By Robbie Chamberlain
The Scene staff
Education costs are often seen as the biggest inhibitor to college enrollment, and the price of class materials has skyrocketed in recent years.
Print and digital textbooks average between $100 and $150, but they go as high as $400. That can create a dilemma for students who are short on cash.
“(Textbooks) are sometimes unneeded because you’re never gonna use it again after you leave,” said general transfer student Christian Jiles, who was sitting in the Forest Park cafeteria.
“And then half the professors don’t even use the book,” added his friend, A’Miracle Gray. “They make PowerPoints and say, ‘Go off the PowerPoints.’”
Many students don’t realize that St. Louis Community College offers classes with free or low-cost materials, as well as opportunities to borrow or rent textbooks.
At the same time, many faculty members don’t know that they can help students by using free materials, also known as “open educational resources” (OER).
“College is an expensive proposition for just about everyone,” said Forest Park math professor Mike Lueke, a member of the Open Educational Resources Council, a group of STLCC faculty and staff working to promote OER.
“I know that we can offer a quality education, a quality academic experience, for cheaper than most textbook companies and publishers are able to offer.”
An extra barrier
STLCC prides itself on being more affordable and accessible than four-year universities, according to its website.
Students appreciate the low tuition, but many bemoan the fact that most of the college’s courses still require expensive textbooks. They see it as an extra barrier, another paywall between them and their education.
One problem is that publishers often package digital textbooks with worksheets, quizzes and other materials that would otherwise be created by faculty, according to Kim Hallemann, manager of Academic Success & Tutoring at Forest Park and a member of the OER Council.
“They’ve sold (the textbooks) to faculty by selling them these extra support materials with it, and that’s built into the students’ cost,” she said. “So, to me, the student’s paying for some of the teachers’ work in those packages.”
When students “purchase” digital textbooks, they’re actually just paying for codes that allow them to access the textbooks for specified periods of time.
Some faculty still use print textbooks. Students order them online through TextbookX, a private retailer that partners with the college.
“Back then, you actually had to come into the bookstore and, like, buy the actual textbook,” said Hannah Smith, a dual-enrollment student and Forest Park bookstore employee. “Now, you just go through our website, and you just make a purchase. And most of them are e-books, so you get the access code within 30 minutes.”
Out of stock
Going through TextbookX is designed to “simplify” the purchasing process, according to STLCC’s website. But it can cause other issues.
For example, distributors may not have the textbooks in stock, or they may be delayed in the mail.
John Macke, who teaches earth science and geology on the Forest Park and Meramec campuses, uses Carl Campbell’s “Earth in Space and Time” textbook for his GEO 100 class. But this semester, it only became available for student purchase three to four weeks into the 12-week course.
“In 26 years of teaching, it’s only been the last three or four years that we’ve had problems with getting books,” Macke said. “The people who need the book are the students. Our commitment is to do for the students. That’s what we’re supposed to be about as teachers. How do we do that if we can’t even get the book for them?
“And of course, the bookstore here is not the problem. They will put me in contact with the third party. ‘Oh yeah, we’ll have the books’ … Well, yeah, and you’ve seen how fast we got ‘em this semester, and this has been a better semester than the last two before.”
The library keeps reserve copies of print textbooks for short-term lease and copying, but only if professors request it. Students can also rent print textbooks through TextbookX.
Embracing OER
The Open Educational Resource Council seeks to rectify problems surrounding textbook costs by promoting the use of OER to faculty and staff. This includes helping professors locate materials for classes and even incentivizing them to build their own course materials.
“The council developed the incentive plan for faculty, and we work to promote understanding and use of OER by hosting training during our service week,” Hallemann said. “We also attend a national conference, and we help faculty find materials.”
The entire math department at Forest Park has embraced the use of free and low-cost materials. The English department has gone from using OER in 10 classes in the fall of 2022 to 53 classes in the fall of 2024.
The Open Educational Resource Council also tries to promote OER awareness among the student body by posting fliers and distributing pins and stickers.
Students looking at the STLCC interactive class schedule can now filter by courses that use free or low-cost materials.
“It was such a big win for us to get the characteristic ‘free or low-cost’ attached to these courses so students can actually search by it,” Hallemann said.
Lueke, the math professor, conducted a survey in early April charting student awareness of OER.
Some 69% of students weren’t aware of the free or low-cost class designations, and 52% had bought a textbook that they didn’t use in class. Some 57% indicated that lower textbook costs would help them finish their programs or degrees.
“One piece of the puzzle is to try and get the word out to students, and that’s partly where the survey comes in,” Lueke said. “We have found in conducting three of these surveys in the last five years, students pretty consistently say that free and low-cost materials could make a very big difference in their academic experience.”
Contentious issue
OER is becoming more common, but it’s still a long way from being the standard, so the cost of textbooks is creating a burden for some students.
“I missed a couple assignments because I couldn’t afford my book for my medical terminology class,” said McKenzie Stevens, a general STEM student. “Until I could afford it, I basically just missed out on the assignments.”
The cost of textbooks is a contentious issue among many students on the Forest Park campus, judging by interviews conducted by The Scene in recent weeks.
Some students were shocked to learn about free or low-cost materials and classes that use them.
“No, they don’t tell us nothing,” said Gray, the general transfer student. “And I feel like that’s a setup. Why are you withholding resources from us?”
Stevens asked, “Why don’t they promote that? Because everybody don’t come into the campus. Like I’m busy. I’m only on the campus twice a week.”
Lueke believes that continuing to spread the gospel of OER is important for Forest Park students.
“Almost 70% of students said they didn’t know that they could search for free or low-cost materials in the interactive schedule,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work that we can do and that we can do better to reach those folks.”