WCET's 28th Annual Meeting
 
What Students Want: Creating a Statewide Approach to Textbook Affordability

Speaker
Moderator: , Director, Distance Education and State Authorization, North Dakota University System
Speaker: , Director, Research Evaluation, University of West Florida
Speaker: , Director, Member Research and Services, Florida Virtual Campus


Description

It's no secret the high cost of textbooks places a significant strain on the pocketbooks of most college students. It is an issue that we as college educators and administrators readily acknowledge but one for which few real solutions have proven successful. But where rising textbook costs have traditionally been viewed as a financial challenge, this statewide survey of more than 22,000 Florida college students indicates that the cost of textbooks also negatively impacts their academic success. This survey is the third in a longitudinal series of surveys from 2010 through 2016 that shed light on the impact high textbook costs have not only on college affordability, but also college success as more and more students simply cannot afford to purchase the materials they need. Join the presenters as they discuss the many eye-opening findings from the 2016 College Textbook and Course Materials Survey and share some of the solutions the state of Florida is implementing to make textbooks affordable for Florida's one-million-plus public postsecondary students.