The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Open Educational Resource (OE
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Open Educational Resource (OER) environmental scan entailed the Affordable Resources for Learning survey for students in the UCSB Promise Scholars Program. The UCSB Promise Scholars Program is designed to empower high achieving first generation students from low-income backgrounds. It was vital to hear the students’ voices on the challenges they face acquiring learning resources like textbooks. Thus, the survey was designed to assess some of the challenges that students in this program face, especially those surrounding textbook acquisition. The other goals of the survey was to determine if the students are aware of alternative resources like OER, if they would consider advocating for OER once they know more about them, and ways they might advocate for alternative learning resources like OER.
The survey had 9 questions and 45 students responded. The responses to the survey are located here. The questions are listed below:
- What is your major? (you can indicate undeclared).
- Does the cost of textbooks influence the number of units you take each quarter?
- Check any that apply below:
- I avoid taking certain courses because of the cost of textbooks
- I take some courses even if I can’t afford the assigned textbooks. I rely on friends, Library Course Reserves or the internet instead.
- I am not affected by the cost of textbooks
- Approximately how much did you spend on textbooks last quarter?
- Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your access to assigned textbooks? If so, in what ways?
- How familiar are you with OERs? Reminder: OERs are freely and openly available. They include textbooks, lecture notes, tests, assignments, and more.
- How would using Open Educational Resources benefit you?
- If you feel that OERs might benefit you, how might you advocate for their use at UCSB?
- The library is interested in pursuing more OER adoption at UCSB. Please share your thoughts about the library’s role and any other comments you might have.
It was vital to get an understanding of the student respondents’ majors to see which departments they are affiliated with and whether the departments fall under the high enrollment category. Four of the respondents are majoring in departments with high enrollment courses: Communication, English, Environmental Studies, Psychology, and Sociology.
The piechart below shows the students’ major, some had yet declare their major.
Sixty percent of the student respondents highlighted that the cost of textbooks influenced the number of units they take each quarter. Only 40% of the survey takers said textbook cost did not factor into the number of units they take. One is left wondering if students get the most out of their education when textbook cost prevents them from taking certain courses.
Pie chart on the influence of textbook cost on the number of units taken.
The student survey respondents also shared the various ways in which textbook cost impacted them, as highlighted belo