Proponents of open educational resources believe that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the college classroom. Yet others claim that open textbooks are of inferior quality. The Open Education Group examined this issue by surveying over 1,000 students about their experience using open textbooks. These students were involved with the Kaleidoscope project. We also surveyed faculty members involved in the course. Students and faculty were asked about their perceptions of the cost and quality of open textbooks used in a community college context. Results showed that the majority of students and faculty had a positive experience using the open textbooks, appreciated the lower costs, and perceived the texts as being of high quality. The potential implications for OER initiatives at the college level seem large. If primary instructional materials can in fact be made available to students at no or very low cost, without harming learning outcomes, there appears to be a significant opportunity for disruption and innovation in higher education.
