Undergraduate Student Perspectives on Textbook Costs and Implications for Academic Success

Abstract

To provide more affordable course content to our students and faculty, local data on how students perceive textbook expenses and how the costs impact student success would be necessary in order to advocate to faculty and other stakeholders. This survey, conducted at a mid-sized research public institution, aims to explore student perceptions of textbooks and how these perceptions influence academic success. The results reveal that students feel that the cost of required textbooks is unreasonable and that students are more likely to purchase required textbooks for in-major classes than for elective or general education courses. The most common means of reducing costs are purchasing from a vendor other than the campus bookstore, renting, or sharing books with classmates. Implications for academic success included not purchasing required textbooks or withdrawing from a course due to not having the materials. Students whose majors are housed in the College of Business have the highest textbook costs.

College Chemistry Textbooks Aid and Abet Racial Disparity

“…Instructors can also express their values by choosing more inclusive texts for their students and, in the absence of such options, using free or low-cost online materials (e.g., OER, National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science). Free materials may not necessarily be better (as we found in the OpenStax text) but can reduce a financial barrier for students, and for high schools that purchase texts, these funds can be redirected to STEMM inclusion initiatives.…”

Inequitable Impacts of Textbook Costs at a Small, Private College: Results from a Textbook Survey at Gettysburg College

“…The Florida reports are the one of the largest open sources of textbook use data, including self-reported expenditures, from U.S. students in higher education. They are commonly referenced by other textbook survey authors (Jhangiani & Jhangiani, 2017;Martin et al, 2017;Tillinghast, 2017;Murphy & Rose, 2018;Wittkower & Lo, 2020). However, because the Florida studies surveyed students at public colleges and universities across the state-a population with significant differences from our own student body-we observed hesitation from faculty regarding the relevance of the results on our own campus.…”

“…In Spring 2017, researchers at Old Dominion University found that 58.8% of respondents had spent over $300 that semester on textbooks and other course materials. Additionally, 37.9% of respondents reported not purchasing required course materials, and 19.8% said they had earned a lower grade than expected because they could not afford their course materials (Wittkower & Lo, 2020). 1 While these surveys provide important context on which to build an affordability-focused OER program, so far little research has been conducted regarding the purchasing and use of textbooks by students at small, private liberal arts colleges.…”

“…When comparing Gettysburg students and students in previous studies, the most noticeable difference in cost-saving strategies is the number who chose not to purchase required textbooks. While past work at a variety of institutions has found that anywhere between 38% and 67% of students have not purchased a required textbook to cut costs (Florida Virtual Campus, 2019;Jhangiani & Jhangiani, 2017;Martin et al, 2017;Murphy & Rose, 2018;Senack, 2014;Wittkower & Lo, 2020), only 16% of our respondents said that they only purchased some of their required books in the Fall of 2019, and just 24% of respondents said that they had chosen not to purchase required books at any point during the course of their college career. While first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients were more likely not to have purchased required books (both in the Fall semester and throughout their career), the percent of affected participants in these groups is still not as high as in previous studies.…”

UNC System Math Pathways’ Digital Course Enhancement Collaboration to Improve Equity, Instruction, and Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…(Irfan, 2020, Adedoyin, 2020, Avery, 2014, Chirikov, 2020, Lebens, 2021 Regular in-semester activities such as textbook purchase and acquisition became non-trivial obstacles for students and campus bookstores. (Moundy, 2021, Reinhold, 2020, Wittkower, 2020, Yeo, 2021 Beyond the immediate concerns relating to content delivery mechanisms and supporting technology access for students, there was an issue of access to quality digital course materials for many faculty members.…”