How university instructors select textbooks and classroom resources

Parameters of Teaching Resource Selection

Teachers in the modern university environment have a significantly increased range of options available to them in regards to textbooks, supplementary resources, and/or alternative resources to use in classroom instruction. However, it was identified that the selection process is at least subtle different depending on the discipline and the level of instruction. Different disciplines evolve at different speeds. For example, the textbooks and classroom resources for a MBA program would evolve at a much faster pace that subject such as classical American literature or history for example.

Thus it is hypothesized that there will be a range of different selection processes that vary upon the circumstance of the discipline and the academic level. Although there may be best practices that can guide the selection of textbooks and other materials on a high level, it is suspected that the process include more of a holistic process that includes individual factors related to the discipline and the circumstances related to the individual class as well as its position in the broader curriculum. Thus the broader and more inclusive an interview focus is, the more likely it can account for the specifics of selection involved based on these differences.

The role of the teacher preferences in textbook and classroom resource selection will also likely play a role in the process. Professors and instructors will have different beliefs and academic preferences that might guide their selection. However, the individual preferences of the instructor could also be tempered by the school's requirements or expectations. In some universities, there are only a narrow range of textbooks and resources available for the selection processes and thus individual preferences may not be a dominant factor in the selection process.

Another consideration will likely be the context in which the context of the curriculum in which the class is placed. Some studies identified using the entire department in the textbook selection process as a best practice. It is reasonable to suspect that as students' progress through related class that are taught on different levels and are based on prerequisites that are learned in earlier classes, that a level of coordination might be more effective to the student's education on a whole. Again, this would depend on the classes' position in the curriculum and its interrelatedness that is shared with other classes.

Brief Industry Background

The mainstream university textbook industry has been largely concentrated in a relatively few large publishing companies. Junior publishers typically have limited market power and typically focus on specific niches. The top ten companies in the world in this industry produce the bulk of the industries revenue (Publisher Weekly, 2014). Further on down the list there is more market volatility in regards to industry position. However, the top five publishers generally do not change their market positions frequently. However, recent news has indicated that the market leader, Pearson Publishing, has experience fairly dramatic falling stock prices after they announced their revenues have fallen by roughly four percent (Young & Sandle, 2015). Yet they are still the leading publisher by far. In fact, Pearson is far bigger than other media companies that attract more attention such as AOL or The New York Times Company (and much more profitable) (Carmody, 2012). The top ten industry players are listed position and revenues in the following chart (Publisher Weekly, 2014):

Rank (2013)

Rank (2012)

Publishing Company (Group or Division)

Country

Mother Corporation or Owner

Country of Mother Corporation

2013 Revenue in $M

2012 Revenue in $M

1

1

Pearson

UK

Pearson

UK

$7,801

$9,158

2

2

Reed Elsevier

UK/NL/U.S.

Reed Elsevier

UK/NL/U.S.

$6,093

$5,934

3

3

Thomson-Reuters

US

The Woodbridge Company Ltd.

Canada

$5,576

$5,386

4

4

Wolters Kluwer

NL

Wolters Kluwer

NL

$4,920

$4,766

5

5

Random House

Germany

Bertelsmann AG

Germany

$3,664

$3,328

6

6

Hachette Livre

France

Lagardere

France

$2,851

$2,833

7

10

Holtzbrinck

Germany

Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck

Germany

$2,222

$2,220

8

8

Grupo Planeta

Spain

Grupo Planeta

Spain

$2,161

$2,597

9

11

Cengage*

US

Apax Partners et al.

US/Canada

N/A

$1,993

10

7

McGraw-Hill Education

US

The McGraw-Hill Companies

US

$1,992

$2,292

There have been many factors that have contributed to the overall consolidation of firms in the textbook industry into just a handful of major players. The industry was somewhat competitive and fragmented up until the 1960s and 1970s, however the textbook publishing industry became dominated by a small number of major companies, because of the high investment involved in developing, manufacturing and distributing textbooks (Watt, 2007). There are very few small textbook publishing (small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs)) companies left in the market. The independent publishers that still operate typically focus on a very narrow range of subjects in a specific discipline and compete with a level of expertise in that subject. The other type of small textbook publishers consist of university presses. These presses will typically print books written by their own students and faculty members.

As a result of the contributing factors and the larger firms acquiring smaller publishers, the industry eventually began to take an oligopoly form in the market with a few major players. As a result, there was diminished competition for pricing and the margins for publishers expanded rapidly. For example, a 2005 Government Accountability Office report showed that college textbook prices grew at twice the rate of inflation from 1986 to 2004 (Kurtzleben, 2012). The growth of the margins for publishers is definitely correlated with the reduced amount of overall industry competition. Yet, despite high margins in the current industry environment, it is difficult for new businesses to begin publishing because there are high barriers to entry.

There are many advantages to developing quantiles of scale in the industry through increasing volume. In recent years, there has been an even larger incentive for further consolidation among the remaining firms because achieving larger scale for already-large publishers is to have stronger negotiating positions with partners (like Amazon) and suppliers (like authors) (Greenfield, 2014). There are many emerging sources of competition in the textbook market that come from different ways to purchase textbooks (such as renting textbooks) as well as textbooks produced on different mediums (such as e-readers and tablets) and as a result margins are facing increased competition once more.

The authors of a textbook only receive around twelve percent of the total revenue generated from the textbook's sale (Kurtzleben, 2012). Furthermore, generally the authors do not have considerable negotiating power with the publishers unless they have some form of unique technical expertise or are widely popular. In fact, most textbook publishing companies will actually list detailed guidelines for the specific textbooks they design and publish them online for any potential authors to see. This is especially true for undergraduate courses in which there are a plethora of candidates -- the publishers will provide an outline and information that they require in the book and authors can apply to fill the role in creating the textbook, or more commonly, updating an existing textbook.

In some graduate level course where there is more specialized knowledge that isn't as widely known, authors have a better chance of earning better contracts and greater royalties. There are no statistics available strictly for textbook authors; however, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov) lists the median income for writers and authors in 2013 as $57,750 annually with a 3% job growth predicted between 2012 and 2022; college textbook authors might sometimes fit better in the category of technical writers and the median income for technical writers in 2013 is given as $67,900 with an estimated job growth of 15% between 2012 and 2022 (Learn.org, N.d.). However, most of the textbook authors are also professors or researchers and it is often the case that their income from textbooks is a supplementary income to their salaries with their institutions.

Undergraduate Resources

Teachers and educational professionals are faced with a plethora of choices when it comes to selecting a textbook or other related teaching resources. Some researchers have suggested that when selecting textbooks it is critical to involve the entire faculty in a department which can allow for a more comprehensive perspective to be used as well as provide a more consistent transition between materials in different classes in the curriculum (Altman & Pena-Shaff, 2006). Yet involving the entire department in the selection of textbooks and other resources can be a time consuming and complex process that often has to be repeated on an annual basis as new materials become available.

Furthermore, many have promoted the shift from an authoritarian model of teaching, to one that includes the opinions of the students in educational design. In some cases the students can be surveyed to identify the specific concepts and theories that they would like to learn. Although this adds another layer of complexity to classroom instruction and the selection of materials, it can also create a stronger sense of student buy-in and dedication to the class. In parallel to these theories, Adult Learning Theory describes a transition from a pedagogic/instruction-based model to an andragogic/learner-centered model; in desiring the lifelong learning outcomes attributed to andragogy, educators should increasingly facilitate this process within professional programs and include student learners in appropriate types of decision-making (Peeters, et al., 2010).

Other studies have identified that the choice of a textbook can make a significant difference in many educational aspects (Pyne, 2007). This stands in contrast to the fact that some educators might intuitively feels as if the textbook serves a subsidiary role in classroom education. Yet the textbook and other materials selected can serve as a foundation for an effective curriculum design. One study analyzes the use of economics tests and proposes that the main finding in this study is that, in some cases, the choice of Introductory Microeconomics textbook can have an effect on student performance in later courses (Pyne, 2007). The results of the study appear to be strongest in the case of the use of a text referred to as Money and Banking.

Nonetheless, in most cases, it is impossible to reject the hypothesis that most textbooks produce identical results in student learning. Moreover, the particular textbook that other textbooks differ from depends on what course a student subsequently takes. For example, teaching microeconomics to MBA students offers a unique set of challenges and opportunities to instructors and the process of teaching business students may differ considerably, but in predictable ways, when compared to the classroom experience commonly found in liberal arts programs (Neymotin, 2014). Thus the environment and issues related to the students such as their educational level and motivation should also be considered when attempting to select the resources that should be used in the classroom. Fortunately, there are many resources that can help educators compare different aspects of textbooks and other resources to help them navigate this level of complexity and select the resources that are best suited to them and their specific situation.

However, in some cases, it is not actually the teacher of the class that gets to make the decision about what resources are used. For example, it is common that different organizations get to decide on who choses what textbooks are used in America's public school classrooms and these often vary by state. For example, states can let each school district decide, provide standards that must be followed and make available an incomplete listing of books meeting those standards, or allow schools to choose books only from a list provided by the state (Phillips, 2014). Such regulations can strictly limit the choices that are available to teachers in regards to textbooks and other classroom resources. Some teachers in these situations will try to supplement the required texts with other resources or skip around in the textbook to highlight the concepts they find the most relevant to students. Although this can give teachers a level of flexibility, it can also make the course harder to follow for some students since they are not consistent with the progression of learning that is outlined in the textbook.

One author presents a model that provides an explanation for state limits on textbook selection by school districts and examines the roles played by decision making costs, effectiveness of voters, religious composition, power of teachers, and propensity of state governments to interfere with or to help districts in textbook selection policies at the state level (Phillips, 2014). Such restrictions can serve as significant barriers to the instructor's efficacy in the classroom. One example of a controversial issue that has gained publicity in the news is the way that some institutions allow instructors to handle sensitive issues such as the teaching of evolution. Evolution is often perceived to be contrary to many religious beliefs and many universities that are religiously affiliated or in states with a politically active religious population must grapple with such issues on a regular basis.

Such research is important because in the U.S. there has been virtually no research on this topic and the findings corroborate the extant literature that addresses interference by state governments in local affairs and extend the morality politics literature by finding a strong link between religious fundamentalism and state-level policies (Phillips, 2014). If the selection of textbooks and other resources is based on a political decision and not a scientific one, then this significantly limits the teacher's ability to provide effective instruction based on scientific research and evidence in some fields. For example, some political bodies have mandated that the theory of intelligent design be taught alongside theories of evolution. Although such a strategy might be consistent with some groups' religious beliefs, it is arguably not consistent with the research produced in biology and the natural sciences.

Such phenomena are not only applicable to controversial issues such as evolution however. For example, in language education, some foreign cultures may not be consistent with the embedded ideologies that are included. For example, language education is a complex social practice that reaches beyond teaching and learning phonology, morphology, and syntax, language is not neutral; it conveys ideas, cultures, and ideologies embedded in and related to the language, so that language education needs to be examined not only on the purely linguistic level, but also on the broader social and political level; and one of the social and political factors that influence language education is governmental policy (Incho, 2011). Thus the selection of teaching resources might have to consider many cultural barriers on a more subtle level in some subjects that are not as obvious as the more controversial materials.

Another issue that is often not often considered, is the diversity that educators can often find in modern day classroom settings that consist not only of cultural differences for students representing American populations, but also the sometimes more stark differences that can be found among international students. Teacher preparation and readiness, the overall goals of the course, the classroom environment, and the existing classroom teaching practices-these elements of the context of use affect the successful teaching of intercultural communication; in the context of day-to-day teaching, one study found that the theoretical and content aspects of textbooks are complicated by the use of the books in specific classrooms (Thomas & Mateeva, 2006). For example, not only is it commonly the case that students learn more effectively in different manners, but they can also have substantial differences in communication styles based on cultural differences.

Instructors, lecturers, or full-time faculty, who may teach those service courses, work under many constraints that predispose a certain attitude toward intercultural communication. Not all educators consider the role that diverse student bodies can have on factors such as textbook and resource selection and cultural preferences. Furthermore, teachers themselves may have different levels of preparation and experience with intercultural communication, which can make one textbook useful over another (Thomas & Mateeva, 2006). In some cases it is likely that an instructor may choose one textbook over another simply because they are more familiar with the forms of communication that it represents. However, this predisposition may not mirror the intercultural communication requirements that can be found in many modern classrooms at nearly every level in education.

MBA Resources

MBA programs often operate independently of all other academic disciplines in the social sciences because of inherent differences in this type of instruction. The modern business world evolves quickly in many regards and resource selection often needs to be dynamic to keep pace changes in the globalized environment. In this way, the challenges for a MBA instructor in regards to textbook and resource selection might be more complex than other subjects such as classical American literature or history for example. The modern business education must account for many changes in the business world that occur in real time.

One study attempts to explore the content and process of technology management education in the context of masters of business administration (MBA) programs in the U.S. (Malick & Chaudhury, 2000). Based on two mail surveys, the research identifies the knowledge and skills that are necessary for effective management of technology. Except for a few specific knowledge and skill areas, general agreement was found to exist between academicians and practitioners as to what knowledge and skills are important for effective management of technology. Therefore, it can be assumed that a component of experience might necessarily contribute to effective resource selection in a MBA environment.

For example, knowledge of business strategy and competition, the strategic role of technology in business, new product development and the understanding of issues related to implementation of new technology were found to be important for management of technology (Malick & Chaudhury, 2000). Moreover, effective oral and written communication and the ability to achieve implementation are considered essential skills for managing technology. Similar to other rapid changes in the business environment, technology has rapidly evolved in recent generations. Therefore, many instructors can have difficulty keeping pace with these rapid changes. Furthermore, as technology continues to advance, it also becomes more complex in nature.

There are also many other issues relative to business that are advancing rapidly. New generations of MBA teaching is grappling with how to integrate sustainability in MBA programs, however, raises a number of questions and challenges; one article presents a few straightforward ideas to address these challenges and much of the debate is focused on associated discussion has focused on the need to educate MBA students in a cross-disciplinary fashion through which students develop a more holistic worldview and actively explore the role of business in society (Strand, 2011). Although the basic ethical concepts do not evolve quickly, the application of these principles in the real world do as the environments and the available information changes.

One approach to teaching things such as ethics includes the 'micro-insertion' approach, as a practical and effective means to teach ethics at business schools (Slocum & Rohlfer, 2014). It is argued that instructors can incorporate not only generic or thematic learning objectives for students into this method (i.e., the intended content of what is being taught: in our case, an underlying ethical base for doing business), but also do so via a strategically integrated approach regarding the appropriate mix and timing of these micro-insertions. These micro-insertions can be continually updated to challenge students to creatively utilize seemingly generic concepts about ethics and apply them to current events in a more relevant application to the challenges that they might face in their future positions.

Although many business disciplines are currently adding a broader comprehension of issues related to sustainability, these applications do not seem to be distributed evenly. For example, although the field of marketing is also evolving quickly with the advent of new technologies and new advertising mediums, they have been slow to incorporate issues such as environmental awareness into their curriculums. One study content-analyzed the 21 current introductory marketing textbooks for coverage of these practices. The results showed limited, sporadic coverage of specific issues, with modest exposure to general environmental awareness (DeMoss & Nicholson, 2005).

The audit indicated that exposure in pricing issues is more deficient than in other elements of the marketing mix and the 6 market leader texts were only marginally better at coverage than were the others (DeMoss & Nicholson, 2005). The study concluded that, in the case of the environmentally sustainable practices, business schools have yet to incorporate this vitally important area into their curricula, in part because available textbooks lack sufficient coverage. Therefore in some instances, the textbooks that are available to MBA instructors do not appear to be keeping pace with the changes in the external business environment. This can make it difficult for instructors to prepare MBA students for future challenges that they may face and to do so they must commonly rely on alternative resources other than textbooks.

There have also been many other trends identified that have affected business instruction in the last decade. For example, there has been something of a decline in the management science role in the MBA instruction role as indicated by the results of an INFORMS survey of professors who teach OR/MS in business schools indicate that only 13% felt the role of management science is greater now than five years ago (Liberatore & Nydick, 1999). However, management science is also evolving rapidly and modern practitioners have a wide range of new technologies that have been developed to provide assistance in decision making and managing large amounts of information.

Therefore, it has been argued that management science is more important to business education than ever, and management science can be implemented by MBA students more easily than ever (Liberatore & Nydick, 1999). It has been suggested that MBA programs integrate management-science concepts and modeling software for immediate application in the students' working environments and this approach has empowered students to produce and often implement high-quality management-science-application projects which allows students learn to appreciate the value of management science as an applied discipline (Liberatore & Nydick, 1999). This opinion and the evidence provided supports the idea that since many concepts related to business evolve so rapidly, that the instruction found in MBA programs might not always identify the concepts that are most relevant to future business leaders.

A 15th edition of a strategic management textbook is a notable milestone and one study wondered if the editors who reached it would have a unique perspective about how our field has been changing over the years and who or what might drive change in the future (Abraham & Leavy, 2007). The field was noted as changing in a number of ways including:

1) Academic researchers periodically come up with new analytical tools and ways of looking at strategy issues that merit coverage in textbooks

2) New concepts and terms appear in the literature - as, for instance, strategic intent, business model (a term that has come into wide use in the last five to seven years), the balanced scorecard and blue-ocean strategy - which have to be weaved into the chapter treatments of new editions;

3) Companies encounter new or different kinds of strategic issues - such as increasing globalization and widespread use of the Internet - that have forced numerous companies to reexamine and revise their strategies in the last decade; and

4) Each new edition has to include the latest and best examples of "strategy in action" (such as the trend among diversified companies to retrench to a narrower business base with greater cross-business strategic fit) and thereby establish a tighter link between theory and practice.

This study and the factors that were identified for future movements in the business environment related to strategic management represent the dynamic nature of the environment as well as the forward thinking that is necessary to attempt for the instruction to keep pace with this environment. Such forward thinking approaches could help reduce the likelihood that textbooks and materials fall behind in regards to the evolution of the business environment.

There are other aspects to MBA education that are also more complex than many traditional educational approaches to education many not adequately been able to address. For example, some researchers have even debated whether strategic thinking can be taught (Fontaine, 2008). Management is often thought of as an art as much as it is a science and these perspectives can be hard to incorporate into traditional educational formats. Some argue that people confuse 'strategic planning' with 'strategic thinking' although the two are different; strategic planning is an analytical process aimed at developing identified strategies whereas strategic thinking is a synthesizing process requiring intuition and creativity (Fontaine, 2008). Strategic thinking requires five attributes:

1. A systems perspective

2. Intent-focused

3. Intelligent-opportunism

4. Thinking in time

5. It is hypothesis driven.

However, these concepts can be challenging to transfer to students no matter what resources are selected given the inherent challenges in facilitating creative thinking among MBA students to develop these skills.

There is also an element of culture that is involved in MBA education in a globalized world that has become more internationally focused. Today's businesses often operate with supply chains that span the globe. One research paper examines the knowledge gap in designing MBA strategy between China and the West by examining the content, context and process of MBA delivery (Li-Hua & Lu, 2014). This paper challenges the assumptions and pedagogical approach underpinning the current design and delivery of MBA programs that were originally molded with Western management history and development in the era of globalization. There is consensus that MBA was used to train business managers; however, nowadays, people are inclined to state that MBA is used to develop global business leaders or full-fledged global competitors (Li-Hua & Lu, 2014). Therefore, other aspects in selecting textbooks and other resources not only involves dealing with this increased amount of diversity found in international business, but also considering international norms and standardization processes that developed with the globalization of markets.

Despite the pace and the inherent challenges that are present in modern MBA programs in regards to textbook and resource selection, some MBA instruction is based on new teaching options that are available to professors. Some courses are still offered in classrooms using the traditional chalk and talk lecture method but courses are increasingly being infused with web-based technology (Fuller & Yu, 2014). Furthermore, some instructors teach hybrid courses which require some face-to-face contact with their students and to varying degrees; these instructors may require that homework, examinations and/or other assignments be completed online. The nature of digital materials is one potential solution that can help MBA departments deal with the rapid evolution of textbooks and resources in the field and the hybrid format also mirrors many of the environments that students are likely to find in the professional environment after graduation as more businesses are adopting these practices.

Online courses are increasingly being taught without the physical presence of teachers and the students complete all assignments, homework and examinations online and submit term projects by e-mail (Fuller & Yu, 2014). There are also many advantages to providing a MBA curriculum through these channels that include issues such as scalability, cost, and convenience for students. Furthermore, the latest technological advancements have provided multi-media capabilities for student and instructor interactions that mitigate some of the challenges that were present in previous generations. Despite these advantages, many argue that these programs will not be able to duplicate the in class experience and vital education components will remain face-to-face at least for some time to come; furthermore, conventional education will also remain vital in research, where online capabilities can be limiting (Bonvillian, 2013).