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ERIC Number: EJ958730
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1528-5324
EISSN: N/A
The Kansas State University Human Nutrition (HN 400) Flexbook
Lindshield, Brian L.; Adhikari, Koushik
EDUCAUSE Quarterly, v34 n4 2011
Since the nonprofit CK-12 Foundation in 2007 pioneered the idea of a flexbook as "a free and open-source textbook platform where one can build and edit collaborative textbooks," the availability and use of flexbooks has become more mainstream. There is no doubt that as an educational resource, flexbooks are highly versatile and flexible, but increasingly they have also been embraced as part of a strategy to help reduce some of the escalating costs associated with higher education. These costs are not insignificant: an average student spends $1,137 per year on textbooks and other course materials. The price of textbooks has increased 22 percent over the past four years, and in a recent survey 70 percent of students reported not buying a textbook due to price, despite 78 percent believing they would do worse in the course without the textbook(s). While individual faculty members or instructors have little control over tuition and fees, they can exert some control over what materials are used in their courses. They can choose to use more affordable options, for example, like open textbooks or no textbooks at all. For this reason, author Brian Lindshield--a former student who felt exploited by exorbitant textbook prices--vowed to teach his Human Nutrition course (HN 400) at Kansas State University without a textbook. HN 400 is an intermediate level, three-credit-hour nutrition course that is a prerequisite for a number of higher-level nutrition courses. Author Brian Lindshield has taught the course on campus for three years and online for two years. In order to determine student perceptions and use in a more quantitative manner than can be determined from end-of-term reflection papers, the authors created a survey that would also allow them to compare the responses of campus and online students. This article presents the results of their survey on student perceptions and use of the HN 400 flexbook. (Contains 3 videos, 1 table, 7 figures and 11 endnotes.)
EDUCAUSE. 4772 Walnut Street Suite 206, Boulder, CO 80301-2538. Tel: 303-449-4430; Fax: 303-440-0461; e-mail: info@educause.edu; Web site: http://www.educause.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Kansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A