In this study, I conducted both basic and interpretive content analysis to arrive at a holistic approach for analyzing the content of the textbooks. Since the content of the textbooks in my sample is accessible to the public, though at times through a pay wall, and is not classified as personal data, so this study did not undergo any reviews by the Institutional Review Board.
Sampling
This study focuses on teaching and learning OER that are free to use and include permissions to redistribute for the sake of doing comparisons. My sampling frame was limited to OER and traditional college-level, introductory Sociology/Anthropology textbooks published from 2010-2022.
The sampling method employed was both purposive and convenient. Utilizing the Gettysburg College library, interlibrary loan, and the network of Sociology and Anthropology professors, I was able to access 7 Sociology and 6 Anthropology traditional textbooks. Textbooks were eliminated from this sample based on publication year or similarity due to publisher, title, and/or authors. To collect a sample of OER Sociology and Anthropology textbooks, I used the Google search engine; referenced library guides from other higher education institutions; and accessed OER databases, including OER Commons, PressBooks, MERLOT, and Open Textbook Library, to gather more OER sources. Expanded versions or edited versions of OER textbooks were kept, while those that were just re-arrangements of the original version were eliminated from the sample. In order to determine this sample, I chose three random subtopics and compared them side-by-side to gauge the extent of difference in content among the textbooks. The final sample of 25 consists of 7 traditional Sociology textbooks, 6 traditional Anthropology textbooks, 6 Sociology OER, and 6 Anthropology OER.
Basic Content Analysis
Interpretive Content Analysis
Basic content analysis is a common sociological method and also very popular among multidisciplinary works for its utilization of quantitative analytic methods and distinctive use of existing texts. Basic content analysis is mostly deductive and descriptive. Deploying basic content analysis in this research project allows for identification and description of themes and other characteristics of textbook content, examination of large amounts of data in an efficient way to elicit any topics, and pinpointing the proportion of the textbooks that is related to identified topics (Weber 1990; Drisko and Maschi 2015a).
In this study, I conducted basic content analysis (Drisko and Maschi 2015a) to quantify the frequency of topics, exercises, interactive components, vocabulary and language, as well as visuals, presented in textbooks from the two publishing formats for each subject, Sociology and Anthropology. Examples of such quantitative codes are number of page in each chapter, charts and tables, learning objectives, theorists, and highlighted or boldened vocabulary.
To provide a holistic description and comparison of content in the two types of textbooks across the two subjects, I also conducted interpretive content analysis to provide in-depth details of the texts. Interpretive content analysis offers various uses in this project, including describing textbook content and its meanings, and analyzing motivations based on different forms of publishing type (Drisko and Maschi 2015b). During the process, code lists are formed and refined multiple times to ensure that researchers are considering all aspects of both latent and manifest meanings of the content.
For the interpretive content analysis of the textbooks, I provided qualitative codes that interpret how quality is conveyed, professionalism, technical thoroughness, content organization, relatability to students, and diversity in theorists. I also coded for other visual aspects, such as fonts and page layouts.