Low-cost, open-content textbooks are universally popular on college campuses, but two burning questions have stunted the open textbook movement: Where can faculty and students find these resources, and how can they be sure the books are of the highest quality?
The University of Minnesota (UMN) set out to answer both questions with its April 23 introduction of the campus’s Open Academics textbook catalog, an online repository of textbooks with an open license that lets students read the books for free online, or order a printed version for a fraction of the usual textbook cost.
UMN’s open textbook library, with 90 books in stock, will first provide textbooks for the school’s largest introductory classes, with plans to expand to smaller courses in coming years.
Open textbook skeptics—including many from large textbook companies—have questioned the legitimacy of open books in recent years, pointing out that faculty and students often can’t find out if the text has been reviewed by professors or other experts in various academic fields.
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UMN officials who assembled the Open Academics textbook catalog followed the example of the University of Massachusetts Amherst by offering $500 to any faculty member who would review or adopt an open book.
UMN will ask professors from all campus departments to contribute to the review and adoption efforts and might partner with foundations to bring more experts into the textbook review process, said Dave Ernst, a university faculty member who headed the creation of the open-content catalog.
“What we needed was a way to let people know that these are quality books that they can depend on,” Ernst said. In some open textbook programs, “there’s no way of knowing that.”
UMass Amherst’s Open Education Initiative last year awarded ten $1,000 grants to eight faculty members who developed low-cost technological alternatives to commercial textbooks that can cost upwards of $300 apiece. The school’s $10,000 grant program saved students more than $70,000 in 2011, according to a UMass Amherst announcement.
Irene Duranczyk, associate professor at UMN’s College of Education and Human Development, said the careful reviewing of open textbook options would ensure the university’s repository was home to “the best peer-reviewed open textbooks in one place.”
“Faculty share student concerns about high textbook costs and are willing to consider high-quality, affordable alternatives like open textbooks,” Duranczyk said.
Advocates for open textbooks said by listing reviewed texts and awarding stipends to faculty members who support the initiative, UMN has taken two important pieces from the host of open-content efforts that have emerged throughout higher education as college students now spend more than $1,100 on school materials every year.
“It’s a very unique combination, and one that could be a sort of perfect storm of [open educational resources],” said Nicole Allen, campaign director for the Student Public Interest Research Groups’ “Make Textbooks Affordable” program.
UMN’s online repository won’t appeal only to technologically savvy professors and instructors with a long history of support for the open textbook movement, Allen said.
“This is the kind of resource that really targets faculty who are just looking for affordable textbooks,” she said. “I think there is growing awareness among faculty that textbook prices are so high … and in some cases they’re helping find alternatives.”
The university’s new open textbook catalog and its plans to expand the review process drew immediate praise from UMN student leaders.
“High textbook costs are one of the many factors that are contributing to the increasing financial burden that students are facing,” said Lizzy Shay, the university’s undergraduate student body president. “Affordable open textbooks would go a long way in relieving that burden.”
Faculty members could be more willing to review and adopt cheaper textbooks after a 2011 national survey showed that seven in 10 student respondents hadn’t purchased at least one assigned textbook owing to high costs. Of those students, eight in 10 said their grades would suffer without the necessary books.
“Hearing students complain about this issue is one thing,” Allen said. “But when it begins to affect the way an educator would conduct a class, it takes on new meaning for many people.”
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