Journal Article: “As Good or Better than Commercial Textbooks: Students’ Perceptions and Outcomes from Using Open Digital and Open Print Textbooks”

The following article appears in The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Title
As Good or Better than Commercial Textbooks: Students’ Perceptions and Outcomes from Using Open Digital and Open Print Textbooks
Authors
Rajiv S. Jhangiani
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Farhad N. Dastur
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Richard Le Grand
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Kurt Penner
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Source
The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
9 (1) (2018)
DOI: 10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2018.1.5
Abstract

The increase in the cost of college textbooks together with the proliferation of digital content and devices has inspired the development of open textbooks, open educational resources that are free, openly licensed, and often peer-reviewed. Although several published studies have investigated the impact of open textbook adoption on educational outcomes, none have separated the effects of textbook openness and format and only two have taken place in Canada (Hendricks, Reinsberg, & Rieger, 2017; Jhangiani & Jhangiani, 2017). This study investigates the perceptions, use, and course performance of Canadian post-secondary students assigned a commercial or open textbook in either print or digital format. Results show that students using the print format of the open textbook perceive its quality to be superior to the commercial textbook. Moreover, students assigned an open textbook in either format perform either no differently from or better than those assigned a commercial textbook. These results are consistent with the existing literature and support the conclusion that the cost savings to students associated with the adoption of open textbooks do not come at the expense of resource quality or student performance.

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22 pages; PDF.

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