Rising textbook costs have been highlighted as an issue for students’ higher education, particularly in North America. Less is known about the costs and forms in which books are available to students in higher education in Europe and specifically in Ireland. This is despite significant moves towards openly licensed digital books as a potential response via established open access publishing platforms. This research sought to address a gap in the scholarly understating of textbook usage and the potential pf open alternatives. We present the results of an analysis of the accessibility, cost and licensing of textbooks in Ireland taking one higher education institution as a case study. We report here on the findings of phase one of this study including the retail prices of over 500 books, the formats they are available in and those that may be in the public domain. The next phase of this study involved the design of two research instruments to use with staff and students as participants in a research study. These instruments were designed, with reference to the research literature on OER, to examine the current usage and perception of educational textbooks with the overarching aim of determining the relevance of digital open textbook platforms in the Irish context.

1. What do Textbooks Cost?
An Open Question
*eamon.costello@dcu.ie @eam0
Dr Eamon Costello*
Prof Mark Brown
Mr Richard Bolger
Dr James Bruton
Dr Tiziana Soverino

2. • Open Source
• Open Access
• Open Science
• Open Education
• Open Educational Resources
• Open Educational Practices
• Open Washing
Open Educational Practices

3. Textbooks

4. Phase 1: Review
Eden conference 2018 best paper nominee

5. 1978 - 2013 textbook prices increase 812%
2014 annual average student spent $2000 (Baglione & Sullivan, 2016)
Since 2006 the costs of textbooks increase by 73% - over four times
inflation (Senack & Donoghue, 2016).
98% of faculty mandate a textbook (Allen and Seaman, 2016)
textbook copyright infringement by students (Scorcu & Vici, 2012)
What do books cost?

6. 1978 - 2013 textbook prices increase 812%
2014 annual average student spent $2000 (Baglione & Sullivan, 2016)
Since 2006 the costs of textbooks increase by 73% - over four times
inflation (Senack & Donoghue, 2016).
98% of faculty mandate a textbook (Allen and Seaman, 2016)
textbook copyright infringement by students (Scorcu & Vici, 2012)

7. Open Textbooks

8. Key Challenges
Raising brand awareness
Increasing international presence

9. Textbooks at an Irish HEI

10. Results
3,000 books analysed
71.5% of books are required and the remaining
28.5% are recommended.
Google books returned prices for 18% of books that
we searched for. Of that sample the cost ranged
from $0.99 to over $400.

11. Book Costs (Google Books)
Mean $56.67
Mode $9.99
Median $40
Range: 0.99 to >$400

12. Cost in USD of Books
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500

13. Access
Just over 40% of books with prices had
electronic versions, either in PDF or ebook
format such as epub or mobi.

14. Availability/Access
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
100.00%
PDF Available Ebook Available Public Domain

15. • Focus Groups
• Educational Practices
• Textbook use and non-use
Current Research with Students
and Staff at DCU

16. National Survey on Textbooks as
OER
In development

17. A textbook can range from $400 to
$0.99
0.18% of books in public domain
What does this mean for students?
eamon.costello@dcu.ie