Marketing Professors’ Perspectives on the Cost of College Textbooks: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Textbooks are an integral component of the higher education process. However, a great deal of concern about the high costs of college textbooks has been expressed by those inside and outside of higher education. The authors focus on the results of a pilot study of a survey of marketing professors' criteria and use of textbooks and their reactions to some of the changes that have been implemented or may be implemented by universities, state legislatures, and publishers to combat these cost escalations. Findings indicate that respondents appear to have strong resistance to university, legislative, and publisher actions that infringe on their options in selecting textbooks and how long they would have to use a specific textbook before replacing it with a newer edition. This was particularly true of a university policy requiring low-cost textbooks be adopted, requiring instructors to keep textbooks for all classes for at least 3 years, requiring publishers to send an invoice after a 30-day review period, and requiring sending only 1 examination per department. There were also significant differences among respondents based on a t test and analysis of variance. Basically, those who had more teaching experience (11 or more years) were opposed to any legislation or university policy about publishers releasing cost data or requiring the use of the lowest cost text. They also ranked the importance of content higher than their counterparts.

Impact of OER in Teacher Education

“…However, the cost of textbooks has spiraled beyond the reach of many students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, producing inequities in access to learning materials (Fischer et al, 2015). College textbook prices increased about 6% annually since Academic Year 1987-1988(Silver et al, 2012. "The rising cost of textbooks may disproportionately harm students in community colleges, where tuition is generally lower and students may face greater financial difficulties" (Hilton et al, 2014, p. 68).…”

Open Praxis vol. 12 issue 4

“…However, the cost of textbooks has spiraled beyond the reach of many students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, producing inequities in access to learning materials . College textbook prices increased about 6% annually since Academic Year 1987-1988(Silver et al, 2012. "The rising cost of textbooks may disproportionately harm students in community colleges, where tuition is generally lower and students may face greater financial difficulties" (Hilton et al, 2014, p. 68).…”

Textbooks authors, publishers, formats and costs in higher education

“…There is little empirical data reported on retail prices of college textbooks beyond self-reported surveys [1–3] and no published datasets. Textbooks, as an ancillary cost, can contribute to the overall cost of education which is rising and can seriously impact upon students’ ability to succeed in Higher Education [4]. This study sought to understand more about costs of college textbooks by conducting a systematic collection of several thousand textbooks from faculty readings lists in one Higher Education Institution in Ireland and a retrieval and analysis of the retail prices of a selection of those books [5, 6].…”