Open textbooks are free, online resources that can replace traditional textbooks and save students money. The costs of traditional textbooks continue to increase, and this can particularly affect at-risk, low-income students. Few studies have analyzed student perceptions of open textbooks and how they influence academic achievement, but the emerging trend is positive. In the present study, I assessed student perceptions of an open textbook and calculated the subsequent cost savings. Although there were some limitations to my study, such as a low sample size, my results closely mirror previous studies in that most students had favorable opinions of the open textbook and would prefer to use them over traditional textbooks. The average cost savings per student was $81 for one course, determined using a novel method that does not assume all students buy new textbooks. These savings were likely important to the students, the majority of whom worked five hours or more and have received Pell Grants or other tuition waivers. ## Introduction Textbooks promote student success (Bushway & Flower, 2002; Yu, 2011; Skinner & Howes, 2013), but their rising cost may impose substantial financial hardship for students with limited income. Textbook costs increased 1,041 percent between 1977 and 2015, which is more than three times the rate of inflation (Popken, 2015). The estimated costs of textbooks and supplies per annum for community college students in 2016 was$1,390, representing 39 percent of the total cost of yearly tuition (College Board, 2017). A study of community colleges in California calculated this number to be higher at 59 percent (California State Auditor, 2008). Consequently, the cost of textbooks is a concern to both students and faculty (Petrides et al., 2011; Chae et al., 2015; Student PIRGS, 2016).

The high cost of textbooks creates less-than-desirable outcomes for students. A survey of college students in Florida found that 64 percent of students did not purchase a textbook at some point because of high cost (Florida Virtual Campus, 2012). To save money, students may illegally download pirated copies (Young, 2008), buy an older edition, or simply go without a textbook (Fischer et al., 2015). Other money-saving options include renting a textbook, which may prevent students from annotating their books, an effective learning strategy (Wolfe & Neuwirth, 2001).

The high cost of textbooks may negatively impact the proportion of students who achieve their academic goal, a metric known as persistence rate. At risk are economically disadvantaged students, who can have lower persistence rates than wealthier students (Paulsen & St. John, 2002). For these students, the financial burden of textbooks can cause them to take fewer classes per term (Fischer et al., 2015). This is problematic because persistence rates are also substantially lower for part-time students compared to full-time students (NSCRC, 2016). Thus, students who are low-income and part-time are particularly vulnerable.

## Discussion

The results from this study align with previous research: (a) the high cost of textbooks can potentially impede student achievement, and (b) most students have favorable opinions of open textbooks. First, student achievement is impeded when the high cost of textbooks causes students to exhibit actions not conducive to academic success, such as not purchasing a required textbook or reducing their course load. My results indicated that 37 to 66 percent of students, depending on the survey question, had not purchased a required textbook at least once, and one-third of students earned a lower grade because of it. Additionally, 11 to 44 percent of students dropped a class, did not register, or took fewer classes because of textbook costs. These results mirror those from a survey of 320 college students in British Columbia (Jhangiani & Jhangiani, 2017).

Open textbooks offer low- or no-cost options that have the potential for preventing the detrimental actions described above. The students in this study saved an average of 81 by utilizing an open textbook in one course. Considering the number of courses taken by each student per year, widely adopting open textbooks throughout the college would lead to substantial cost savings over time. These savings would likely have meaningful benefits for students, many of whom demonstrated financial need. For example, two-thirds of students received Pell grants or fee waivers, and 39 percent were employed more than 20 hours a week during the course. This may be why 49 percent indicated that costs savings was either an extremely important or very important feature of open textbooks. Making college more affordable would likely have many benefits for economically disadvantaged students. It is known that students from low-income, rural areas are less likely to attend college than those from higher-income backgrounds, and that those from lower-income backgrounds who do attend college drop out at higher rates (U.S. Dept. of Education, 1999). Although the causes for this are more complex than just the cost of attendance (COA), minimizing those costs makes college more accessible. One specific way that reducing COA could help students is by reducing the number of hours they need to work while enrolled. This is especially important for students that work more than 20 hours per week, which is associated with a lower GPA and more time to complete their degrees (BYU Employment Services, 2006). A second important finding of this study was that students had favorable views of the open textbook. In terms of quality, 94 percent of students rated the open textbook the same or better than the textbooks used in other classes, a value very similar to the findings of other studies (Bliss et al., 2013a, 2013b; Pitt et al., 2013; Allen & Seaman, 2014; Cooney, 2017; Hendricks et al., 2017). Additionally, 61 percent of students indicated that they would prefer open textbooks to traditional texts, a value close to the two-thirds found by Feldstein et al. (2012). As indicated on an open-ended survey question, students in the present study found accessibility, portability, cost savings, and quality of content to be the most important features of the open textbook. From my perspective as the instructor, using an open textbook for the first time was a transformative experience. I enjoyed having the freedom to control the material within the textbook. I reorganized content, added new material, and changed formatting, such as bolding terms that I wanted to use in vocabulary quizzes. Also, in keeping with the recommendation to move away from the “mile wide and inch deep” approach to teaching content (AAAS, 2011), I streamlined the text by removing material. This was appreciated by several students who recognized there was “[v]ery little wasted space or irrelevant information.” There were several limitations to this study, including a small sample size. Although my results cannot be extrapolated to other classrooms, they align with the consensus formed by other research and further support the notion that a diversity of students hold favorable opinions of open textbooks. In terms of experimental design, this study was limited by lack of a control group and it did not assess the efficacy of open textbooks. Further studies are needed, especially in the sciences, to determine whether learning and other measures of academic achievement, such as persistence, are affected by open textbooks. Surveys of college faculty show varying degrees of familiarity with open educational resources (OER). Allen & Seamen (2014) surveyed 2,144 college faculty across the United States at a variety of institutional types, including community colleges and four-year universities, and found that only 34 percent of faculty were aware of OER. Meanwhile, Chae et al. (2015) surveyed 780 community and technical college faculty in Washington State and found that 82 percent were familiar with OER. Within the archive of The American Biology Teacher, I could find no prior mention of OER. No results were found when using the following search terms: “open text*”, “free text*”, and “open education* resource*”. Open textbooks are a promising area in which faculty can make a significant, positive impact on students, especially students from low-income backgrounds. Increased awareness among faculty and additional studies by educational researchers will help determine the best way to implement this important resource. This research was supported by a grant from Open Oregon Educational Resources (OOER), which also published my open textbook on their Pressbooks profile (https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/). Amy Hofer from OOER & Linn Benton Community College provided critical support during development of my open textbook, and provided valuable feedback on this manuscript. Special thanks also goes to the reviewers of this manuscript. ## References AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) . ( 2011 ). Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action . Washington, DC : AAAS . Retrieved from http://visionandchange.org/files/2013/11/aaas-VISchange-web1113.pdf Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. ( 2014 ). Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014 . Babson Survey Research Group . 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