TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementation of open textbooks in community and technical college biology courses
T2 - The good, the bad, and the data
AU - Mills, Kristyn E.Vander Waal
AU - Gucinski, Mark
AU - Waal, Kimberly Vander
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded in part through an Open Education Resource Grant through MinnState.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 K. E. VanderWaal Mills et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education and 2019 The American Society for Cell Biology.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - One challenge facing students today is high textbook costs, which pose a particularly difficult obstacle at community and technical colleges, where students typically have lower incomes and textbooks constitute a larger proportion of the overall cost of education. To address this, many advocate for using open-source textbooks, which are free in a digital format. However, concerns have been raised about the quality and efficacy of open textbooks. We investigated these concerns by collecting data from general biology classes at four community and technical colleges implementing traditionally published (non-open) and open textbooks. We compared student outcomes, textbook utilization methods, and perceptions of textbooks in these courses. In generalized linear statistical models, book type (open vs. non-open) did not significantly influence measured student outcomes. Additionally, survey results found that students and faculty perceived the open textbook as equal in quality to other textbooks. However, results also suggested that student textbook use did not always align with faculty expectations. For example, 30% of students reported reading their textbooks compared with 85% of faculty expecting students to read the textbook. Finally, faculty who implemented open textbooks expected the textbook to be used more often for reference and review compared with faculty who use traditional textbooks.
AB - One challenge facing students today is high textbook costs, which pose a particularly difficult obstacle at community and technical colleges, where students typically have lower incomes and textbooks constitute a larger proportion of the overall cost of education. To address this, many advocate for using open-source textbooks, which are free in a digital format. However, concerns have been raised about the quality and efficacy of open textbooks. We investigated these concerns by collecting data from general biology classes at four community and technical colleges implementing traditionally published (non-open) and open textbooks. We compared student outcomes, textbook utilization methods, and perceptions of textbooks in these courses. In generalized linear statistical models, book type (open vs. non-open) did not significantly influence measured student outcomes. Additionally, survey results found that students and faculty perceived the open textbook as equal in quality to other textbooks. However, results also suggested that student textbook use did not always align with faculty expectations. For example, 30% of students reported reading their textbooks compared with 85% of faculty expecting students to read the textbook. Finally, faculty who implemented open textbooks expected the textbook to be used more often for reference and review compared with faculty who use traditional textbooks.
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U2 - 10.1187/cbe.19-01-0022
DO - 10.1187/cbe.19-01-0022
M3 - Article
C2 - 31469619
AN - SCOPUS:85071765557
SN - 1931-7913
VL - 18
JO - CBE life sciences education
JF - CBE life sciences education
IS - 3
M1 - ar44
ER -