Examining Student Perception of an Open Statistics Book

Abstract

The rise of Open Educational Resources (OER) research provides data that Open Textbooks and other forms of OER may be one cost saving approach for college and university students. Yet little research has been conducted around the attitudes and perceptions of the students using these Open Textbooks. This paper examines the perceptions that students have of the different versions of an open statistics textbook used over several years in one community college. Survey results show that students generally had at least as good of an experience using the open textbook compared to traditional textbooks. Suggestions for further research are discussed.

Keywords

• open educational resources
• open textbooks
• electronic textbooks
• open access
• mathematics education
• introduction statistics