Student survey about textbook costs

Creating a great Student Textbook Costs survey is challenging—especially if you want responses you can act on. That’s why we put our AI survey generator right on this page: just click, generate your survey in seconds, and start collecting real feedback with Specific.

Why textbook cost surveys matter for students

If you’re not running Student Textbook Costs surveys, you’re missing deep insights into how textbooks affect participation and learning. High textbook costs can be a roadblock for students, with 65% of surveyed students admitting they’ve skipped out on buying course materials simply because of the price [1]. That’s not just about missing out on a book—it’s a barrier to equity and academic success.

When you check in with students about textbook affordability, you’re not just collecting numbers for a report—you’re helping to uncover:

• The real impact of textbook expenses on students’ academic experiences and performance

• Equity gaps for lower-income or otherwise vulnerable students

• Opportunities for faculty and administrators to explore open educational resources or alternatives

After all, recent research shows widespread implications: in a survey of over 5,000 students at 82 colleges, students reported that costs and the pandemic severely impacted their ability to participate fully in class [2]. Surveys like these give institutions data to redesign support and improve equity. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know the “why” behind disengaged students or gaps in participation—which makes it harder to help.

The advantage of an AI survey generator

Let’s be honest: creating a survey the old-fashioned way is slow, clunky, and often leads to uninspired results. With an AI survey generator, the experience is completely different—and Specific puts this power at your fingertips. You can focus on the questions and outcomes rather than editing, structuring, or worrying about best practices.

Why use AI for student surveys? You get the quality of an expert-made instrument—without hours of tinkering. Specific’s conversational survey builder generates questions optimized for clarity and engagement, then delivers them in a chat interface students recognize and enjoy. The process feels natural both for the creator and the respondent, and you get higher-quality data as a result. Best of all, Specific’s interface is as intuitive as chat—no survey-building headaches.

Want a step-by-step on setup? Check out our guide on how to create a student survey about textbook costs.

Designing questions that drive real insight

It's surprisingly easy to ask questions that sound fine—but actually fail to uncover what matters. Specific’s survey builder acts like a research expert to guide you away from vague or biased questions and into genuine insight. For example:

• Bad: “Are textbooks expensive?” (Yes/No – leaves out personal impact, doesn’t dig deeper.)

• Good: “How have textbook costs affected your participation in class this semester?”

Our AI builder avoids filler questions and clarifies intent, making surveys more actionable. Here’s a tip even if you build questions manually: always ask for examples or allow open-ended responses. Students’ specific stories will tell you far more than just a yes or no.

If you want inspiration for effective questions, explore our list of best questions for student survey about textbook costs.

Automatic follow-up questions based on previous reply

This is where AI and conversational surveys become a game changer. Specific uses GPT-powered AI to ask smart, context-aware follow-up questions in real time—just like an expert interviewer would. You instantly get richer detail and avoid unclear answers that would’ve needed endless back-and-forth emails.

• Student: “I couldn’t buy the textbook last semester.”

• AI follow-up: “Was this due to the cost, or another reason? How did this affect your ability to do class assignments?”

• Student: “Sometimes I share with a friend.”

• AI follow-up: “How does sharing a textbook affect your experience in class compared to having your own copy?”

Imagine if you just took the first response—vague, right? Automated follow-ups ensure you collect the full story, right as the conversation happens. People can try this feature themselves and feel the difference. (Learn more about Specific’s automatic AI follow-up questions.)

The end result: follow-up questions turn every survey into a real conversation—making it a true conversational survey.

Survey delivery: how to engage students

You need flexible ways to reach your audience. With Specific, you can deliver Student Textbook Costs surveys in two powerful ways:

• Sharable landing page surveys: Ideal for emailing a survey to students, posting in learning portals or slack channels, or collecting public responses from student groups. Just generate the survey, share the link, and you’re live.

• In-product surveys: Perfect for universities, ed-tech platforms, or LMS providers to gather feedback at the right moment—right inside the portal where students engage with course content, registration, or account management.

For textbook cost research, landing page surveys fit most use cases, but using in-product targeting can capture insights during course registration or ebook purchases for even deeper context.

How to analyze responses in seconds with AI

No more endless spreadsheets or trying to make sense of hundreds of free-text responses. Specific’s AI survey analysis gives you instant summaries, quickly finds main themes, and even lets you chat directly with the AI about your data—making analyzing survey responses with AI effortless. Features like automatic topic detection and real-time Q&A with your data mean actionable insights are always just a click away. Dive even deeper with our full guide on how to analyze Student Textbook Costs survey responses with AI.

Create your Textbook Costs survey now

Generate your high-quality Student Textbook Costs survey with AI in seconds—click, create, and start collecting real feedback today.