[Open-education] New Report on Textbook Costs

Wed Jan 29 03:26:25 UTC 2014

Hi all,

Wanted to make sure you saw the report released yesterday by U.S. PIRG on college textbook costs - it's been getting a ton of media attention in the US. SPARC's blog post on the report is here.

The major finding is that 65% of students have opted out of buying a required textbook because of the price, despite believing it could hurt their grades. The report advocates for open textbooks as a way to solve this problem and improve student success.

Here are just a few of the articles:
Report: High Textbook Prices Have College Students Struggling - U.S. News & World Report
Open Textbooks Could Help Students Financially and Academically - Chronicle of Higher Education
College textbook sticker shock causes students to leave books on the shelves - San Jose Mercury News (front page)
Majority Of Students Have Skipped Buying A College Textbook Because They're Too Expensive - Huffington Post
Options Don't Stem Textbook Woes - Inside Higher Ed

~ Nicole

Nicole Allen
OER Program Director, SPARC
21 Dupont Circle, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
(401) 484-8104 
nicole at sparc.arl.org
http://sparc.arl.org
@txtbks
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