More college faculty are providing students with digital options for required textbooks and other materials.
In a survey of 3,447 two-year and four-year college faculty across the country, while the majority of faculty (78%) have a required textbook for students for their largest enrolled course, 92% of required textbooks are offered in a digital format.
Only 8% of faculty surveyed required a textbook only available in print. That’s down from 12% in 2022-2023.
The survey was conducted in April 2024 and the results were revealed in a new report from Bay View Analytics. Of the faculty surveyed, 595 were from two-year colleges.
The big picture
The majority of all faculty surveyed (79%) “somewhat agree” or “agree” that digital materials provide greater flexibility for students.
They’re a little more mixed on whether the resource format – print or digital – affects students’ ability to learn. Forty-one percent of faculty “somewhat agree” or “agree” with the statement “Students learn better from print materials than they do from digital materials.” Fourteen percent “disagree” or “somewhat disagree.” The largest group of faculty — 45% — “neither agree nor disagree.”
“Faculty preferences do appear to be linked to the formats they choose to use in their courses,” the report says.
The 8% of faculty who only use print textbooks are much less likely to believe digital materials offer more flexibility than print and are much more likely to believe print materials are better for student learning.
When breaking down the numbers between community college and four-year college faculty, there’s not much difference. They have very similar views on whether digital materials provide flexibility for students and if they help or hurt students’ ability to learn.
OER awareness, use
Where things get a little different is when the report specifically looks at open educational resources (OER), which are usually available for free or for low-cost in a digital format to students.
A majority of two-year college faculty surveyed (63%) say they are “very aware” or “aware” of OER. Only 41% of four-year college faculty say the same.
Overall, though, faculty awareness of OER has declined over the last year. In the 2022-2023 survey, 29% of all faculty surveyed said they were “very aware” of OER. In the latest survey for 2023-2024, that number dropped to 21%.
In terms of OER use, 35% of the two-year faculty use OER for required course materials as opposed to 24% of four-year faculty.
Like OER awareness, use of OER has declined in the past year among all faculty surveyed. The rate of use of OER as required materials for 2023-24 is three percentage points lower than results from 2022-23.
Faculty are more likely to report using OER in courses with an online component, according to the report. And OER is more likely to be used for introductory level courses than advanced courses.
Teaching modalities
The report also looked at learning modalities. Overall, fully face-to-face courses remained the most common modality in 2024, with 75% of faculty teaching at least one such course. That number remains below pre-pandemic levels.
But breaking it down, fewer community college faculty (64%) have at least one in-person class than four-year faculty (77%).
It makes sense then that more community college faculty surveyed teach online courses. Sixty-one percent teach at least one online course, while only 36% of the four-year faculty surveyed do.
