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When students are unable to purchase a textbook because of rising prices and/or are unwilling to carry heavy textbooks, their education is compromised. Open educational resources (OERs) are gaining in popularity because they solve these problems by providing free study materials in electronic formats, but students from different backgrounds and situations are impacted by OER in different ways. The aim of this paper is to analyze the usefulness of OER materials for students who are majoring in engineering, as well as those whose majors are in another (non-engineering) field. The impact of OER materials on students of different financial statuses, is also investigated. For this purpose, two classes of a graduate-level risk management course taught by the same instructor were selected. One class followed a web-based interactive OER system, and the other class followed the traditional textbook method. A survey was developed and distributed to measure 19 aspects of students’ perceptions towards the web-based interactive OER system, and multiple statistical methods were used to analyze the collected survey data. Students’ grades were also collected to analyze their academic performance. It was concluded that students majoring in engineering and students with financial constraints had a significantly more positive attitude towards the implementation of electronic OER materials. Furthermore, it was concluded that up-to-date OER materials with integrated advances in the field attract engineering students; whereas, free and/or low-cost educational resources are very appealing for students with higher education loans. The findings of this study will enable universities and colleges to effectively allocate financial resources towards the development and implementation of the OER materials.

This study is based on research on secondary textbook and school library provision in Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo, as well as existing recent country reports on textbook provision and an extensive desk research. Considerable variations exist in Sub-Saharan African textbook requirements needed to meet secondary curriculum specifications just as significant differences exist between and within countries in regard to the average price of recommended textbooks. Some countries have no approved textbooks list. This World Bank Working Paper aims to discuss the textbook situation in Sub-Saharan Africa with a special focus on secondary textbook availability, cost and financing, distribution and publishing, and the status of school libraries. Its objective is to analyze the issues in secondary textbook and school library provision and to provide some options and strategies for improvement.

The increasing price of textbooks impacts students of higher education in the world. E-textbooks are becoming popular among students at all levels of education, especially at the university level. There is a shift in students reading habits and preferences towards e-textbooks. This growing trend has encouraged researchers to gather information about students' experiences, attitudes, and perceptions regarding using e-textbooks and their impact on the learning process. This study surveys undergraduate students in a small mid-western university in the USA. Data is collected from students studying four different colleges. A total of 346 questionnaires were collected. The findings revealed that 34.39% of the current users in the total sample do not want to use e-textbooks in the future. The predominant factors influencing the adoption of e-textbooks over print textbooks are cost, learning and engagement in interactive exercises, convenience, and flexibility. The study suggests some initiatives that educators, technology experts, designers, and universities can take for more students to adopt a digital version of textbooks to solve the problem of affordability.

Herein the argument advanced is that excellent shepherd leadership practices serve as a condition necessary for affording South African university students easy access to the required book chapters instead of enduring the burden of having to buy the full books. In order to embellish this viewpoint, relevant data were collected through focus group interview discussion sessions (FGIDs) with a sample of 40 purposefully sampled participants from a target population of university students, lecturers and local text books sales personnel. These participants were first categorised into 4 focus groups of 10 members each and were interviewed for a duration of between 40 minutes and one hour per focus group. By adopting an interpretivist paradigm, utilising a qualitative research approach and descriptive phenomenology as strategy of enquiry (design genre) the study was able to explore the lived experiences of the participants. The two key research questions guiding the study were; how can the key university lecturers as curriculum leaders and shepherd leaders easy the text book burden on South African university students? And what role can text book publishing companies play towards easing the text book burdens on university students? Deploying shepherd leadership as the theoretical framework or lenses for viewing and analysing the data through inductive and or thematic approach, the study's main finding was that since the biggest cost that university students have is books and given that most of the books are only used for one semester, their exorbitant prices more often than not, lead students to resort to photocopying while publishers lose out. The study concluded that using such new platforms as E-llumin 8, can help students alleviate their text book burden since it allows them access to specifically prescribed book chapters at a time instead of buying the full books. The chief recommendation from the study was that university lecturers need to work in liaison with the key book publishing companies to embrace any new and innovative ways to ease the text book burden on students whilst also ensuring that publishers do not lose out.

Offering digital content for renting has become popular among online retailers. Following the trend, textbook retailers have introduced e-textbook rental programs which satisfy students' needs to reduce the cost of textbooks. Under the e-textbook rental model, retailers have homogeneous digital products and delivery channel. Therefore, they need specific differentiation strategies to distinguish themselves in the competition. In this study we aim to investigate the key factors of retailers' differentiation strategy and their impact on retailers' price advantage in the market. Our horizontal model shows that factors such as service quality are essential for the leading retailer to maintain price advantage in the competition. We also carry out an empirical study on service design and consumers' input by analyzing a unique data set of 151 e-textbooks from two major textbook rental retailers Amazon and Chegg. Our results show that factors including service flexibility, earliest return time, consumers' rating, and e-textbook selling price play a significant role in retailers' pricing differentiation strategy. Overall, our research provides useful managerial insights and operational policies for online textbook rental retailers.

Corporate financial economic programs are almost universally featured in economics and management degrees and, therefore, are an essential component of the culture-building process for current and future economists and managers. Nevertheless, these programs are not restricted to financial affairs. A survey of contemporary academic textbooks in corporate financial economics shows that these books are based on promoting Irving Fisher’s (1906) specific theory of the organization, which advocates that organizations exist to create wealth for their owners/shareholders. This theory has three key premises. 1) The “correct” equity/stock prices are equal to future cash flows that are payable to the organizations’ owners/shareholders. 2) The purpose of the firm and its managers is to maximize the value of the equity/share prices. c) Hence, their purpose is to maximize the cash flows (wealth) payable to owners/shareholders. None of these premises has been clearly demonstrated empirically. Yet, economic and business schools deliver lectures based on this rhetoric every year to thousands of students who will later hold influential roles in society.

eTextbooks have steadily and recently more rapidly penetrated the textbook market. In order to effectively support students’ learning, it is important to comprehend students’ experiences using eTextbooks. This survey study was designed to gain an understanding of students’ experiences in using eTextbooks and variables that impact their experiences, perceptions, and attitudes towards eTextbooks. In a total of 33 courses, faculty members at five state university campuses in California participated in the eTextbook pilot project during the fall of 2010. Six hundred and sixty-two student questionnaires were returned from those courses. Key findings include: 1) More than one-third of the students were satisfied with the eTextbook; 2) more than half of the students felt that the eTextbook was easy-to-use; 3) older students (22 or older) tended to have more positive experiences with the eTextbook than younger students; and 4) students most liked the eTextbook’s cost, accessibility, light weight, and keyword search features. This study implies that the eTextbook must be a high-quality, easy-to-use resource to serve as a viable textbook option for student learning.

Purpose – This study aims to add to the body of literature by examining students’ satisfaction with e-textbooks. As higher education evolves, one instructional tool, the classic textbook, is undergoing various transformations. In today’s classrooms, many e-textbooks are in use and there are implications. Design/methodology/approach – A researcher-developed instrument measured 115 undergraduate students’ satisfaction levels for e-textbooks used in two courses, and a learning styles instrument was given to identify student learning preferences. Findings – Through factor analysis, a few dimensions emerged regarding factors related to satisfaction. The factors included features, usability and learning facilitation provided by the e-textbooks. In general, students had a moderately above-neutral, positive attitude toward the e-textbooks. Gender, grade point average, time spent weekly reading e-textbooks and a few learning style tendencies can significantly predict, to some extent, different dimensions of satisfaction. Practical implications – Usability design of e-textbooks plays a key role in student satisfaction toward digital materials. Moreover, instructors need to use meaningful instructional activities as they adopt the usage of e-textbooks. Originality/value – The findings can help shed light on ways to enable students to become more satisfied with digital textbooks and can help policymakers and instructors evaluate and effectively adopt the appropriate digital materials to meet individual needs.

This article examines provision of elementary school readers in Ontario from 1850 to 1909. It traces the conflicts that arose due to the dual role of textbooks as economic commodity and democratic instrument of curriculum. It illuminates the strategies that three dominant stakeholders used in textbook provision to position themselves to best advantage in these conflicts: the Education Department, retail booksellers, and textbook publishers. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

By convention U.S. bond markets announce the actual price of a bond as the sum the quoted price plus accrued interest. The economic meaning of accrued interest and its role in this price announcing convention is generally misunderstood by accounting textbook authors who mistakenly provide accrued interest with both an economic and administrative explanation. A cogent rationale for the broker price announcing convention is offered which places accrued interest in its proper context. Explanations of accrued interest found in a sample of intermediate accounting textbooks are also critiqued. The concept of negative accrued interest is also briefly discussed.