Paper Example on OpenStax: Free Textbooks Provide Benefits to Learners

The article reveals the importance of OpenStax in providing textbooks for learners that include benefits such as reduction of cost, better outcomes, more flexible uses, and better quality. Potential students from low socioeconomic backgrounds encounter challenges with education because of the high cost of tuition and also textbooks (Jung et al. 2017). The research topic considers the benefits of Open Educational Resources that are meant to offer students an alternative to save their costs of education as they utilize open textbooks of high quality.

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The methodology of the article involves focusing on a specific population of faculty that is using open textbooks from OpenStax at different institutions of higher education. The survey includes questions concerning the perceptions of the faculty about the importance of accessibility features when using open textbooks as well as the impact on student achievement (Jung et al. 2017). The survey instrument was delivered via an online platform, and there were adaptive follow-up questions included dependent on the responses of the participants.

The major findings of the article include the new direction of utilizing open textbooks. The research showed that utilizing them can enable innovative instructional approaches like flipped classrooms or collaborative learning (Jung et al. 2017) Assuming that everyone can get access to the textbook, the faculty is capable of holding students more responsible and encourage them to engage in more learning.

Introduction

The research topic was clearly defined as well as the problem that the research tries to solve. The research topic is about the perceptions of open textbook adoption by faculties in higher education sectors. The problem solved by adopting open textbooks is that of the high cost of tuition and textbooks, especially on students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Jung et al. 2017). The authors also discuss the significance of the problem by stating that the problem of high costs cause individuals to be more prone to delay in college enrollment.

The literature review of the article was sufficient as they discuss more about the problem of high cost and the availability of open textbooks. The authors also reveal the research from other people who have conducted studies involving educators using open textbooks. Other researchers also found out that open education resources can help in responding to student’s needs and making teaching easier (Jung et al. 2017). There were specific research questions provided by the article that include the perceptions of faculties about the costs, impact of the textbooks, and accessibility features.

Methods

The methodology is clearly identified as the researchers use survey questions administered online for the participants. They administered the survey instrument after modification on the basis of expert feedback. The questionnaire was inclusive of multiple-choice, multiple-select, and also open-response items. The participants in the research were discussed as they were specific to the faculties that had adopted open textbooks through OpenStax (Jung et al. 2017). The sampling technique as appropriate because only the institutions that had prior knowledge of the textbooks could provide reliable evidence about the students and their reaction towards them. The instrumentation of the research was described appropriately in terms of its validity, and that made it necessary for the study, especially concerning the modification.

Findings

The findings of the article were presented clearly because the article groups the results according to the research questions. There are answers related to aspects of demographics, cost, outcome, use, perception of quality, and accessibility. The researchers use percentages to describe the number of people that reported the use of open textbooks from OpenStax or other platforms. The results addressed the research problem and questions because they were answering the perceptions of the faculty regarding the use of open textbooks and how they had benefitted from it (Jung et al. 2017). There were tables and graphs used to map the responses of students that purchased the textbooks, checked the prices, and faculty use of textbooks according to the perceptions of participants.

Discussion of Results

The conclusions provided in the article were supported by the findings of the study. The findings showed that the use of open textbooks had benefits such as saving a significant amount of finances and enhancing pedagogical shifts. The results also showed that the students spent more time reading books (Jung et al. 2017). The article also provides practice recommendations based on the findings of the study for more faculties to adopt the use of open textbooks for the students because they were better prepared for classes, and their performance was high as well. The researchers also recommend the need for future research to empirically determine whether open textbooks help in student performance, and not only rely on the perception of faculties on the topic.

My Conclusion

The topic was relevant and worthwhile as it suggests the need to adopt modern forms of education because the approach could benefit students in saving financial costs and time spent in preparing. The article was well-written with no grammar mistakes and no use of jargon words, making it simple to read and interpret. To make the study better, I would suggest that there be a divergent number of participants and not only the faculties that have adopted the methods. A control experiment of the faculties that had not adopted the open textbooks would help make a better comparison.

Reference

Jung, E., Bauer, C., & Heaps, A. (2017). Higher education faculty perceptions of open textbook adoption. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(4).