disciplines. The three products pictured here are just examples that I wanted to highlight in particular when we talk about supplementing or replacing textbook content. AccessScience contains McGraw Hill content of an encyclopedia nature, which usually addresses content at about the same knowledge level as a traditional textbook. Content authors include 40 Nobel Prize winners. The articles includes not only images, but many videos which demonstrate scientific processes in more detail than would be possible in a standard print textbook. Furthermore, the encyclopedia-level content includes links to more scholarly journal content to help students dig deeper on a particular topic. Finally, the database also provides curriculum maps to help faculty quickly identify ideal content for specific topical units. Content can be read online, and is easily accessed from mobile devices, but students can also easily print out specific articles if they are more comfortable on paper. [Demo a search for mitosis: definition, article, image gallery, videos, etc. – lots of content for teaching about cells in a basic biology class] Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) is a large collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks which are all accessible by the individual article. This can be an excellent source of concise topical overviews. Once again, students can read online, download PDFs for later offline access, or print a paper copy of an article. GVRL additionally provides the capability to hear every article read aloud or even to download an MP3 audio file, so it is highly accessible for students with different learning styles or specific accessibility needs. [Demo search for “great depression” and showcase the “Causes of the Great Depression” article] Before changing slides, touch on the theme of librarians as strategic partners – briefly describe recent case of assisting professor in finding readings from GVRL
- For a textbook to be considered “open access,” it usually must be licensed in a way that is less restrictive than standard copyright. For instance, they almost always allow free use, free copying, non-commercial distribution, and transfer into another format or medium (e.g., print or digital). MANY open-access textbooks go further than this and permit modification of the content to create new customized works, though it is important to understand that this may not apply to ALL open-access materials. Always check the license of the particular material you wish to use to see what is permitted.
- At TCC: Students in OER courses saved a total of $250,000. Students in OER courses were more likely to persist and complete the course. In fact, OER courses had 100% completers – no drops, no withdrawals. Students perform as well or better than their peers in non-OER courses. http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Campus-Issues/Students-earn-degree-without-buying-textbooks-.aspx VCC: operates 23 colleges serving 405,000 students annually A&M: University Libraries partnered with Texas A&M Student Government Goal “not only to increase the number of open textbook adoptions in introductory classes, but to increase awareness among faculty across campus about issues associated with the costs of textbooks and the role OERs play in addressing high textbook costs.” “In addition, the Texas A&M initiative seeks to support national open textbook initiatives through the contributions of textbook reviews by Texas A&M faculty. “ “Using the open textbook initiative also improves the competitiveness of proposals by Texas A&M faculty to the National Science Foundation (NSF) by offering broader impacts associated with the funded research projects” http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/AM-University-Libraries-Working-To-Solve-Problem-Of-Expensive-Textbooks-335779481.html
- The range of disciplines and subject textbooks can vary between platforms, so browse for options in several places The “feel” of the platform should be considered, along with the availability of specific already-made textbooks and the ease of modification/creation. Open Textbook Library might be a good place to start as it curates a listing of current open textbooks, so you can begin by searching for what’s already available. Just as with traditional print books, it’s important to shop around for the book that best meets your class’s needs. (DEMO of OTL) The good news is that if your text doesn’t already exist, you can create a new one to meet their needs. For example, there really isn’t a textbook for field evolutionary ecology in print right now even though this course is offered at several universities in the U.S. An entrepreneurial professor could create this textbook to benefit the discipline. Demo of MERLOT: Copy in some text from Wikipedia (just for demo purposes), add a link to Encyclopedia of Life: http://eol.org/. Show the ready-made templates and the possibility for invention. This setup also allows them to link in information from multiple sources, which will allow them to better meet the needs of students who learn better through different modalities (i.e. podcasts for audio learners, etc.). While it’s great to create a new textbook, there are a few things to watch out for. First, copyright applies to just about anything you excerpt from the web, and it would be better to make sure you have permission for re-use. Second is the curation of the sites and links—just because a site can be accessed today, does not mean it will accessible tomorrow, and content that is not under your control may change. Be wary of linking to content that you don’t have direct control of. If it’s possible, you might even consider creating your own videos and podcasts to supplement your text. Related issues to consider: how will the creation of open-access textbooks be perceived and credited in the FES process? Faculty can also sign up as reviewers with platforms like MERLOT, to help verify and improve the quality of the open textbooks, and so there is also a question of how this professional service should be taken into consideration in the FES process. Finally, it is worth noting that SHSU is actively in the process of setting up an institutional repository to house faculty and student research materials and publications, so there is a possibility in the future of housing open educational resources created by SHSU faculty in the SHSU repository, instead of on generic platforms, which would still make those materials available but would draw more attention to SHSU as a creator of open content.
- Please contact us any time!