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Textbooks constitute a significant component of educational costs that many students are choosing to avoid. This study examines the student textbook purchase decision making process. Qualitative analyses of survey responses are employed to better understand the purchase decision process and the perceived value of educational materials. Our findings extend the literature by exposing the complex decision-making analysis that occurs. The implications of these findings are discussed as recommendations to instructors on improving textbook adoption amongst students. Instructors are encouraged to assess textbook adoption, assess the required textbook relative to supplemental material, and if necessary manage messaging to increased adoption rates.
INTRODUCTION
Thousands of highly qualified students are being priced out of a higher education ... it is important that we don't ignore the staggering costs of textbooks in the college cost equation, and the effect they have on a student's overall costs of higher education (U.S. Government, 2004, p. 2).
In 1965, Congress passed the Higher Education Act (HEA). The law was intended "to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education" (McCarthy, 2008, p. 1). The government endeavored to create an Act that would "ensure that every American student, striving for college education, regardless of financial status, had the opportunity to pursue his or her educational goals" (U.S. Government, 2004, p. 2). As a result of this legislation countless Americans have been able to obtain an education that might not have been otherwise possible. Unfortunately over the past few decades public revenue shortfalls in addition to greater institutional spending have resulted in substantial increases in college tuition (Cunningham, Wellman, Clinedinst, Merisotis & Dennis-Carrol, 2001). Textbook prices are also increasing at a rate higher than the Consumer Price Index. From 1951 to 1981 textbook costs quadrupled, and were predicted to double again by 1990. In 2000 the National Association of College Bookstores (NACB) confirmed that from 1995 to 2000, a span of only five years, the wholesale price of college textbooks had risen nearly 40 percent (Pressler, 2004).
The United States Congress, recognizing the severity of the problem and the serious threat it represented to the ability of students to obtain an education, requested that the United States Government Accountability...