Student textbook purchasing
the hidden cost of time
Keywords:
textbooks, textbook acquisition, textbook purchasing open educational resources, oerAbstract
Choice in textbook purchasing has been portrayed as beneficial to students. However, the time spent exploring options for purchasing textbooks takes students away from other obligations in their lives. This research is a study of student textbook purchasing. In this paper, the literature regarding the textbook acquisition process is explored. Students were surveyed regarding their textbook purchasing habits. I found that most students visited multiple stores or websites, but those who purchased textbooks ultimately only purchased from the campus bookstore/bookstore website or Amazon.com. Approximately twenty percent of students reported spending more than two hours purchasing textbooks. The ways in which faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses could affect student time in acquiring materials is also discussed.
References
Almeida, N. (2017). Open Educational Resources and Rhetorical Paradox in the Neoliberal Univers(ity). Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 1(1). doi:10.24242/jclis.v1i1.16.
Brownell, C. (2015, September 4). Fighting Big Textbook: How students are trying to save money as prices keep going up. Financial Post. Retrieved from http://business.financialpost.com/.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016, August 30). College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006. The Economics Daily. Retrieved from /https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm.
Canaan, J. E., & Shumar, W. (2011). Structure and agency in the neoliberal university. London: Routledge.
Carrns, A. (2016, September 23). A new cost at college: digital access codes. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/.
Chaney, S. (2017, December 26). Textbook shopping goes online, driving prices down. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/.
Cohen, N. (2008, September 14). Don’t buy that textbook, download it free. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/.
CUNY. (2018). Textbook Savings. Retrieved from http://www2.xxx.edu/current-students/resources/textbook-savings/.
Florida Virtual Campus. (2016). 2016 student textbook and course materials survey. Retrieved from https://florida.theorangegrove.org/og/items/3a65c507-2510-42d7-814c-ffdefd394b6c/1.
Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 573-590. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_63.
Jhangiani, R. S., & Jhangiani, S. (2017). Investigating the perceptions, use, and impact of open textbooks: A survey of post-secondary students in British Columbia. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3012.
Kalenkoski, C. M., Hamrick, K. S., & Andrews, M. (2011). Time poverty thresholds and rates for the US population. Social Indicators Research, 104(1), 129-155. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-010-9732-2.
Kerr, E. (2018, April 23). ‘Being not-rich’: low-income students at Michigan share savvy advice. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/.
Madrian, B. C., Hershfield, H. E., Sussman, A. B., Bhargava, S., Burke, J., Huettel, S. A., & Rick, S. (2017). Behaviorally informed policies for household financial decision-making. Behavioral Science & Policy, 3(1), 26-40. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/bhargava/Madrian%20et%20al_BSP%202017.pdf.
McGowan, M. K., & Stephens, P. R. (2015). College Student Textbook Acquisition: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 11(1), 85-90. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1141768.pdf.
McKenna, L. (2018, January 26). Why students are still spending so much for college textbooks. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/.
Schandevel, L., St. Onge, G., Smith, R. Brennen, L. Marsh, A., Aguilera, A. Kay, L. (2018) A Guide to Being Not-Rich at UM. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ou-AelCrAg6soUJVbiviKAGBGF276w-UBlw-eMigwOA/edit#.
Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2017). Opening the Textbook. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthetextbook2017.pdf.
SPARC. (2017, September 26). Affordable College Textbook Act Reintroduced in Congress. Retrieved from https://sparcopen.org/news/2017/affordable-college-textbook-act-reintroduced/.
Stout, Karen A. (2018, April 3). OER: The Student Success Multiplier Effect. Retrieved from http://www.achievingthedream.org/sites/default/files/basic_page/oer_the_student_success_multiplier_effect_0.pdf.
Student PIRGs. (2012, March 16). Federal textbook price disclosure law. Retrieved from https://studentpirgs.org/resources/textbook-price-disclosure-law.
Walton, A. (2018). “How Poverty Changes Your Mind-Set.” Chicago Booth Review, Retrieved from http://review.chicagobooth.edu/behavioral-science/2018/article/how-poverty-changes-your-mind-set.
Wiley, D. (2017, November 16). “The cost trap, part 3.” iterating toward openness [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5261.
Wisconsin HOPE Lab. (2016, April 20). What We’re Learning: Prevalence of and Responses to Financial Stress Among Undergraduates. Retrieved from http://wihopelab.com/publications/Wisconsin-HOPE-Lab-Data-Brief%2016-04-Financial-Stress-Among-Undergraduates.pdf.
Brownell, C. (2015, September 4). Fighting Big Textbook: How students are trying to save money as prices keep going up. Financial Post. Retrieved from http://business.financialpost.com/.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2016, August 30). College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006. The Economics Daily. Retrieved from /https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm.
Canaan, J. E., & Shumar, W. (2011). Structure and agency in the neoliberal university. London: Routledge.
Carrns, A. (2016, September 23). A new cost at college: digital access codes. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/.
Chaney, S. (2017, December 26). Textbook shopping goes online, driving prices down. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/.
Cohen, N. (2008, September 14). Don’t buy that textbook, download it free. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/.
CUNY. (2018). Textbook Savings. Retrieved from http://www2.xxx.edu/current-students/resources/textbook-savings/.
Florida Virtual Campus. (2016). 2016 student textbook and course materials survey. Retrieved from https://florida.theorangegrove.org/og/items/3a65c507-2510-42d7-814c-ffdefd394b6c/1.
Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64(4), 573-590. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_63.
Jhangiani, R. S., & Jhangiani, S. (2017). Investigating the perceptions, use, and impact of open textbooks: A survey of post-secondary students in British Columbia. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). doi: 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3012.
Kalenkoski, C. M., Hamrick, K. S., & Andrews, M. (2011). Time poverty thresholds and rates for the US population. Social Indicators Research, 104(1), 129-155. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205-010-9732-2.
Kerr, E. (2018, April 23). ‘Being not-rich’: low-income students at Michigan share savvy advice. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/.
Madrian, B. C., Hershfield, H. E., Sussman, A. B., Bhargava, S., Burke, J., Huettel, S. A., & Rick, S. (2017). Behaviorally informed policies for household financial decision-making. Behavioral Science & Policy, 3(1), 26-40. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/bhargava/Madrian%20et%20al_BSP%202017.pdf.
McGowan, M. K., & Stephens, P. R. (2015). College Student Textbook Acquisition: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 11(1), 85-90. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1141768.pdf.
McKenna, L. (2018, January 26). Why students are still spending so much for college textbooks. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/.
Schandevel, L., St. Onge, G., Smith, R. Brennen, L. Marsh, A., Aguilera, A. Kay, L. (2018) A Guide to Being Not-Rich at UM. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ou-AelCrAg6soUJVbiviKAGBGF276w-UBlw-eMigwOA/edit#.
Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2017). Opening the Textbook. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/openingthetextbook2017.pdf.
SPARC. (2017, September 26). Affordable College Textbook Act Reintroduced in Congress. Retrieved from https://sparcopen.org/news/2017/affordable-college-textbook-act-reintroduced/.
Stout, Karen A. (2018, April 3). OER: The Student Success Multiplier Effect. Retrieved from http://www.achievingthedream.org/sites/default/files/basic_page/oer_the_student_success_multiplier_effect_0.pdf.
Student PIRGs. (2012, March 16). Federal textbook price disclosure law. Retrieved from https://studentpirgs.org/resources/textbook-price-disclosure-law.
Walton, A. (2018). “How Poverty Changes Your Mind-Set.” Chicago Booth Review, Retrieved from http://review.chicagobooth.edu/behavioral-science/2018/article/how-poverty-changes-your-mind-set.
Wiley, D. (2017, November 16). “The cost trap, part 3.” iterating toward openness [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5261.
Wisconsin HOPE Lab. (2016, April 20). What We’re Learning: Prevalence of and Responses to Financial Stress Among Undergraduates. Retrieved from http://wihopelab.com/publications/Wisconsin-HOPE-Lab-Data-Brief%2016-04-Financial-Stress-Among-Undergraduates.pdf.
Downloads
Published
2019-10-21
Issue
Section
Original Research
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice has made best effort to ensure accuracy of the contents of this journal, however makes no claims to the authenticity and completeness of the articles published. Authors are responsible for ensuring copyright clearance for any images, tables etc which are supplied from an outside source.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
