Open educational resources: an analysis of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities student preferences

ABSTRACT

The cost of college tuition and textbooks continues to rise and can function as a barrier to education for many students. This study evaluated Minnesota State Colleges and Universities students’ attitudes towards different types of learning material (e.g. commercially printed textbooks, eBooks and open educational resources (OERs)) and class type preferences (e.g. on-campus, hybrid and online). In addition, students indicated that they had ever chosen not to purchase a required textbook as well as how much they pay on average for a single textbook and approximately how much they paid for textbooks in the most recent semester. Cost was noted as a common deterrent; however, a more frequent reason provided by students for not buying a textbook was being able to adequately complete assignments without the textbook. This indicates that instructional method might be more of an issue than cost. OERs would lower these costs, but few students have been exposed to this kind of learning material and the overall impact on teaching quality is still largely unknown. The differences between two-year institutions and four-year institutions are examined and ideas to remedy the problem are noted.

KEYWORDS:

• Open educational resources
• higher education
• textbooks
• ebooks
• online learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Kinskey

Caroline Kinskey is a clinical psychology master’s student at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. Caroline has presented research in the fields of social psychology and geropsychology. She plans to pursue doctoral training in psychology following graduation.

Hunter King received his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Texas Tech University. He earned his Master of Arts degree in clinical psychology from Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is an active researcher and has multiple manuscripts under review and in press. His research has been in teaching pedagogy, behaviour therapy and social media use in youth. Hunter is currently working as a counsellor for Women’s Protective Services and plans to pursue a doctorate in a therapeutic area of psychology.

Carrie Lewis Miller, PhD, is an instructional designer with IT solutions at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She holds a PhD in Educational Technology from Arizona State University. Carrie has been an instructor in higher education for over 15 years, both in face-to-face and online classes. She currently facilitates online course in E-learning and Instructional Design for the University of Phoenix, Brandeis University and Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her research interests include OER, gamification, performance improvement and technology integration.