Using open textbooks in community colleges can reduce costs for students while maintaining educational quality. An analysis of various studies found that open textbooks were equally or better received than traditional textbooks by both students and teachers. When Houston Community College adopted a free online psychology textbook, 84% of students felt it helped them afford college and most found it easy to use. Similarly, at Virginia State University most students downloaded free business textbooks and materials, and those courses saw a reduction in failing grades compared to courses without open textbooks. A larger study across multiple community colleges found most teachers and students felt open textbooks were of similar quality to traditional textbooks, with some preferring the open options due to cost savings and accessibility.

1. Using Open Textbooks in
Community Colleges
John Hilton III Jared Robinson
johnhiltoniii.org tjaredrobinson.com

2. A Problem
 Textbook costs are a significant part of overall
college expenses.
 High costs of education may deter some students
from pursuing or continuing their education.
 While free resources are sometimes available, some
question whether books that are distributed for
free online will have the educational impact of full-
color textbooks that have been vetted by
traditional publishers.

3. What is happening in
this situation?

4. First Impressions
May Not be Correct

5. Can Open Textbooks Make a Difference?
Comparing Open and
Traditional Textbooks
 Houston Community College’s use of Flat
World Knowledge’s Introduction to Psychology
textbook.
 Virginia State University’s adoption of
several Flat World Knowledge business
textbooks
 The Kaleidoscope Project

6. Houston Community College
 Houston Community College (HCC) is a
large community college with more than
70,000 students. 33% of its students are
Hispanic, 33% are African American, 17%
are white, 14% Asian, and 3% are classified
as ‘other.’ Fifty-nine per cent of the students
are female, and 41% are male.
 HCC’s Psychology department chose to
adopt Flat World Knowledge’s (FWK)
textbook Introduction to Psychology.

7. Why a FWK Textbook?
 They could modify it to meet the needs of their
students (lowered the reading level, added in
additional learning videos).
 It was a lot cheaper (free) when compared to
other textbooks!
 Came with a variety of other resources,
packaged along with it.
 During a pilot study 690 students used the
FWK text.
 So what happened?

8. HCC – Student Feedback
 Eighty-four per cent of students surveyed agreed
with the statement that ‘Having a free online book
helps me go to college’.
 Of the 108 students who responded to a question
regarding the difficulty of using an online text, 45
(42%) said that it was easy, 28 (26%) said that it
was moderately easy, 26 (24%) said that it was
neither hard nor easy, and nine (8%) said that it was
moderately difficult. Zero students reported that it
was difficult to use an online text.

9. HCC – Results Comparing Students from
two instructors who taught in Spring 2011
and Fall 2011

10. Virginia State University
 Virginia State University (VSU) has 5,300
students. They offer 55 baccalaureate and
masters degree programs, two doctoral
degree programs and three certificates.
 VSU’s Business Department adopted nine
FWK text and paid $30.00 per student for an
unlimited seat license for all FWK content.

11. VSU – Student Feedback from 148 students

12. VSU – Results
 95% of students downloaded a digital textbook
(in contrast with 47% of students purchasing
textbooks one year previously).
 Students downloaded a variety of resources

13. VSU – Results
In total there were seven courses that used FWK textbooks (COBU101, COBU200, COBU201,
COBU210, COBU300, COBU301, COBU302, COBU310, MISY350), and ten courses that did
not use FWK textbooks (COBU110, COBU111, COBU155, COBU170, COBU202, COBU260,
COBU304, COBU342, COBU343, COBU400). While these were clearly different courses, they
were roughly equivalent in terms of course difficulty.
ABC_ DFW_ Total DFW ABC_ DFW_ Total DFW
in in % in in %
Core core with core core not
Courses courses FWK courses courses using
using using w/o w/o
FWK FWK FWK FWK FWK
Fall 611 151 762 24.7% 830 270 1100 32.5%
2010
Spring 531 100 631 18.8% 834 242 1076 29.0%
2011

14. Project Kaleidoscope
The study context is an open education initiative
called Project Kaleidoscope (http://www.project-
kaleidoscope.org/). This initiative is comprised of
eight community colleges serving predominantly at-
risk students. These colleges work together to create
courses that replace traditional, expensive textbooks
with OER. During the 2011-2012 academic year,
Project Kaleidoscope (PK) impacted over 4,000
students across 80 teachers in a controlled pilot, with
another 5,000 students using PK course designs and
materials outside the controlled pilot.

15. Project Kaleidoscope – Teacher Perceptions
 58 teachers from 8 PK institutions completed some
items on the questionnaire.
 Student preparedness. Most teachers (63%) believed
that their students were equally prepared in the
course with PK texts compared to students in the
same course before implementation of PK texts
(Figure 3). At the same time, more than a quarter of
teachers (26%) felt that students were more
prepared than students in the same course in the
past. Only 11 percent perceived students as being
less prepared.

16. Project Kaleidoscope – Teacher Perceptions
 Teacher perceptions of quality. Twenty out of 57
(35%) teachers indicated that they thought the OER
textbook was better than texts they had used
previously to teach the course. Only 6 (11%) felt
the OER texts were worse than traditional texts.
The remaining 31(54%) teachers indicated that their
OER texts were of the nearly the same quality as
other texts they had used in the past.

17. Project Kaleidoscope – Student Perceptions
 490 students from all eight PK institutions
completed the questionnaire. 60% were female.
 39% of students indicated that they thought the
OER textbook was better than texts they had
used in other courses. 6% felt the OER texts
were worse and 55% indicated that their OER
texts were of the nearly the same quality as other
texts they had used in the past.

18. Project Kaleidoscope – Student Perceptions
 160 students provided a description of what they
thought made the OER texts better. Their
responses clustered in six major categories:
technical advantages (8%), learning aides (9%),
customization (10%), cost (20%), access (26%), and
quality/presentation (27%).
 Conversely, 20 students provided a description of
what they thought made the OER texts worse than
other texts they had used in the past. Their
responses clustered in 2 major categories; six
students described technology issues and 15
students took issue with text quality.

19. Project Kaleidoscope—Learning Outcomes
 Does open textbook adoption have an
impact on student learning as manifest by
grades?
 649 students in intermediate algebra
(developmental math) courses at four PK
schools.
 What kind of analysis is appropriate?

20. The Problem

21. Propensity Score Matching

22. Covariate Balance

23. Results

24. Strengths
 The data approximates random sample to the
extent that we have captured key covariates.
 We have acceptable balance across all
measured covariates.
 Statistical analyses are much more robust
because the assumptions are met
 Have a stronger basis to engage in causal
induction (Reuben Causal Model)

25. Limitations
 Grades are contextual—not universal
markers of meaning
 We had a limited number of observed
covariates.
 Some key covariates are unobservable.
 We lose statistical power by cutting our
sample from 649 to 128.

26. Questions?
John Hilton III Jared Robinson
johnhiltoniii.org tjaredrobinson.com