The cost of not going open

The cost-saving benefits of engaging with open education initiatives has long been cited as one of the driving forces behind the sustainability of the movement. In the US, undoubtedly, faculty engagement with open textbooks saves significant cost to students, and these actions act as a lever to promote the open education cause and national policy (for example the work of David Wiley and Lumen Learning). In the UK the argument for student cost benefits of open text books has never been fully made, and cost-benefit models of other forms of open education initiatives have been ill-explored.