The financial aspects of college are complex for students and the cost of textbooks can be more than they can afford. On average a student will spend $370 per semester according to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Most students buy textbooks for their first semester of class expecting that they will utilize everything that is required for the course. The number of students who continue to purchase all of their required texts drops significantly in subsequential semesters. Part of this reason is because the books were underutilized in the course. Collegeboard conducted a survey in 2014 that asked students about their textbook usage requirements. "94% that were a part of the survey found that they bought books that were used less than 50% of" (Collegeboard, 2014).
According to the U.S. Public Interest Research group (2014), "65% of students chose not to buy a textbook due to its cost".
It is concerning that students do not buy their textbooks – which are an "essential aid in learning new material, completing assignments, and studying for exams" – because they can not afford them. (Senack, 2014)
Faculty are taking notice and are turning to customized books to lower costs and ensure that students are prepared for class.
One option for creating affordable custom texts is XanEdu, where over 630,000 students per year have access to custom digital and print course materials. We have found that students like custom textbooks because the material that is included is completely relevant to their course and are more likely to buy the texts.
References:
Collegeboard (2014). Trends in College Education. Collegeboard, Web. 27 Mar. 2015.
Senack, E. (2014) Fixing The Broken Textbook Market. Public Interest Research, Web 27
2015. http://senate.rutgers.edu/PIRGTextbookCostsReport.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment