Sara Roberts, Lisa Davies and I are working on a research project with Dr Cheryl Brown (Associate Professor in the CoEHHD) and Richard White (Copyright Manager at the University of Otago) to investigate academic perspectives of textbooks.
This project responds to earlier studies led by Cheryl (2019) and Richard (2017) which found that students struggle with the costs of textbooks and often make do without, with subsequent impact on their grades. It has also been precipitated by the dramatic rise in the cost for the library of purchasing e-textbooks, particularly evident during the COVID-19 lockdown, which is fast approaching a cost that we cannot sustain.
The goal of this research is twofold:
- provide the UC Library with data that will enable us to plan and to make informed decisions about the provision of textbooks
- to investigate the use of textbooks and open educational resources in New Zealand tertiary institutions
We invited academics from all New Zealand tertiary institutions to complete our survey and were very happy to have 210 complete responses. You can see the breakdown of these responses in terms of institution, discipline and teaching experience in the document for the last LLO meeting on the 13 October. (https://intranet.canterbury.ac.nz/library/LLOs/documents_llos.shtml)
We have also conducted a preliminary analysis of UC-specific data, the graphs of which were shared with IRWG and can be viewed on Sharepoint (https://ucshare.canterbury.ac.nz/kno/pum/pum002/Lists/Meeting%20agenda%20items/Short%20view.aspx) [Nb. These graphs will form the basis for an upcoming report but are very much draft versions with little explanation. I’m happy to discuss the data with anyone who is interested and we’ll be improving the graphs for the final report!]