A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary students
Open accessAbstract
In some educational settings, the cost of textbooks approaches or even exceeds the cost of tuition. Given limited resources, it is important to better understand the impacts of free open educational resources (OER) on student outcomes. Utilizing digital resources such as OER can substantially reduce costs for students. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the adoption of no-cost open digital textbooks significantly predicted students’ completion of courses, class achievement, and enrollment intensity during and after semesters in which OER were used. This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental design with propensity-score matched groups to examine differences in outcomes between students that used OER and those who did not. The demographics of the initial sample of 16,727 included 4909 students in the treatment condition with a pool of 11,818 in the control condition. There were statistically significant differences between groups, with most favoring students utilizing OER.
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Fischer et al. observed a clear impact on affordability: having access to free textbooks encourages community college students to take one more course, accelerating their progress towards graduation.
“They observed a clear impact on affordability: having access to free textbooks encourage community college students to take one more course, accelerating their progress towards graduation.”
From Learning Technologies and Learning Resources in Computing Science Higher Education: Exploring Access, Adoption, and Effectiveness in relation to Regional Context (2025) · cites this paper as [18]
The Discussion reports that students using OER enrolled in significantly more credits the following semester and suggests textbook savings as a possible reason, particularly in community-college settings. The Enrollment intensity in winter semester section reports a higher adjusted mean credit load, but the paper does not establish that free textbooks caused students to take one more course or graduate sooner. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredFischer et al. found mixed impact of OER textbooks on course completion and course grades, which they attribute to access.
“They found mixed impact on course completion and course grades, which they attribute to access: some students in the traditional course may have not purchased the textbook.”
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Cites
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Research works printed but not linked: 19
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- David Wiley is Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning and adjunct professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University, where he collaborates with the Open Education Group.
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Blended learning: the new normal and emerging technologies
Dziuban, C., Graham, C. R., Moskal, P. D., Norberg, A., & Sicilia, N. (2018) · International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education · doi:10.1186/s41239-017-0087-5 · Cited by 1,252 · see citing works
Paterson, J., Oyelere, S. S., Dubay, C., & Izu, C. (2025) · Working Group Reports of the ACM Global Computing Education Conference 2025 · doi:10.1145/3815397.3815774
- Authors
- Fischer, L., Hilton, J., Robinson, T. J., & Wiley, D. A.
- Affiliations
- Brigham Young University (US)
- Michigan Department of Education (US)
- Lumen Learning (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fischer, Lane
- Venue
- Journal of Computing in Higher Education
- Published
- 2015-09-22
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 159-172
- ISSN
- 1042-1726 (ISSN-L)
- 1867-1233
- PMC
- PMC7115070
- OpenAlex
- W2208071838
- Cited by
- 237
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 30.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2016-01-02)
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Computing in Higher Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ScholarsArchive (Brigham Young University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1063523)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Education and E-Learning
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Library Collection Development and Digital Resources
- Keywords
- open educational resources, open textbooks, textbook affordability, course completion, academic performance, postsecondary students, higher education costs, digital textbooks
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