The presenter will make the case that open-access textbooks will only achieve their full potential when ancillary materials to support such texts become widely available. A discussion of a successful effort to develop an online, interactive, and algorithmically dynamic study guide to support an open-access textbook will follow.
“Disruptive innovation, a term of art coined by Clayton Christensen, describes a process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors.1”
Disruptive innovation, for example the technology that allowed Uber and Lyft drivers to displace long entrenched taxi cartels, makes it possible for small, startup companies to compete successfully with larger, better capitalized concerns. Technology driven market disruption of this type often benefits consumers by increasing the number of available products and services, improving quality, and lowering price.
One would think that an information based industry such as textbook publishing would have been completely transformed by the innovations that have accompanied our society’s shift from an economy based on traditional industry to one based on information technology.
But the textbook industry has remained stubbornly resistant to change. A small number of established firms still controls a significant portion of the market. Textbook prices continue to be high - often to the point where students choose not to purchase required materials - and publishers release new editions at a breathtaking pace for seemingly no reason other than to undermine the used book market.
The disconnect between the effect that advances in technology should have had on the publishing industry and what has actually occurred is particularly perplexing given that free, high-quality, open-access textbooks are readily available in many subject areas. We are left to ponder, “Why isn’t every educator using open textbooks?”
The answer to this question may lie in the fact that even when textbooks are free to use, educators must make a considerable investment of either money to purchase or time to create the test banks, overheads, online test managers, and similar materials needed to support such books. Given the choice between adopting a text from a publisher that provides all of the tools needed to deliver a quality learning experience or accumulating these tools on their own, professors are reasonably selecting the easier alternative.
Great textbooks are available without charge. The materials needed to support such books usually are not.
After citing research that strongly supports the use of practice testing and distributed practice as effective tools in education, this presentation goes on to describe an effort by the presenter and a small group of professors to create an online study guide by adapting open-source materials for presentation into an interactive and algorithmically dynamic question and answer format.
Specifically, we are taking advantage of the generous copyrights that govern the use of open-access textbooks and repackaging these resources for delivery on communication devices of all sizes, from cellphones to projection screens.
We call our project (Name of resource redacted to keep submission anonymous). The website is free to use, and there are no advertisements. Students do not have to set up an account or log in. Instructions for using the site are really basic, “Click on a topic and start answering questions. We do not keep score. If you make a mistake, you will be the only one who knows about it.”
In 2014, our online study guides in Financial Accounting, Advanced Accounting, and Taxation were peer reviewed by, MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, and earned ratings of 4.5, 4.75, and 5.00. out of 5.00, respectively. Since receiving these peer reviews, we have implemented all of the improvements suggested by the reviewers and made literally thousands of other enhancements to the website.
More recently, the Managerial Accounting study guide that will be discussed in length in this session was awarded a 5.00 out of 5.00 Editor Review rating on Merlot.
Although packaged as practice tests, our resource is not designed to measure student achievement. Instead, the interactive questions and answers are meant to serve as teaching tools that require active participation and give learners immediate feedback on their progress.
The session concludes with a description of anecdotal evidence that demonstrates the strong degree to which students have embraced the use of this resource and have incorporated it into their study routines.
1Bower, Joseph L., & Christensen, Clayton M., Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, Harvard Business Review, January–February 1995