Blackwell's Learning Resource Survey 2020

LEARNING RESOURCE SURVEY 2019 - 2020 For Academics and the Publishers of Academic Texts

Executive Summary Blackwell’s is the UK’s last remaining physical academic bookselling chain, with bookshops located in 21 campus or university locations across the UK and operating seasonal bookshops in many more. Blackwell’s is a unique retailer in terms of the closeness of partnership we form, with both academics and publishers, in order to meet students’ textbook needs.

This is Blackwell’s second annual Learning Resource Survey. We have interviewed and surveyed Higher Education professionals and students across the UK, from Aberdeen to Exeter so we understand more about attitudes to, and experiences of, the provision of learning materials in UK universities.

Why are we publishing our results?

There are a number of existing surveys which attempt to quantify the student experience and their perceptions of value for money. None of these focus on the quality or variety of learning resources provided to students, or student preference with regard to the learning resources they are given access to.

We share our findings with our partner institutions, publishers and all potential new partners as we think it is essential for all stakeholders to have a consistent understanding of the needs and wants of students and lecturers.

Our key findings are: P hysical textbooks remain critical to student learning and lecturer teaching • V alue is critical to students and lecturers when selecting learning resources • B lackwell’s University Bookshops are the best place to purchase value for money textbooks required for study

•

Blackwell’s is actively seeking to strengthen existing partnerships and to build new relationships across the HE and publishing sectors. We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss our findings with you in more detail – please contact a member of the Blackwell’s team, or myself, to find out more about this survey, or our business.

Best wishes,

Will Williams Head of Academic Sales envelope will.williams@Blackwells.co.uk

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Physical Textbooks Remain Critical to Lecturer Teaching

We asked lecturers ‘What are the educational advantages of eBooks, physical textbooks and digital courseware?’.

Physical text

Concentration

eBook Courseware

Ease of Study

Ease of Annotation

Educational Outcomes

Number of lecturers

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

On every outcome metric, physical textbooks are viewed by lecturers as the most effective learning resource available to students.

As booksellers and even with our natural affinity for the printed text, we were surprised by the strength of opinion expressed by lecturers and their clear preference for physical texts, over and above eBooks and digital courseware.

In an always online era, has the printed textbook become an oasis from digital distraction?

UK lecturers appear to believe so.

Physical Textbooks Remain Critical to Student Learning

We asked students, ‘If each of the following resources – printed textbooks, eBooks or digital courseware – was made available to you free of charge, which would you prefer to use in your studies?’.

5.5%

Digital Courseware

Students are as emphatic as lecturers in expressing a preference for physical textbooks.

76% would prefer to be provided with textbooks over eTexts and digital courseware.

Textbook - eBook

76%

18.5%

Textbook - Paper

We asked lecturers, ‘Do you use textbooks in the classroom?’.

88%

of lecturers use the textbook in their classes, making it the most popular of all resources used by students.

Based on feedback from lecturers at 27 UK HE institutions, both Russell Group and Post 1992, teaching across 40+ subject areas with diverse teaching strategies and student needs.

364 responses

Blackwell’s Bookshops, through our value led printed textbook and eBook bookselling services, are able to fulfil 95% of student learning resource preference.

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Physical Textbooks - The Most Used Resource in the Learning Mix

It is vital that Blackwell’s understands where textbooks fit into the evolving learning resource mix. Lecturers are digitally literate and curating a mixture of physical and digital resources in order to build independent learning skills in their students.

We asked lecturers ‘What resources do you provide to students?’ and we asked students ‘What resources do you actually use?’.

Students Lecturers

%

Our findings indicate • • • • •

Lecturers are curating a complex mix of learning resources - both digital and physical YouTube content is an important element of course content Via university libraries, student demand for loans of physical texts appears higher than for eBooks Free resources are widely provided and used – either printed by the lecturer or uploaded to VLE’s Students prefer utilising Google Scholar when compared to the deeper access to learning content provided by journals

5

Textbooks are the Most Important Learning Resource to Purchase Our survey asked if lecturers would support students with the direct purchase of learning resources if budgets allowed?

We asked lecturers, ‘Which resource would you choose to buy your students?’.

Physical Textbooks

eBooks

Journal Access

Digital Courseware

Database Access % of lecturers

0

79%

of lecturers would purchase learning materials for students if budget allowed

10

20

30

50%

of these lecturers would buy printed textbooks ahead of other resources

40

50

76%

of students told us their preference was for printed textbooks

Although lecturers were clear that ‘Yes’ they do wish to purchase learning resources for their students, there is a gap between their understanding of student preference and the preference expressed by students.

Nevertheless, lecturers’ preferred resource for purchase is physical textbooks. Lecturer understanding of student preference for textbooks is clearly underpinning this view. Lecturers are correct in assuming student preference is to be provided with physical textbooks.

6

The Critical Importance of the Textbook The Blackwell’s View

Everyone who reads this report will have an innate understanding that tertiary education is being revolutionised by the incredible volume and variety of learning resources which can be shared with, and utilised by, students.

Blackwell’s is committed to university bookselling. We need your support to keep this essential service to students and the academic community on campus.

Blackwell’s is confident our findings indicate: • • •

Printed textbooks are the superior educational resource when compared to eBooks or courseware Lecturers want to be able to purchase learning resources for their students Students express a clear preference for printed textbooks over eBooks or courseware, when cost is not a factor

As booksellers, the noise created by ed-tech and digital disruptors can feel overwhelming. Blackwell’s asks universities to re-visit their assumptions on the benefits of ‘e’ vs. print.

The most effective way to ensure Blackwell’s remains on campus is to utilise our extended bookselling services, such as Library Servicing and e-Procurement and support the direct purchase and distribution of texts to students.

We ask that university leaders and commercial decision makers view the service Blackwell’s provides as a vital contributor to student experience and works with us collaboratively to keep bookshops on campus.

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THE ADDED VALUE OF A CAMPUS BOOKSHOP

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Value for Money Textbooks Blackwell’s introduced our ‘Student Price Match Guarantee’ (SPMG) offer for students in 2016. This offer ensures students can obtain the cheapest new book UK price on any textbook.* All students need to do is show the cheapest new book price on their phone based on Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith or any other book retailer.

In the universities where we trade, teaching teams have a high level of awareness of our SPMG offer and support our shop teams to communicate this offer to students.

Our survey results tell us:

70%

76% of lecturers are aware of our Student Price Match Offer

of lecturers recommend Blackwell’s to students because of our Student Price Match Offer

Student Price Match Guarantee enables Blackwell’s shop teams to grow trusted partnerships with academics in all the universities in which we are located.

Because of our lecturer partnerships, we are uniquely positioned to communicate our book offer directly to students.

6,000 1,600 1,200 1,000 150 Bespoke PowerPoint slides

Unique book bundles

Pre-arrival campaigns

First day of class talks

Faculty induction events attended

Student Price Match Guarantee enables Blackwell’s booksellers to grow trusted partnerships with teaching teams. Because of our lecturer partnerships, Blackwell’s is uniquely positioned to communicate our textbook offer to students. * Student Price Match Guarantee is Blackwell’s value offer to students. In practice it means all of our textbooks are price matched to the cheapest of Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith or Blackwells.co.uk prices

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Value for Money Textbooks and the Positive Impact of our Student Marketing As a result of lecturer support and shop marketing activity we are increasing awareness of our ‘Student Price Match Guarantee’ offer each and every year.

Each November we ask students if they were aware of our Student Price Match Offer at the start of term

% Yes

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

The huge investment in time and energy our shop managers put into their academic calling and local marketing is growing the awareness and impact of our offer.

61% 53% 40% 60% 65% of students tell us they shop with Blackwell’s because of SPMG

of students bought their reading list titles from Blackwell’s

of students bought their reading list titles from Amazon

of students Aware of our Price Match offer

of students say Blackwell’s provides good or reasonable value

How did you find out about our Student Price Match Offer?

At My Freshers' Fair In the Shop Window Via Blackwells.co.uk Told by a Bookseller Told by a Friend Through a Mail out Via Email Through Social Media Student %

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Each shops local marketing campaign is a multi-channel endeavour, supported by our central marketing team.

10

The Blackwell’s View for Publishers Our campus shop managers have become experts in academic liaison and local marketing.

The work they undertake to build partnerships with academics and to make students aware of the books they need for their courses is irreplaceable.

We are confident the findings of our surveys indicate: • • •

Students have a strong preference for physical textbooks ahead of other formats which can be sold to them directly Blackwell’s Student Price Match Guarantee grows our market share for textbook spend despite the challenge of Amazon Without Blackwell’s work on university campuses overall textbook sales would reduce in volume

Lecturers clearly believe students concentrate and achieve better outcomes when using physical texts with this opinion supported by studies (Kaufman and Flanagan 2016). Students appreciate the benefit of a non-digital, free of distraction learning environment, which printed textbooks support. eBooks are now a mature technology and yet it is clear only a limited number of students prefer eBooks to their physical counterpart. The business case for digital courseware is unclear – at least in the UK. Each year we invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in SPMG ensuring that we offer great value to students, this means we actually sell books for a much lower price than the published RRP. To sustain our SPMG offer and our campus bookselling model requires increased publisher support.

Blackwell’s believes this support would be effective in growing publisher sales volumes.

11

Blackwell’s Bookshop in Manchester opened in March 2019, as part of the University of Manchester’s Alliance Business School redevelopment. It is our new academic flagship for the North West and a statement of intent, representing our ongoing support for campus bookselling.