STUDENT LEADER ORGANIZATION

To: Dr. French

From: Alyssa Spivey
Javier Lozano
Osmara Vega
Ezekiel Laxina

Subject: Textbook factors that impact student lives and possible solutions
Date: October 02, 2017

Purpose

The purpose of this memo is to report to you the findings of our group research on on how
textbooks affect student lives.

Summary

The goal of this memo is to provide data that will help create a useful program that could help
students with their textbook choices. It would also provide data to future organizations with
making up solutions that focus on different life factors that students have.

Introduction

Our purpose is to collect and present data to help students have different options when it comes
to college textbooks. It is no secret that college textbooks are becoming more expensive by the
year. By using our survey data as a guide, this will help organizations offer TCC students options
to decide the best course of action in their future endeavors

Methodology

In preparing for the survey, four students came together and composed of five demographic
questions and nine survey questions. The demographic questions consisted of students age,
major, GPA, employment status and gender. The questions on the survey include the following:
1. How often do you actually use (read) the textbook assigned for a class youre taking?
2. Do you feel like TCC professors are considerate about the cost of the book for their
class?
3. How does the price of a textbook affect the probability of you taking, dropping, or failing a
class?
Memo to Dr. French October 04, 2017 2

4. How does textbook affect the probability of you passing your class?
5. If textbooks were cheaper, how do you think it would affect people attending college?
6. How Interested are you in borrowing a textbook instead of buying one?
7. If you can borrow a textbook with no cost, what is the likelihood of you buying it or
borrowing/renting it?
8. If you can lend your textbook in exchange of borrowing one, would you rather lend it or sell
it?
9. Based on your efficiency (absorbing information) in using a type of textbook, which would
you be more interested in using?

These five demographic and nine survey questions were distributed to Dr. Frenchs Technical
and Business Writing Class. All of the demographic and survey questions were conveyed by a
Likert Scale, giving more detailed data in return. Our content questions include the following:

How often do students actually use their textbook?

Do professors concern themselves with textbook prices?
Does the price of the textbook affect the probability of you taking/dropping/failing the
class?
Do textbooks affect you passing a class?
Do textbooks prices affect college admission rate?
Does it matter if books were made available for borrowing?
Would you rather borrow or rent a textbook?
Would you rather lend your textbook in exchange of borrowing one, would you rather lend
it or sell it?
What format of a textbook would you most likely use?

Once the four members of the group finalized all of the demographic and survey questions, Dr.
French distributed the surveys to twelve different students. After receiving all twelve
questionnaires, the data was constructed and translated into the results.

Results

The Associates of the Student Leader Organization passed out 12 surveys to students from Dr.
Frenchs Technical and Business Writing course. All 12 questions were written in a Likert Scale
format. The Organization gathered information from students age ranging from 16-33 and older.
The surveys were given to both male and female students. The GPA of students that were
surveyed ranged from 2.0-4.0. All 12 students were employed. The Organization received data
from students who had different majors, including Math, Art and Science.

For question number 1, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question on how often do they
actually use/read the textbook assigned for the class. The question answers ranges from Never
used it as to Everyday use on a scale from 1 to 5. We found that the average amount of time
students spent using their textbook was 1.5 days out of the week.
Memo to Dr. French October 04, 2017 3
For question number 2, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question if they felt like TCC
professors are considerate about the cost of the textbook that they require for their class. The
question answers ranges from Not Considerate to Very Considerate on a scale from 1 to 5.
Out of all of our surveyors, we had an average of 2.16 which is inclined to slightly considerate.

For question number 3, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question on how the price of
the textbook affects the probability of them taking, dropping or failing a class. The question
answers ranges from Unaffected to Very Affectedon a scale from 1 to 5. The results
averaged out to be 1.42, which heavily leaned towards unaffected.

For question number 4, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question of how does the
textbook affect the probability of them passing the class. The question answers ranges from
Unaffected to Very affectedon a scale from 1 to 5. On this question we received an average
of 2.42, which favored towards slightly unaffected.

For question number 5, we asked students a question based on if textbooks were cheaper, do you
think it would affect the number of people attending college. The question answers ranged from
Negative affect to Positive effect. We found that 92% of all the students that took the survey
believe that there would be a positive effect, while 8% believed that it would have a negative
effect to the number of people who would attend college.

For question number 6, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question on how interested
they would be in borrowing a textbook instead of buying one. The questions answers ranged
from Not interested to Very interested on a scale from 1 to 4. Out of all of our surveyors, we
had an average of 2.8 which is inclined to Interested in borrowing a textbook.

For question number 7, we asked students a question based of if they could borrow a textbook at
no cost, what would be the likelihood of them buying it or borrowing/renting it. We found that
only 75% of students are more likely to borrow/rent a textbook as opposed to 8% who prefer to
buy it.

For question number 8, we asked students a Likert scale formatted question based off if they
could lend their textbook in exchange for borrowing one, would they rather lend it or sell it. The
results were separated on a scale from 1-5. The questions answers ranged from Definitely sell
textbook to Definitely borrow textbook. We found that 50% of students feel more inclined to
sell their textbooks.

For question number 9, we asked students questions based off of how the student feels they
absorb the information better. The results were separated on a scale from 1-4. These answered
ranged from 1 being that the student absorbed more information with a E-Textbook. Number 2
on the scale represented if students felt like they absorbed more information with a physical
textbook. Number 3 represented that the students felt that both E-Textbooks and physical
textbooks were both equally efficient. Number 4 represented that students felt that both E-
Textbooks and physical textbooks were both equally inefficient/undecided. We found that 83%
of students found that a physical textbook helps them absorb the information better. In fact, not
one student thought that the E-textbook helped them absorb information.
Memo to Dr. French October 04, 2017 4

Table 1. Demographics Data

Demographics Choices Results
Question 1 16-20 8
What is your age? 21-26 3
33 and over 1
Question 2 Science 7
What is your major? Math 1
Arts 2
Other 2
Question 3 2-3 2
What is your GPA? 3-4 10
Question 4 Full time student 9
What is your employment status? Part time student 3
Full time job 2
Part time student 3
Question 5 Male 6
What is your gender? Female 5
Other 1

Table 2. Survey Questions Data

Survey Questions Choices Results
Question 1 Rarely 9
How often do you actually use (read) the textbook Average 3
assigned for a class youre taking?
Question 2 Not considerate 1
Do you feel like TCC professors are considerate about Slightly considerate 8
the cost of the book for their class? Considerate 3
Question 3 Unaffected 8
How does the price of a textbook affect the probability Slightly affected 3
of you taking, dropping, or failing a class? Affected 1
Question 4 Unaffected 2
How does textbook affect the probability of you Slightly affected 4
passing your class? Affected 5
Very affected 1
Question 5 No effect at all 1
If textbooks were cheaper, how do you think it would Slightly positive effect 3
affect people attending college? Positive effect 8
Question 6 Not interested 1
How interested are you in borrowing a textbook Slightly interested 2
instead of buying one? Interested 7
Memo to Dr. French October 04, 2017 5
Very interested 2
Question 7 Definitely borrow/rent 5
If you can borrow a textbook with no cost, what is the Probably borrow/rent 4
likelihood of you buying it or borrowing/renting it? Undecided 2
Probably buy 1
Question 8 Definitely sell textbook 4
If you can lend your textbook in exchange of Might sell textbook 2
borrowing one, would you rather lend it or sell it? Undecided 4
Might borrow textbook 1
Definitely borrow text 1
Question 9 Physical textbook 10
Based on your efficiency (absorbing information) in Both equally efficient 2
using a type of textbook, which would you be more
interested in using?

Discussion

After carrying out the survey we found out we had really good results gender wise, given the fact
that we had 6 boys and 5 girls. This separated our gender into 50/50. Although the survey results
might be a bit bias based off the participant's age, major, and GPA we still found the statistics to
be quite significant. Based on gender we found the men are twice as more likely to use their
textbooks than women. The majority of the participants were science majors and they
unanimously agreed on rarely using the textbook was a norm for them. The rest of the results
were a mixture of art, math, and history who had similar answers. What we found that it was
quite intriguing that the data was 80% of the students whose GPA ranked in the 3-4 range, were
students that did not need the book. The significance of this is that these students were doing
quite well academically and had almost no necessity towards textbooks and life decisions were
unaffected in regards to textbooks. However 83% of students did find a physical textbook more
helpful. Nine out of twelve students would prefer to rent or borrow a textbook instead of
purchasing one. Regarding the price of the textbook, most agreed if books were cheaper then
there would be more positive effects on students attending college.We found that almost 50% of
science majors said the textbook affected their probability of passing the course. We found that
67% of students believe that professors are only slightly considerate of the price of the textbook
that is required in the course. Overall there was not a variety of answers. All answers were
similar given in each demographic. The data gave good results but it wasnt enough because we
had no variety in our demographics. If we had a wider range of GPA, age, gender, employment
status rate. Our results would accumulate to a more useful data.

It is interesting how our education consists of a mixture of both electronic (in a form of etext)
and physical textbook, but students responded that they do not rely on textbooks as much

nowadays. Another interesting phenomenon is how students arent affected in passing their class
when it comes to book prices (meaning they can afford the books) but a huge percentage of them
are still interested in saving money via borrowing, renting or even buying lower priced books.
Memo to Dr. French October 04, 2017 6

Even if this is the case, its important to find useful ways of attaining a textbook. One
recommendation is buying a textbook and sharing it with people since the average time of
textbook use for the 12 people surveyed is 1.5 days per week. If people would share the
textbooks cost, itll save them a lot of money without affecting their grades. To correspond with
this, classes in college could be arranged so that borrowing of textbooks is possible.

Students can also have a borrowing or trading system. If student A is done taking a specific
course and the book purchased is needed by new student, student B, student B can borrow or
trade that book for something the student A needs (another book he needs for a new course
subject, lower textbook price, or no cost at all).

The library can also come up with a better system of borrowing textbooks. Since the textbooks in
the library are only available in the library. They can come up with a system where a student can
borrow a textbook and take it outside the library, but the student can only borrow it outside in a
maximum amount of time. The library can also maintain a book drive every semester for
students who want to donate their books.