About

Open Textbooks are a recent innovation in free, digital texts that can be: distributed at no cost; printed at cost-price; and modified for local needs, such as to correct gender, socio-cultural and indigenous under-representations in the curriculum. This project builds on American research showing that equity students benefit most from free textbooks similar to the benefits of scholarships/financial aid – by lifting grades and course progress rates. This study replicates the UK national scoping study with equity-focussed additions, using a social justice frame-work to test the potential within the Australian context in terms of redistributive (economic), recognitive and representational justice.