Towards development of OER derived custom-built open textbooks: A baseline survey of university teachers at the University of the South Pacific

Abstract

<p>Textbook prices have soared over the years, with several studies revealing many university students are finding it difficult to afford textbooks. Fortunately, two innovations – open educational resources (OER) and open textbooks – hold the potential to increase textbook affordability. Experts, though, have stated the obvious: that students can save money through open textbooks only if teachers are willing to develop and use them. Considering both the high price of textbooks and the benefits offered by OER and open textbooks, the aim of this study was to assess the University of the South Pacific (USP) teachers’ willingness towards development of custom-built OER derived open textbooks for their courses with a focus on providing a foundation for strategies to promote open textbook development at USP. This paper reports the findings of an online survey of 39 USP teachers. The results show that 17 teachers were willing to develop OER derived custom-built open textbooks for their courses. Besides this, there are findings relating to six important areas: teachers’ motivation to develop open textbooks; the frequency of more than one prescribed textbook per course; teachers’ awareness of the costs of the prescribed textbooks; the average cost of prescribed textbooks in a course; teachers’ awareness and utilization of OER and open textbooks; and teachers’ perceived barriers to using OER and types of challenges they encounter while using OER. These findings have been discussed in relation to research studies on OER and open textbooks.</p>

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A Framework for Open Textbooks Analytics System

“…Many have cited open textbooks as an ideal alternative to expensive commercially published college textbooks, which, due to their high cost, are the bane of students' success (Baker et al 2009;Hilton and Wiley 2011;Okamoto 2013;Prasad and Usagawa 2014;Senack 2014). In essence, open textbooks are a subset of open educational resources, being similar to traditional textbooks in terms of content; however, they are generally available free of charge both in a variety of digital formats and low-cost print copies .…”

Student Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing OpStudent Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing Open and Restricted Textbooksen and Restricted Textbooks

“…Such freedom makes these resources especially useful for online and distance learning scenarios because online instructors and course developers can freely share, remix, and employ direct-linking to resources rather than operating within the strict limitations of fair use (Belikov & Kimmons, in press). Research into open textbooks has yielded neutral-positive results for learning outcomes, meaning that students using open textbooks generally perform as well as or better than students using restricted textbooks, and have also yielded positive results for cost savings (Bliss, Hilton, Wiley, & Thanos, 2013;Fischer, Hilton, Robinson, Wiley, 2015;Hilton & Laman, 2012;Mtebe & Raisamo, 2014;Prasad & Usagawa, 2014;Robinson, Fischer, Wiley, & Hilton, 2014;Walker, 2007), but there is need to expand the literature in the area of textbook quality and to enact a paradigmatic shift in how we think about educational resource quality assurance. This is especially pertinent for professionals in ODL as a shift to open textbooks will need to be supported by studies on resource quality to help bolster the perceived overall quality of online learning experiences.…”