From left: Dr. Sherlynn Hall, Associate Dean of Arts, Sciences and Technology; Natalie Oswalt, Dean of Arts, Sciences and Technology, and Dr. Billy “Bubba” Adams, Vice President of Instruction, review the Panola College courses offered with Open Education Resources.
March 22, 2019 - Panola College students working toward an academic associate degree could see savings of more than $1,000 beginning in fall 2019, as a result of an effort to use no-cost or low-cost Open Education Resources (OER) instead of traditional textbooks.
“Since I’ve been working in higher education, students have complained about the cost of textbooks. We made the decision to do something to help our students,” said Dr. Billy “Bubba” Adams, Vice President of Instruction.
The College Board said the average cost of a textbook in 2014 was $82, with annual cost of books and supplies at a two-year college totaling $1,390. Those costs, coupled with rising tuition and fees resulting from reduced state funding of higher education, led many students to sign up for classes without buying the required textbooks. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 65 percent of students surveyed in a federal study said they did not purchase a textbook because it was too expensive, but 94 percent of those students were worried that their grades would suffer as a result.
The Panola Faculty Association generated a timeline to transfer to OER most of the basic courses that form the foundation for a university bachelor’s degree. With this new program in place for fall 2019, the only basic courses that will not be initially available using OER content are Texas government and some science courses.
“Of the 42 semester hours in the academic core curriculum, our students will be able to earn 31 hours with OER beginning this fall,” said Natalie Oswalt, Dean of Arts, Sciences and Technology. “They will be able to earn 74 percent of their core coursework with OER. Math courses may continue to require online lab access, but within the new system, this cost cannot exceed $25.”
How will this initiative impact students in fall 2019? “Students who may have only had the funds to pay for one class with a $150 textbook will now be able to take two classes because the textbook cost no longer applies,” said Dr. Adams.
Oswalt researched the potential savings for Panola College students. “Students coming to Panola to complete the basic courses in the core curriculum will be able to complete 10 of those classes with OER, saving them at least $1,000 in textbook costs,” she said.
Panola’s initiative resulted from a decision by Dr. Greg Powell, President, and Dr. Adams to encourage and promote OER with faculty. While OER materials are available at no cost, they are academically sound and have been reviewed by professors in all disciplines. Content comes from reputable sources including Rice University’s OpenStax, peer-reviewed textbooks free in digital format.
Already, more than 200 Panola College courses do not require a textbook each semester. Certificate and associate of applied science degrees, however, often require supplies, equipment and books, but those materials are bundled as a one-time fee and are used throughout the program sequence.
The rising cost of higher education prompted the effort to provide more affordable resources to students. “Panola College remains one of the most affordable community colleges in East Texas. We are proud of the work we are doing to hold the line on textbook costs for our students,” Dr. Powell said.
