BILL NUMBER: AB 2261 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ruskin FEBRUARY 21, 2008 An act to add and repeal Article 2 (commencing with Section 78910) of Chapter 7 of Part 48 of Division 7 of Title 3 of the Education Code, relating to community colleges. . LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2261, as introduced, Ruskin. Community colleges: open education resources centers. Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges, under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, as one of the segments of public postsecondary education in this state. Existing law establishes community college districts throughout the state, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction to students at community college campuses. Existing law, the Cardenas Textbook Act of 2000, approved by the voters as Proposition 20 at the March 7, 2000, primary election, requires that a specified amount of total annual revenues of the state lottery be allocated to school districts and community college districts for the purchase of instructional materials, on the basis of an equal amount per unit of average daily attendance, as defined, and through a fair and equitable distribution system across grade levels. This bill would express findings and declarations of the Legislature relating to open education resources, as defined. The bill would authorize the board of governors to use revenue allocated to community colleges from the California State Lottery Education Fund to establish a competitive grant pilot program to provide faculty and staff from community college districts around the state with the information methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resources centers. The bill would define open education resources for its purposes. The bill would specify that a pilot program grant recipient be selected based upon a demonstration of its ability to accomplish specified objectives. The bill would require the board of governors to contract with an independent 3rd party with expertise in this subject matter to evaluate the pilot project and submit the evaluation to the Legislature no later than 2 years after the pilot program is implemented. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2012. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Open education resources are learning materials or resources whose copyrights have expired, or that have been released with an intellectual property license that permits their free use or repurposing by others without the permission of the original authors or creators. Open education resources include items such as courses, course materials, textbooks, streaming video of classroom lectures, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to transmit knowledge that have an impact on teaching and learning. (b) Community colleges need to take greater advantage of open education resources, especially for basic skills and general education classes, such as algebra, that use course content that remains generally unchanged over time. SEC. 2. Article 2 (commencing with Section 78910) is added to Chapter 7 of Part 48 of Division 7 of Title 3 of the Education Code, to read: Article 2. Open Education Resources Centers 78910. (a) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges is authorized to establish a competitive grant pilot program to provide faculty and staff from community college districts around the state with the information methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resources centers. The board of governors may fund the program using revenue identified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 8880.4 of the Government Code. (b) For purposes of this article, "open education resources" are learning materials or resources, including, but not necessarily limited to, books, course materials, video materials, tests, or software, the copyrights of which have expired, or have been released with an intellectual property license that permits their free use or repurposing by others without the permission of the original authors or creators of the learning materials or resources. (c) The pilot program grant recipient shall be selected based upon a demonstration of its ability to accomplish all of the following: (1) Develop and implement a model for the creation of open education resources (OER) course content that is pedagogically sound and fully accessible, in compliance with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (Public Law 101-336), by students with varying learning styles and disabilities. (2) Develop community college model OER courses and instructional materials that meet the requirements of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or of basic skills education courses in English, English as a second language, or mathematics, or that meet the requirements of both the IGETC and the basic skills education courses. (3) Develop a community college professional development course that introduces faculty, staff, and college course developers to the concept, creation, content, and production methodologies that enable OER to be offered to students in community college classes, including, but not necessarily limited to, all of the following: (A) Substitutes for textbooks. (B) Addressing issues relating to copyright, the obtaining of permission for use of material, and other intellectual property concepts. (C) Accessibility for students with disabilities. (D) Delivery options that incorporate multiple learning styles and strategies. (4) Create an OER information repository to serve as the single point of contact for information about community college OER, the public domain, OER courses and course materials, research and production processes, and professional resources for creating and repurposing OER. (d) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges shall contract with an independent third party with expertise in this subject matter to evaluate the project. The evaluation shall include, but not be limited to, an assessment of the number of faculty and students that use OER in their classes, the quality of their experiences compared to traditional courses, the grades earned, and the cost, comparing OER and non-OER course materials. The board of governors may require additional information that it determines to be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness and viability of OER for use by community colleges statewide. This evaluation shall be submitted to the Legislature no later than two years after the pilot program is implemented. 78910.5. This article shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2012, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2012 deletes or extends that date.