
Comparing a Faculty-Created OER and Commercial Textbook: Student Outcomes and Perceptions
By: Jennifer Lantrip and Meagan Button
References
- Abramovich, S., & McBride, M. (2018). Open education resources and perceptions of financial value. The Internet and Higher Education, 39, 33–38. 10.1016/j.iheduc.2018.06.002
- Allen, G., Guzman-Alvarez, A., Smith, A., Gamage, A., Molinaro, M., & Larsen, D. S. (2015). Evaluating the effectiveness of the open-access ChemWiki resource as a replacement for traditional general chemistry textbooks. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 16(4), 939–948. 10.1039/C5RP00084J
- Baker, E. W., & Sibona, C. J. (2020). Digital OER impact on learning outcomes for social inclusion. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 62(2), 278–289. 10.1080/08874417.2020.1802789
- Baron, N. S., Calixte, R. M., & Havewala, M. (2017). The persistence of print among university students: An exploratory study. Telematics and Informatics, 34(5), 590–604. 10.1016/j.tele.2016.11.008
- Bay View Analytics. (2023). National survey on student course material affordability, 2023.
https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/student_course_material_affordability.html - Biddle, A. M., & Clinton-Lisell, V. (2023). “The pictures allowed me to connect to the material more”: Student perceptions of a diversity-focused open pedagogy assignment. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 9(4), 405–418. 10.1037/stl0000385
- Bliss, T., Hilton, J., Wiley, D., & Thanos, K. (2013). The cost and quality of open textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. First Monday, 18(1). 10.5210/fm.v18i1.3972
- Bliss, T., Robinson, T. J., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). An OER COUP: College teacher and student perceptions of open educational resources. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1–25. 10.5334/2013-04
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2016, August 30). College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006. The Economics Daily.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm - Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2023). College tuition and fees up 4.7 percent since February 2020. The Economics Daily.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/college-tuition-and-fees-up-4-7-percent-since-february-2020.htm - Cho, K. W., & Permzadian, V. (2024). The impact of open educational resources on student achievement: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Educational Research, 126,
102365 . 10.1016/j.ijer.2024.102365 - Clinton, V. (2018). Savings without sacrifice: A case report on open-source textbook adoption. Open Learning. 10.1080/02680513.2018.1486184
- Clinton, V., & Khan, S. (2019). Efficacy of open textbook adoption on learning performance and course withdrawal rates: A meta-analysis. AERA Open, 5(3), 1–20. 10.1177/2332858419872212
- Clinton-Lisell, V. (2023). How does OER efficacy vary based on student age and course modality? A multi-institutional analysis. American Journal of Distance Education, 37(3), 217–233. 10.1080/08923647.2022.2077061
- Clinton-Lisell, V., Roberts-Crews, J., & Gwozdz, L. (2023). SCOPE of open education: A new framework for research. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(4), 135–153. 10.19173/irrodl.v24i4.7356
- College Board. (2023). Trends in college pricing and student aid 2023.
https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends%20Report%202023%20Updated.pdf - Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262–276.
http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE3386.pdf - Community College Research Center. (2021, July). An introduction to community colleges and their students.
https://web.archive.org/web/20250123015741/https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/media/k2/attachments/introduction-community-colleges-students.pdf - Congressional Research Service. (2022, December 2). A snapshot of federal student loan debt (IF10158, Version 4, Updated). In Focus.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10158 - Cooney, C. (2017). What impacts do OER have on students? Students share their experiences with a health psychology OER at New York City College of Technology. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3111
- Cozart, D. L., Horan, E. M., & Frome, G. (2021). Rethinking the traditional textbook: A case for open educational resources (OER) and no-cost learning materials. Teaching & Learning Inquiry, 9(2). 10.20343/teachlearninqu.9.2.13
- Creative Commons. (n.d.). Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, academic librarians, and open culture.
https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/ - Delgado, H., Delgado, M., & Hilton, J. (2019). On the efficacy of open educational resources: Parametric and nonparametric analyses of a university calculus class. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(1), 184–203. 10.19173/irrodl.v20i1.3892
- Delimont, N., Turtle, E. C., Bennett, A., Adhikari, K., & Lindshield, B. L. (2016). University students and faculty have positive perceptions of open/alternative resources and their utilization in a textbook replacement initiative. Research in Learning Technology, 24. 10.3402/rlt.v24.29920
- Dempsey, M. (2021). The impact of free and open educational resource adoption on community college student achievement and course withdrawal rates. International Journal of Open Educational Resources, 4(1), 45–59. 10.18278/ijoer.4.1.5
- Engler, J. N., & Shedlosky-Shoemaker, R. (2019). Facilitating student success: The role of open educational resources in introductory psychology courses. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 18(1), 36–47. 10.1177/1475725718810241
- Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Pitt, B., Weller, M., & Bossu, C. (2024). Innovation with open educational resources: An integrative review of drivers, barriers and enablers. Journal of Open, Distance, and Digital Education, 1(2), 1–41. 10.25619/y3yte265
- Feldstein, A., Martin, M., Hudson, A., Warren, K., Hilton, J., & Wiley, D. (2012). Open textbooks and increased student access and outcomes. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, (2).
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ992490 - Fischer, L., Hilton, J., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2015). A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on learning outcomes of post-secondary students. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 27(3), 159–172. 10.1007/s12528-015-9101-x
- Florida Virtual Campus. (2022). 2022 student textbook and course materials survey.
https://assets.website-files.com/646e59f2d76c6e8c0c5223de/64de6132148ed7739bc186e4_FLVC%20Textbook%20Survey%20Report%20-%202022.pdf - Gleeson, A., Grim, G., Hawkes, A., Jeffrey, L., Preston, S., Reid, C., & Wagstaff, J. (2021, July). Ebooks survey July 2021. ebooks@Cambridge.
https://ebookscambridge.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/ebooks-survey-july-2021-summary-report.pdf - Griffiths, R., Mislevy, J., & Wang, S. (2022). Encouraging impacts of an open education resource degree initiative on college students’ progress to degree. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education Research, 84(5), 1089–1106. 10.1007/s10734-022-00817-9
- Grinias, J. P., & Smith, T. I. (2020). Preliminary evidence on the effect of an open-source textbook in second-year undergraduate analytical chemistry courses. Journal of Chemical Education, 97, 2347–2350. 10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00293
- Grissett, J. O., & Huffman, C. (2019). An open versus traditional psychology textbook: Student performance, perceptions, and use. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 18(1), 21–35. 10.1177/1475725718810181
- Gurung, R. A. (2017). Predicting learning: Comparing an open educational resource and standard textbooks. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 3(3),
233 . 10.1037/stl0000092 - Hanson, M. (2024a, February 21). Average student loan interest rate. Education Data Initiative.
https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-interest-rate - Hanson, M. (2024b, May 28). Average cost of college & tuition. Education Data Initiative.
https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college - Hardin, E. E., Eschman, B., Spengler, E. S., Grizzell, J. A., Moody, A. T., Ross-Sheehy, S., & Fry, K. M. (2019). What happens when trained graduate student instructors switch to an open textbook? A controlled study of the impact on student learning outcomes. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 18(1), 48–64. 10.1177/1475725718810909
- Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of open pedagogy: A model for using open educational resources. Educational Technology, 55(4), 3–13.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430383 - Hendricks, C., Reinsberg, S. A., & Rieger, G. W. (2017). The adoption of an open textbook in a large physics course: An analysis of cost, outcomes, use, and perceptions. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3006
- Hilton, J. (2020). Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: A synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 853–876. 10.1007/s11423-019-09700-4
- Hilton, J., Gaudet, D., Clark, P., Robinson, J., & Wiley, D. (2013). The adoption of open educational resources by one community college math department. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 14(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v14i4.1523
- Ikahihifo, T. K., Spring, K. J., Rosecrans, J., & Watson, J. (2017). Assessing the savings from open educational resources on student academic goals. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(7). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i7.2754
- Illowsky, B. S., Hilton, J., Whiting, J., & Ackerman, J. D. (2016). Examining student perception of an open statistics book. Open Praxis, 8(3), 265–276. 10.5944/openpraxis.8.3.304
- Jenkins, J. J., Sánchez, L. A., Schraedley, M. A. K., Hannans, J., Navick, N., & Young, J. (2020). Textbook broke: Textbook affordability as a social justice issue. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1), 1–3. 10.5334/jime.549
- Jhangiani, R. S., Dastur, F. N., Le Grand, R., & Penner, K. (2018). As good or better than commercial textbooks: Students’ perceptions and outcomes from using open digital and open print textbooks. Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(1). 10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2018.1.5
- Jhangiani, R. S., & Jhangiani, S. (2017). Investigating the perceptions, use, and impact of open textbooks: A survey of post-secondary students in British Columbia. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3012
- Kelly, A. E., Laurin, J. N., & Clinton-Lisell, V. (2024). Making psychology’s hidden figures visible using open educational resources: A replication and extension study. Teaching of Psychology, 51(3), 251–259. 10.1177/00986283221108129
- Kersey, S. (2019). The effectiveness of open educational resources in college calculus. A quantitative study. Open Praxis, 11(2), 185–193. 10.5944/openpraxis.11.2.935
- Lambert, S. (2018). Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3), 225–244. 10.56059/jl4d.v5i3.290
- Levine, P. B., & Ritter, D. (2023). The racial wealth gap, financial aid, and college access. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 43(2), 555–581. 10.1002/pam.22550
- Levy, D., & Tila, D. (2022). An overlooked benefit of OER: Showing students we care. International Journal of Research in Education Humanities and Commerce. 3(3): 199–204.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED620160 - Lin, P. S., & Kennette, L. N. (2021). Creating an inclusive learning community to better serve minority students. Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education, 4(3), 1–18. 10.36021/jethe.v4i3.250
- Lindshield, B., & Adhikari, K. (2013). Online and campus college students like using an open educational resource instead of a traditional textbook. Journal of Online Learning & Teaching, 9(1), 1–7.
http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no1/lindshield_0313.htm - Lo, L. S., Jordan, J., & Surbaugh, H. (2023). The cost of success: Exploring the impact of textbook costs at a Hispanic-serving R1 institution. Open Praxis, 15(2), 134–148. 10.55982/openpraxis.15.2.554
- Medley-Rath, S. (2018). Does the type of textbook matter? Results of a study of free electronic reading materials at a community college. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 42(12), 908–918. 10.1080/10668926.2017.1389316
- Mizrachi, D. (2015). Undergraduates’ academic reading format preferences and behaviors. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(3), 301–311. 10.1016/j.acalib.2015.03.009
- Mizrachi, D., & Salaz, A. M. (2022). Reading format attitudes in the time of COVID. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 48(4), 102552-102552. 10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102552
- Mullens, A. M., & Hoffman, B. (2023). The affordability solution: A systematic review of open educational resources. Educational Psychology Review, 35(3). 10.1007/s10648-023-09793-7
- Mustaffa, J. B., & Dawson, C. (2021). Racial capitalism and the black student loan debt crisis. Teachers College Record, 123(6), 1–28. 10.1177/016146812112300601
- Nusbaum, A. T., Cuttler, C., & Swindell, S. (2020). Open educational resources as a tool for educational equity: Evidence from an introductory psychology class. Frontiers in Education, 4(152), 1–8. 10.3389/feduc.2019.00152
- Open Education Group. (2023). Cost, outcomes, usage, and perceptions (COUP) framework. Libraries’ Documents,
387 .https://stars.library.ucf.edu/lib-docs/387 - Open Oregon Educational Resources. (2022). Six years of savings: impact of statewide funding for textbook affordability.
https://openoregon.org/six-years-of-savings/ - Oregon High Education Coordinating Commission. (n.d.). Statewide higher education snapshots archive.
https://www.oregon.gov/highered/strategy-research/pages/snapshots-archive.aspx - Ozdemir, O., & Hendricks, C. (2017). Instructor and student experiences with open textbooks, from the California open online library for education (Cool4Ed). Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 29(1), 98–113. 10.1007/s12528-017-9138-0
- Pitt, R. (2023).
Open textbooks in higher education teaching . In D. Otto, G. Scharnberg, M. Kerres, & O. Zawacki-Richter (Eds.), Distributed Learning Ecosystems: Concepts, Resources, and Repositories (pp. 97–113). Springer VS. 10.1007/978-3-658-38703-7 - Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J., Courduff, J., Carter, K., & Bennett, D. (2013). Electronic versus traditional print textbooks: A comparison study on the influence of university students’ learning. Computers & Education, 63, 259–266. 10.1016/j.compedu.2012.11.022
- Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. J., Wendt, J., & Lunde, R. (2013). Electronic versus print textbooks: The influence of textbook format on university students’ self-regulated learning strategies, motivation, and text anxiety. American Journal of Distance Education, 27(3), 179–188. 10.1080/08923647.2013.796230
- Ross, H. M., Hendricks, C., & Mowat, V. (2018). Open textbooks in an introductory sociology course in Canada: Student views and completion rates. Open Praxis, 10(4), 393–403. 10.5944/openpraxis.10.4.892
- Ryan, S. D., & Nawalaniec, T. M. (2021). An OER approach to linear algebra. PRIMUS, 32(6), 721–737. 10.1080/10511970.2021.1905121
- Sanchez, C., Peters, E. E., Cheng, D., & Tierney, S. (2024). Breaking the cycle of racial wealth inequities and higher education outcomes: How data-driven insights can inform policy solutions that address the racial wealth gap. Institute for Higher Education Policy.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED652590.pdf - Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2018). Freeing the textbook: Educational resources in U.S. higher education, 2018.
https://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/freeingthetextbook2018.pdf - SPARC (n.d.). OER State Policy Tracker.
https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/ - Spica, E., & Biddix, J. P. (2021). Prices they pay: Academic achievement and progress to graduation barriers experienced by community college students due to the cost of course materials. Innovative Higher Education.
https://rdcu.be/cvQMd . 10.1007/s10755-021-09557-7 - Squibb, S. D., Salmon, E., & Yan, Y. (2023). Measuring the impact of an open educational resource and library e-resource adoption program using the COUP framework. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(4), 80–101. 10.19173/irrodl.v24i4.7420
- Student PIRGs. (2016, February). Covering the cost: Why we can no longer afford to ignore high textbook prices.
https://studentpirgs.org/2016/02/03/covering-cost/ - Tlili, A., Garzón, J., Salha, S., Huang, R., Xu, L., Burgos, D., Denden, M., Farrell, O., Farrow, R., Bozkurt, A., Amiel, T., McGreal, R., López-Serrano, A., & Wiley, D. (2023). Are open educational resources (OER) and practices (OEP) effective in improving learning achievement? A meta-analysis and research synthesis. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1),
54 . 10.1186/s41239-023-00424-3 - U.S. Department of Education. (2015, July 27). Fact Sheet: Focusing Higher Education on Student Success.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161223233232/http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-focusing-higher-education-student-success - Van Allen, J., & Katz, S. (2020). Teaching with OER during pandemics and beyond. Journal for Multicultural Education, 14(3/4), 209–218. 10.1108/JME-04-2020-0027
- Vold, V. (n.d.). Equity-minded open course design. Open Oregon Educational Resources.
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/coursedesign/ - Watson, C. E., Domizi, D. P., & Clouser, S. A. (2017). Student and faculty perceptions of OpenStax in high enrollment courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(5). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.2462
- Wiley, D., & Hilton, J. L. (2018). Defining OER-enabled pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601
- Winitzky-Stephens, J., & Pickavance, J. (2017). Open educational resources and student course outcomes: A multilevel analysis. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4). 10.19173/irrodl.v18i4.3118
- Wynants, S. A., & Dennis, J. M. (2022). Redesigning a research methods course with personalized, interactive OER: A case study of student perceptions and performance. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 22(1). 10.14434/josotl.v22i1.31706
- Zawacki-Richter, O., Müskens, W., & Marín, V. I. (2023).
Quality assurance of open educational resources . In O. Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (pp. 781–799). Springer Nature. 10.1007/978-981-19-2080-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.17.3.897 | Journal eISSN: 2304-070X
Language: English
Page range: 561 - 578
Submitted on: Aug 4, 2025
Accepted on: Jun 14, 2025
Published on: Aug 11, 2025
Published by: International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2025 Jennifer Lantrip, Meagan Button, published by International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.