Press Release: New Findings from BISG Show Students Will Pay for Solutions That Reduce Study Time, Improve Outcomes

For the fourth consecutive year, a highly regarded studies just released from BISG tracks and analyzes the key trends in how students and faculty members acquire, assign, teach, and consume educational content in multiple media formats. Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education, Volume 4, is now available as a digital report alongside a complementary study, Faculty Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education Volume 3.

Len Vlahos, BISG Executive Director, said "This research has tracked the sometimes divergent student and faculty priorities when choosing course materials to assign or purchase. The impact of digital formats is transforming publisher business models and even the way courses are structured. This ongoing research is vital to helping the many stakeholders in the higher education content ecosystem remain ahead of these changes."

Student and Faculty Attitudes track the continued acceleration in the scope and pace of technology-driven changes in content delivery. The growing range of technological solutions for teaching and learning has meant that publishers have recast themselves as software companies offering learning platforms. The research also delves into the role technology plays in helping both instructors and students improve learning outcomes. It shows which technological innovations are most valued by students and instructors and where the preferences for print over digital content are most fluid.
The reports offer extensive analysis of several key trends:

- Students report a gradual decline in the use of both core textbooks and learning management systems with a somewhat increased usage of online study guides, suggesting that pedagogical material is becoming more flexible in ways students value.
- Students continue to become more sophisticated in acquiring their course materials at the lowest cost as illicit and alternative acquisition behaviors, from scanned copies to illegal downloads to the use of pirated websites, continue to increase in frequency.
- Instructors report much higher levels of assigned textbooks than do students, while the percentage of students who actually purchase their books is lower still, perhaps as students ultimately are the ones to decide whether the value of a "required" textbook justifies the cost.