Several reports on the cost of higher education.

An advocacy campaign to make textbooks affordable.

The purpose of this guide is to provide policy guidance to thought leaders and decision-makers from all levels of institutions and government – from individual campuses considering policies that support open textbook use and development to state legislators that are considering approaches to making textbooks more affordable.

Part of the Open Education Consortium, this group provides resources, support and opportunities for collaboration for learning, planning, and implementing successful open educational programs at community and technical colleges.

Although this article does not focus on open textbooks, it does describe publishers' actions and the additional financial burdens they can place on students who need to purchase books with financial aid or who do not have credit cards.

Synthesizes results from 16 efficacy and 20 perceptions studies that examine (1) OER and student efficacy or (2) the perceptions of college students and/or instructors who have used OER. Results suggest students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER, and that the majority of faculty and students who have used OER had a positive experience.

A large-scale study supporting the findings that OERs adoption improves end of course grades and decreases student DFW rates. (2018)

Bill Meinke discusses the EULA terms that students must agree to in order to use digital textbook rentals from publishers, such as McMillan, Cengage and Pearson, the data that may be collected, and the lack of transparency regarding this data collection by these and other digital textbook publishers.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, this article notes a substantial increase in open textbook adoption in the past 2 years, but notes that struggle to have faculty consider open textbooks when they are competing with the well-established marketing and sales of traditional textbook publishers. (December 19, 2017)

Washington Post (June 15, 2016)

Factors that influence faculty decisions on course materials (Feb 22, 2016).

This report, from Student PIRGs, investigates the degree at which prices actually affect student’s financial standing and behavior, and make the case for urgent action around high textbook prices. (February 2016)

From Educause Review (July 5, 2015).

From ACE, a quick brief on the current state of open textbooks in higher education (May 2015).

"In 2013 Tidewater Community College, the second largest of Virginia's 23 community colleges, launched the first-in-the world OER-based college degree. The "Z Degree" as it is called, is an associate of science degree in business administration that can be earned with zero textbook costs. This report contains the student success and cost-savings data from the two-year pilot of the Z Degree." (February 11, 2015)

In spring 2015, a pilot group began an end-user based study to evaluate planned online assignable and assessment tools to be offered by Wiley. OpenStax College Biology and Concepts of Biology will be integrated into the Wiley platform to create a rich learning environment for students. The pilot group will evaluate the learning environment, the assessment options, and the emerging interactive materials. (Spring 2015)

A Report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Student PIRGs, and discusses how students react to the high cost of textbooks when making academic decisions. (January 2014)

August 2014 article from Campus Technology. Explanations of OER, adopting OER, links to OER resources.

An article about who should control textbooks--faculty or publishers? from Sep-Oct 2013 Academe

Wayne State Libraries Open Access Week presentation by Sarah Beaubien, Grand Valley State University. Powerpoint from presentation in which she discusses some of the benefits of OER to faculty and students, examples of how OER is being used, and strategies for overcoming challenges. (October 2013)

In 2012 five higher education institutions in a pilot and evaluation of a publisher partnered etextbook platform. This is their final report.

This January 2013 article from First Monday surveyed 125 students and 11 faculty from seven colleges in the U.S. Results showed that the majority of students and faculty had a positive experience using the open textbooks, appreciated the lower costs, and perceived the texts as being of high quality.

As of January 1, 2013, Flat World Knowledge, which used to describe itself as the world’s largest publisher of free and open textbooks online, will no longer offer content at no charge.

A Wall Street Journal article from 2008 describes the financial impact of custom textbooks on students, and the ethics of demanding students buy an institutional custom version that does not provide much enhancement and more cost for students.