Abstract
Given their high cost, many students no longer buy textbooks for all of their courses, impacting their learning and performance in these courses. This is especially prevalent at community colleges. Open (digitally free) textbooks constitute one solution to this problem, but the latest national survey of college faculty found that 66% were not aware of open textbooks and 15% only somewhat aware. Because introductory psychology is psychology’s most popular course with 1–2 million students enrolled annually and almost 50% are community college students, we addressed this unawareness problem by providing analytical discussions of the viability of the open introductory textbooks presently available. We conclude that traditional textbooks are higher in quality, but open textbooks meet a specific market need.
In his classic book on teaching, McKeachie (2002) pointed out that “research on teaching suggests that the major influence on what students learn is not the teaching method but the textbook” (p. 14). However, the Student Public Interest Research Groups’ 2014 survey of 2,039 students at more than 150 colleges and universities, Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, found that due to their high cost, two thirds of the students surveyed reported that they did not buy or rent some of their required textbooks, even though 94% of these students reported that they realized that not purchasing the text would impact their grade in these courses but chose to do so anyway (Senack, 2014). This survey also reported that the high cost of textbooks had impacted which courses and how many courses students were able to take. Thus, some students may not register for a specific course given the high cost of the textbook. The cost of textbooks has soared since 1977, increasing 1041% (Senack & Donoghue, 2016). For example, many introductory psychology textbooks now cost over $200 (Jackson & Griggs, 2013). Although there is slight variance across the type of institution, the College Board estimated that the average student in 2015–2016 would spend about $1,300 a year on textbooks and supplies (Ma, Baum, Pender, & Bell, 2015, see Figure 1, p. 12). This amounts to 39% of tuition and fees at a community college and 14% at a 4-year public institution (Senack, 2014).
One solution that has arisen to combat the high cost of textbooks is the production of openly licensed textbooks. Digital open textbooks are offered completely free (no cost), and usually low-cost print versions are available for students who want print books. There are no copyright restrictions on adapting, modifying, remixing, copying, or redistributing these texts for noncommercial purposes, and they are also typically created so that the faculty who adopt them can easily customize the text content to fit their specific course needs. This customizability aspect of open textbooks is important for the introductory psychology course, which varies greatly across teachers in terms of goals, methods, and content (Weiten & Houlka, 2015).
According to the Babson Survey Research Group’s report, Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2015-16, only 5.3% of college courses are using an openly licensed required textbook (Allen & Seaman, 2016). There are many reasons for this low adoption rate, but the primary one seems to be the lack of faculty awareness of open textbooks. Allen and Seaman found that only 6.9% of the 3,000 faculty they surveyed were very aware of open textbooks, 65.7% (almost two thirds) were not aware at all of open textbooks, and another 15% only somewhat aware. They also found that required textbooks were more likely to be in print format than digital (69% vs. 8.5%) and textbooks in digital format were more often required in addition to a print textbook than alone. This preference for print versus e-books is consistent with the Pew Research Center’s (2016) recent survey finding that reading print books was far more prevalent than reading e-books, 65% versus 28%. Reasons for students’ preference for print texts include that they are easier to read, study from, and flip through (National Association of College Stores, 2016). Thus, the availability of low-cost print versions of open textbooks for students who want them would seem to be essential. Other reasons for the low adoption rate of open textbooks include the difficulty involved in discovering and evaluating these textbooks, insufficient supplementary course materials, and a perceived lack of text quality (Allen & Seaman, 2014).
The goal of this present study was to combat the lack of psychology faculty awareness of open textbooks, specifically open introductory psychology textbooks. We focused on open introductory psychology textbooks because it is psychology’s most popular course with an annual enrollment of 1–2 million (Steuer & Ham, 2008), and half of these students take the course at a community college (Ewing et al., 2010). In addition, 98% of introductory psychology teachers use textbooks for the introductory course and the majority of these teachers do not assign reading beyond the text (Miller & Gentile, 1998; Oldenburg, 2005). Griggs and Bates (2014), based on their analysis of 107 introductory psychology syllabi, found that teachers essentially teach the text in the sense that they allocate class lecture time to chapter topics in proportion to the space allocated to them in introductory psychology textbooks. In brief, textbooks are important to both introductory psychology teachers and students.
Fortunately, most open textbooks at present are aimed at introductory-level general courses and not more advanced courses in specialty areas. In order to achieve our goal of making psychology faculty more knowledgeable about open introductory textbooks, we not only identify and describe the available open introductory psychology textbooks but also analyze their viability for use in the introductory course. Such information should be useful to introductory teachers in making their decisions about whether to consider any of these texts for adoption in their courses. For each text, we provide an analytic description of it, our qualms about using it, the availability of ancillaries (e.g., a test bank) for it, and what we deem the most appropriate student audience for it based on our assessment of its prose.
Method
To identify the available open introductory psychology textbooks, we conducted Google searches using several search queries, such as open textbooks, open psychology textbooks, open introductory psychology textbooks, and open educational resources. These searches identified three different foundations or companies publishing open introductory psychology textbooks: (1) the original version of Flat World Knowledge’s (FWK's) Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor, (2) the Noba project’s Psychology: The Full Noba Collection, and (3) OpenStax College’s Psychology. 1 To analyze the texts, we used the chapter (or module) files provided online for each text and print versions of the OpenStax and Stangor texts as well as the ready-made Noba introductory text, Discover Psychology 2.0: A Brief Introductory Text. In addition, we checked the websites for each text to determine what ancillaries were available for it and whether information on keeping the text up-to-date was provided.
To determine the most appropriate student audience for each text, we used the three-level classification of text difficulty system given in Griggs (1999) as a guide for making these determinations. We did not use readability indexes because of their many documented shortcomings (e.g., Chatman & Goetz, 1985; Griesinger & Klene, 1984; Maxwell, 1978; McConnell, 1982; Warming & Baber, 1980). The three levels of text difficulty employed were high, middle, and low. Based on survey input from psychology textbook authors and editors, Jackson and Griggs (1989) made the following general distinctions between these three levels. High-level texts provide great breadth and depth of content coverage and are closely tied to the experimental literature. Honors classes and students of above average ability are the most appropriate audience for high-level texts. Middle-level texts have the breadth of coverage of high-level texts but not the depth. The writing is still scientifically rigorous but much more engaging. These texts are appropriate for most of the introductory text market except for the high and low ends, serviced respectively by the high- and low-level texts. Low-level texts constitute another step down in depth of coverage and include many pedagogical aids, are heavily illustrated, tend to emphasize the applications of psychology, and often include one or more nontraditional chapters (e.g., sexuality and gender). 2 They are most appropriate for students at community colleges and less selective 4-year schools. We have a fair amount of experience using this classification system in that we used it to classify all of the introductory textbooks currently available in this textbook market for inclusion in the Compendium of Introductory Psychology Textbooks that was available at the Division Two Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology website each year from 1998 to 2006.
Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor
Founded in 2007, FWK was the first major publisher of open textbooks and published Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor in 2011 (Stangor, 2011). Of note, this is the only single-authored open introductory psychology text to date. FWK, however, ran into financial difficulties and ceased offering free textbooks and became a pay publisher as of January 2013 (Joyner, 2013). Versions 2.0 (2013) and 2.1 (2014) of the Stangor introductory text, which were published after that date, are no longer free, but the original version of the Stangor text (which we will refer to as Version 1.0) published before that date remains an open textbook because it was licensed at that time as an open text. A softbound, color print copy of Version 2.0 or 2.1 now costs $139. 3 Version 1.0 is available at no cost in downloadable color format at many websites, including http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/9/9.00SC/MIT9_00SCF11_text.pdf and http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Introduction%20to%20Psychology.pdf.
Version 1.0 of the Stangor text is a briefer text with 14 chapters and 465 pages of text. In order to have only 14 chapters, some of the 16 standard chapter topics in introductory textbooks (Griggs, Jackson, Marek, & Christopher, 1999) were combined into singular chapters (e.g., intelligence and language), which is common in briefer textbooks (see Griggs & Jackson, 2013a) and a chapter on stress/health was not included. Based on our analysis of its prose, we judged it to be a low-level text, most appropriate for community colleges and less selective 4-year schools. Unlike the other open introductory psychology texts that we will discuss, this text has a distinct author’s voice throughout and integrating overarching themes—psychology’s focus on behavior and on empiricism (psychology as a science). We think that this text is the most comparable to a traditional introductory textbook of the presently available open introductory text options in terms of writing style. Even so, Version 1.0, published in 2011, is obviously now out-of-date and will only become more so in the future. The chapter on defining psychological disorders is a good example of this shortcoming. It is structured according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994, 2000) and not the fifth edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
There are no ancillaries available, however, to accompany this earlier version as there are for the two newer pay versions of the Stangor text. In addition, the only print versions available (softbound, full-color books) are those that can be purchased at Amazon or from other used book dealers, but these are not all low cost. Our check on the availability of this text at Amazon on September 8, 2016, found about 40 copies available, ranging in price from $25 to $2,602.24. Three copies were priced over $2,500 and some others over $1,000. Obviously, these absurd high prices are due to robotic pricing created by computer algorithms that automatically adjust prices upward according to a formula based on competing sellers’ prices. These algorithms lead to continuing escalation of the price to ridiculous levels because no upper limit is set on it (e.g., see www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/04/25/amazon.price.algorithm). The important point is that the number of print versions available and their prices vary over time, so that the number of copies available, especially at a reasonable cost, at any particular time would be unpredictable. However, because openly licensed textbooks such as this one can be copied without copyright concerns, one possibility is to arrange to have print copies produced by an on-demand local printing facility. Obviously, how easy this would be to achieve would vary greatly across institutions.
In sum, because of our qualms about it—it needs updating, has no readily available ancillaries (especially a test bank), and finding sufficient print copies at a low cost or arranging to have copies printed on demand locally is problematic, we were hesitant to recommend Version 1.0 of the Stangor text as a viable open textbook option for introductory psychology teachers. We learned, however, that some psychology faculty at Houston Community College (HCC) adapted Version 1.0 of the Stangor text for their introductory course. Updating was part of the adaptation, and the chapter on defining mental disorders, for example, is now organized in accordance with DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The HCC adaptation is available at http://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/robert.morecook/free-psychology-2301-textbook-dsm-5-version-2013. Interested teachers could download this adaptation and then adapt it to fit their particular course needs. College of Lake County in Illinois did this. Their adaptation of the HCC adaptation is retrievable from http://dept.clcillinois.edu/psy/IntroductionToPsychologyText.pdf. Even though the College of Lake County’s adaptation is directly based on the HCC adaptation, the two adaptations are very different. For example, there are only 11 chapters in the Lake County adaptation versus 14 in the HCC adaptation, and the chapters in the Lake County adaptation have been reordered and further revised to fit the Lake County introductory course. These schools have also developed ancillaries for their adaptations and arranged to have print copies available for those students who want them. The College of Lake County, for example, was able to make print copies available through the college’s printing office. Students can buy a black and white print version for only $6.60 (Martha Lally, personal communication, October 11, 2016). Thus, adapting Version 1.0 is doable, but ancillaries will also have to be developed and arrangements will have to be made for making low-cost print copies available locally. In addition, your adaptation will need to be updated periodically. Hence, although adapting Version 1.0 is possible, a big investment of time and effort is necessary. Thus, we think that such an adaptation would need to be a departmental undertaking and not that of an individual teacher. We also think that the psychology faculty responsible for the HCC and College of Lake County adaptations should be contacted, and the adaptation process discussed with them before a final decision is made about doing a local adaptation.
For Canadian introductory psychology teachers, however, a much more viable option is available. Recently, a Canadian edition of Version 1.0 of the Stangor text was developed by Jennifer Walinga as part of the British Columbia (BC) Open Textbook project (Stangor & Walinga, 2016) and is downloadable at http://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/. The changes that she made to the Stangor text are listed at the website. Of most importance, two chapters were added—Introduction to Major Perspectives and Stress, Health, and Coping. It should be noted that Walinga revised the text to be appropriate for a Canadian student audience. For example, conversions where needed were made to Canadian spellings, measurements converted to the metric system, and some content and references were changed or added to reflect a Canadian perspective. According to the BC Open Textbook website, supplements (a test bank, instructor’s manual, and a set of PowerPoints) for this Canadian version have been developed, and print versions of the text can be purchased from BC Campus at http://opentextbook.docsol.sfu.ca/store/?product=OTB012-01. American introductory teachers who want to learn more about this Canadian edition and the BC Open Textbook project should go to https://open.bccampus.ca/.
The Noba Project’s Introductory Psychology Collection
Supported by Ed and Carol Diener’s education fund and some major philanthropic foundations, Psychology: The Full Noba Collection (Biswas-Diener & Diener, 2016) is a collection of 100 modules (as of September 14, 2016) written by over 130 psychology experts and authorities that cover content related to the standard chapter topics and subtopics in introductory psychology textbooks. All but a few of these modules do not provide general coverage of a chapter topic but rather focus on a specific chapter subtopic (e.g., vision in the sensation and perception chapter). Many of the module authors are noted authorities in their areas of expertise (e.g., David Buss, Roy Baumeister, Elizabeth Loftus, and Henry Roediger). The modules are classified into 11 units (e.g., biological basis of behavior) that map onto the 16 standard chapter-level topics in introductory psychology textbooks given in Griggs et al., (1999). Because some of these chapter-level topics are grouped together in a singular unit in the Noba collection (e.g., consciousness is included in sensation and perception and learning and memory are paired together), there are only 11 categories and not 16. Users are free to create their own customized introductory texts by choosing any of the modules in the collection, positioning them in any order that they choose, and modifying them to fit their needs.
We have some qualms with the Noba psychology collection. First, because of the specialized nature of the content in most of the modules within each unit and the disproportionate numbers of modules across unit topics, we think that it would not be possible to choose a set of modules that accurately reflect the typical coverage of both chapter topics and subtopics in traditional introductory texts. Although there are 100 modules, many of them are devoted to chapter subtopics that would receive only brief (if any) coverage in a standard introductory textbook. For example, there are entire modules devoted to time and culture, inattentional blindness, the vestibular system, epigenetics in psychology, multimodal perception, social neuroscience, creativity, and emotional intelligence to name a few. This situation is likely due to the fact that experts in specialty areas were asked to write modules, and many of these areas are minor areas with respect to coverage at the introductory text level, with some not even typically covered. Similarly, there are some important chapter subtopics in traditional introductory textbooks that are not covered in the Noba modules for that chapter. A good example is the discussion of the three-stage model of memory (i.e., sensory, short-term memory, and long-term memory) that inevitably appears in the memory chapter in traditional introductory textbooks.
In addition, the number of modules in each of the 11 units does not proportionately match the coverage given the unit (chapter) topics in either introductory textbooks or introductory course lectures. For example, 19 (almost a fifth) of the 100 modules are devoted to topics in social psychology, whereas there are only four modules in the learning and memory unit. 4 Learning and memory are separate chapters in standard introductory textbooks and are the two most frequently taught chapters in introductory courses (Miller & Gentile, 1998). In addition, on average, 12% of current introductory psychology textbooks are devoted to learning and memory and only 7% to social psychology (Griggs, 2014). Griggs and Bates (2014) found a similar pattern of coverage in introductory course lecture time devoted to these topics. Fourteen percent of lecture time was devoted to learning and memory but only 8% to social psychology. There are also problems with standard chapter subtopics having too many modules devoted to them, given the typical extent of coverage that they receive in introductory textbooks. For example, there are three modules devoted to the minor senses (taste and smell, touch and pain, and the vestibular system) but only one each to the two major senses (vision and hearing). In traditional introductory textbooks, the two major senses receive by far the most coverage. In sum, it is our opinion that the choice of modular topics and the number of modules within the 11 units would make it very difficult for a teacher customizing an introductory text to match the typical proportionate coverage of chapter topics and subtopics in traditional introductory textbooks. 5 Thus, we think that teachers who prefer the content coverage pattern in traditional introductory texts would not be pleased with the currently available modules.
There are also some writing-style continuity problems across modules stemming from the fact that almost every module in the collection of 100 is written by a different author or set of authors. This is not the first occurrence of a team-authored text in the introductory text market, but it is certainly the largest team of authors ever assembled. Team-authored introductory textbooks began in 1935 with the first edition of the Boring, Langfeld, and Weld text (Weiten & Wight, 1992). A team of 16 specialists wrote drafts for chapters in their respective areas of expertise which Boring, Langfeld, and Weld then edited into the final version of the text. Texts of this ilk continued on through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Psychology: An Introduction by Mussen et al. (1979) with 11 prestigious authors who were experts in their respective areas is a good example of one of the last team-authored introductory texts. Actually, according to one of the authors, Blumenthal (1990–1991), the actual number of authors was greater than 11 because special consultants and editors added content to the manuscript. As Weiten and Wight pointed out, psychology teachers often complained that these team-authored texts suffered from “uneven coverage, conceptual discord, and stylistic inconsistency” (p. 464). These problems in team-authored texts led to their demise circa 1980, and subsequently, the average number of authors for introductory psychology textbooks has ranged from 1.65 to 2.08 in order to maintain text continuity (Griggs & Jackson, 2013b, see Table 1). Thus, current American introductory textbooks with more than two authors are atypical in today’s market, and ones with more than four authors are nonexistent.
Because so many different areas and subareas of psychology are covered in introductory psychology textbooks, continuity in level and style across the discussions of these various areas is essential for helping introductory students to view psychology as an integrated science. A writing style whose aim is to connect these disparate areas is critical in helping students achieve a more unified perception of our discipline (see Gurung et al., 2016). Having a large team of authors, over 130 in the Noba collection, does not seem a good way to accomplish this. The lack of continuity and connections across topics was a major contributor to the disappearance of large team-authored texts in the 1980s, and these texts had much smaller teams of expert authors. However, there is a surprising difference between these earlier expert team–authored introductory texts and the Noba psychology modules in addition to the number of authors. Earlier team-authored texts circa 1980 by teams of content experts were typically high-level texts (e.g., Mussen et al., 1979). Each of the experts wrote in depth about their areas of expertise. In contrast, the Noba modules vary greatly in their level of difficulty, ranging from modules that are 10 pages or less of unnuanced prose and little depth of coverage to some that are higher level and similar in style to the chapters in the earlier team-authored texts from the 1980s. Hence, the level of difficulty of a customized text would vary depending upon which modules were selected for inclusion, and it is highly likely that a customized text would have a mix of modules of differing levels of difficulty.
For teachers who do not want to spend the time to build a customized introductory text, Noba has put together four ready-made introductory textbooks that can be used as they are or customized by adding and removing modules to better suit an individual teacher’s specific needs. 6 Discover Psychology: A Brief Introductory Text is composed of 15 units (chapters) containing 1–4 modules each for a total of 39 modules that map onto the chapter topics in traditional introductory psychology textbooks. They are also arranged in the prototypical introductory text order: introduction and research methods, biological processes, developmental processes, learning and cognitive processes, emotion and motivation, health and clinical psychology, and social psychology (Griggs & Marek, 2001). Discover Psychology 2.0: A Brief Introductory Text is a revision of Discover Psychology in which two modules on a specific subtopic have been replaced with one module that covers the same subtopic but in a more general, standard fashion in three different units. 7 In all three cases of replacement, the replaced modules were written at a higher level of difficulty than the more general module that replaced them. Also, using one module instead of two eliminated the lack of continuity between the two modules in each case.
This lack of continuity between modules within a unit along with the similar lack between units is a real problem for the Noba texts. Because each module is written by different authors on a different subtopic, the modules within a unit are separate and unconnected, except in the most general sense of being related to the topic of the unit. Students have enough difficulty in going from one chapter to another in an introductory text, but the Noba texts compound this difficulty by having little continuity between units or modules within each unit. In modular versions of traditional texts (e.g., Psychology by Myers & DeWall, 2015a and Psychology in Modules by Myers & DeWall, 2015b), the modules for each chapter are merely the sequential sections of that chapter in the nonmodular version. Thus, there is still continuity across the modules, which is not the case with the Noba modules within a unit. There is also continuity between chapters because all of the chapters are written by the same author(s).
The other two ready-made Noba introductory psychology texts also have these continuity problems, both between units and between the modules within a unit. They are Psychology as a Biological Science (11 units and 40 modules) with an emphasis on the biological aspects of psychology and Psychology as a Social Science (10 units and 38 modules) with an emphasis on the social aspects of psychology. The former contains more content related to neuroscience and the brain and nervous system and the latter expanded content related to social cognition, aggression, attraction, and similar topics. The modules in Psychology as a Biological Science are on average higher in level of difficulty than those in Psychology as a Social Science.
Another problem with the Noba modules is that the extent of coverage for many chapter topics and subtopics is lacking. We strongly recommend that teachers compare the traditional introductory text that they are presently using or the one that they are considering using with the Noba text in which they are interested with respect to extent of coverage. For purposes of illustration, we compared some of the content coverage in Discover Psychology 2.0 to Psychology, the popular low-level text by Ciccarelli and White (2017). We found some striking differences. Consider, for example, coverage of the brain and nervous system, an important key topic in the introductory course (Miller & Gentile, 1998). In the Noba text, it is covered in one brief 14-page module that includes only a little over 9 pages of actual text. 8 Not only was the coverage of this topic brief, but we also noted that there were no reference citations in this module. In Ciccarrelli and White, an entire 48-page chapter is devoted to this topic, and it includes over 150 reference citations. We also considered learning, which is the most frequently taught topic and the topic rated to be most important in the introductory course by introductory teachers (Miller & Gentile, 1998). Discover Psychology 2.0 covers it in 22 pages with only 15 pages of actual text. The chapter on learning in Ciccarelli and White is 46 pages long. The existence of such dramatic differences in topic coverage is the reason we recommend that introductory teachers make such comparisons, especially for the coverage of the particular chapter topics and subtopics that they stress in their versions of the introductory course.
Some of the pedagogical aids in Discover Psychology 2.0 appear at the end of each module. First, there is an adaptive online quiz on the module content in the digital version that students can return to as often as they wish. Next, there are links to outside resources, including related videos, articles, and books, module discussion questions, a list of the definitions of the key terms highlighted in the module, and a list of the references cited in the module. Aids within the chapter include a brief abstract of and the learning objectives for the module at the beginning of the module and a brief conclusion section at the end of the module. Within the module, the key vocabulary terms are highlighted, so that definitions can be accessed by clicking on the terms. There are also some embedded exercises in some of the modules in the digital version to help students better understand the modular content. In sum, the pedagogical program in Discover Psychology 2.0 seems satisfactory.
With respect to the availability of print versions, students can easily purchase black and white softbound copies of any of the Noba ready-made texts or instructors’ customized texts online via a print on-demand system (Lulu.com) at a low cost (the cost of printing). We did so and found the ordering process very straightforward. However, hardbound or color print copies are not available for purchase. There is also a limit on book size to consider when building a customized text or customizing one of the ready-made texts. The maximum length that can be printed is 740 pages, which translates roughly to 45 or so modules. Noba, however, checks an instructor’s print request for this size constraint and will let the instructor know if there is a problem. The exact cost for the student depends on the page count of the text. For example, a 300-page text costs $10.95, and the cost scales up to the maximum length text of 740 pages at $17.99 (as of September 2016).
Ancillary materials, such as a test bank, PowerPoint slides, and an instructor’s manual, are available. Information on these and other ancillaries that are available, such as reading anticipation guides to engage students more actively with their assigned reading, can be found at the Noba website, http://nobaproject.com/resources. With respect to revision, we found no information about Noba’s editorial approach to review and revision. However, major and minor content changes to modules are itemized at http://nobaproject.com/updates. Updates on the addition of new modules, texts, and ancillary materials can also be found there.
In sum, although there are some positives to the Noba psychology collection modular texts, such as the availability of ancillary materials and low-cost print versions of the ready-made and customized texts, we think that the philosophy behind the creation of the modular collection to be used to build introductory texts was misguided. Having over 130 authors write about their areas of expertise in brief modular format led to the largest author team ever in the history of the introductory text market, creating inevitable continuity problems both across and within units (chapters) and differences in level of content coverage between modules. This seems to be a case of history repeating itself. Given the demise of the earlier team-authored texts in the 1980s, one has to wonder why such an approach would be resurrected, especially with a much larger team of authors who are only writing chapter modules and not even chapters thereby intensifying continuity problems. In our opinion, the extensive continuity problems created by this approach along with the other qualms we have discussed seriously limit the viability of this open introductory textbook option.
OpenStax College’s Psychology
OpenStax College is a Rice University–based, nonprofit organization that is devoted to the improvement of student access to both high-quality learning materials and higher education. It is supported by several philanthropic foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It uses gifts from these foundations to produce textbooks that are free online and available in low-cost, hardbound, full-color print books. Its goal is to produce such texts for the 25 most enrolled undergraduate college courses, of which introductory psychology is one. Hence, OpenStax College has published an introductory psychology text, Psychology (OpenStax College, 2014).
Psychology is a team-authored text but with a much smaller team than that for the Noba psychology modules. In describing the team, the print copy of this text lists Rose M. Spielman as senior content lead and five other senior contributors. We found these titles to be slightly different at the website for this text, https://openstax.org/details/psychology. Instead of senior content lead, Rose Spielman is referred to as senior contributing author, and the five senior contributors are referred to as contributing authors (retrieved September 13, 2016). Thus, we are making the assumption that this is a team-authored text with at least six authors.
There are likely more contributors because of the adjective “senior” being used to describe the contributors (authors) who are recognized. Although the number of listed authors is much smaller than in the case of the Noba psychology collection, we still expected to find some lack of consistency and continuity in writing style and level of conceptual difficulty across chapters. We did find this, but it was not as great as we had anticipated nor as disruptive as in the Noba texts. Perhaps the senior contributing author, possibly with help of the contributing authors, edited the entire text, so that such problems were dampened. 9 To help students view psychology as an integrated science, there are four different types of boxed inserts throughout the text that help the student to better understand the psychological research process and to connect the concepts discussed in other chapters.
With respect to level of difficulty, we judge this text to be similar to Stangor’s introductory text in level (i.e., low level). Compared to a traditional low-level text though, the writing style is much leaner, tending toward a “just the facts” style (e.g., fewer examples and less depth of coverage). Depending upon the topic, the coverage seems to fall somewhere between that in a core trade textbook that provides student-friendly, concise coverage of the core introductory psychology information (see Griggs, Jackson, & Marek, 2002) and a low-level traditional introductory psychology textbook. On average, the extent of topic and subtopic coverage seems to be less than in a traditional low-level text but more than in the Noba modules. To check this, we compared the content coverage of the OpenStax text to that in the Ciccarelli and White low-level introductory traditional text for some important topics as we did for the Noba Discover Psychology 2.0 open text, and the extent of coverage fell somewhere in between that in the Noba text and in the traditional text. For example, there were 31 pages devoted to the brain and nervous system topic (vs. 48 and 15 pages in the Noba comparison), and there are 33 pages in the chapter on learning (vs. 47 and 22 pages in the Noba comparison). 10 Thus, as with the Noba texts, we strongly recommend that teachers compare the traditional text that they are presently using or considering for adoption with the OpenStax open introductory text, especially with respect to the topics that they stress in their introductory courses. Such a comparison will make the differences in the texts very clear.
Psychology includes 15 chapters that are standard in traditional introductory textbooks plus a nonstandard chapter on industrial–organizational psychology, and the chapter order is similar to that in traditional textbooks but with the industrial–organizational chapter inserted between the social psychology and stress/health psychology chapters. Teachers can easily customize Psychology using OpenStax College’s online platform to select the content most relevant to their course needs and students. Sections can be rearranged, modified, and enhanced with a teacher’s own content. This text also has a satisfactory pedagogical program including links in the digital version to relevant videos and other online educational materials. To facilitate student review, a list of key terms with definitions, a detailed chapter summary, a set of review multiple-choice questions, some critical thinking questions, and some personal application questions are provided at the end of each chapter. Answers to both the review and critical thinking questions are also provided.
Ancillary faculty resources for adopters of Psychology are located at https://openstax.org/details/psychology#resources. Among the resources that can be downloaded by adopters are a test bank and PowerPoint slides. Like all open textbooks, Psychology is free online, but it is also available in a hardbound, full-color print version and e-book version at reasonable costs via Amazon.com and iBooks, respectively. Softbound or black/white versions are not available. The e-book is $4.99, but the print version is $38.50, somewhat pricey for an open textbook. With respect to updating, OpenStax provides an online location for teachers to submit errata for each of its texts. For Psychology, the list of errata is available online at https://www.openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/psychology/errata. Other than this, we did not find any information concerning future updates or revision plans at the OpenStax website. Thus, the lack of such updating would be a problem for adopters.
In sum, Psychology seems to be the most viable option of the three options available for teachers interested in adopting an open introductory textbook, but in our opinion, it is still lacking with respect to the quality of the writing and content coverage in comparison with traditional introductory texts. In addition, we have qualms about the lack of a low-cost black and white, softbound print version of the text (given the rather high price of the hardbound, full-color print version that is available), the fact that there are no specified plans for revision and updating other than posting errors, and the trade book style of coverage of some of the text content.
Epilogue
We have been studying and conducting research on introductory psychology textbooks for over 30 years and have published numerous articles about these texts in this journal and elsewhere, and given this experience and our analyses of the presently available open introductory psychology textbooks, it is our judgment that none of these texts compares to the presently available traditional introductory textbooks with respect to both writing quality and the quality of content coverage. At the same time, we think that traditional textbooks are on average overpriced, with those over $200 ridiculously so. This overpricing has served as one of the main motivations for the development of open textbooks. Open introductory psychology textbooks are in an early stage of development, and hence, their quality at this point is less than that of traditional textbooks. These texts, however, meet a specific market need—to provide textbooks for financially strapped students who cannot afford traditional textbooks and thus do not purchase them. This financial consideration may in the eyes of some introductory psychology teachers outweigh concerns about text quality, especially at community colleges where students are not only less financially prepared but also less academically prepared (Ma & Baum, 2016). This raises the question of which is better for such at-risk students, a lower quality textbook or no textbook at all. Introductory psychology instructors at these schools will have to answer this question themselves. Hopefully, we have provided sufficient information for them to get started on the path to deciding their answers.
Footnotes
Authors’ Note
The present article’s subtitle is the subtitle of an article by Charles Kadushin, “The managed text: Prose and qualms,” published in 1979. In that article, Kadushin discussed the pros and cons of a new type of college text at that time, the managed text. We see the current status of open introductory texts as like that of managed texts at the time of Kadushin’s article (i.e., a new type of college text) and thus think the subtitle is very applicable to the present study in which we discuss the pros and cons of open introductory textbooks.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors declare that they are both authors of commercial psychology textbooks because this authorship could be perceived as a financial conflict of interest given that this article includes evaluations of open (digitally free) textbooks.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.