While certainly not opposed to saving students money, Stuart Barbier questions the assumption that free or low-cost textbooks are a better choice for students simply for that reason. While cost is a consideration, it should not be the driving factor for the decision of what type of textbook material to use. Rather, the driving factor should be quality and suitability for meeting the course’s outcomes and objectives and best serving our students’ learning needs. What comes to mind is the clichéd old saw that you get what you pay for. I’ve seen this turn out to be true in several life circumstances. In the case of OER, much more must go into students’ decisions about what classes to take beyond the cost of the textbooks.
