BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
2011-12 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1052
AUTHOR: Steinberg
INTRODUCED: February 8, 2012
FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: April 11, 2012
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Beth Graybill
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: California Open Education
Resources
Council.
SUMMARY
This bill establishes the California Open Education Resources
Council for the purpose of reducing textbook costs for the 50
most widely taken lower division courses.
BACKGROUND
Current law requires, by January 1, 2020, publishers of
textbooks used at the University of California (UC), the
California State University (CSU), the California Community
Colleges (CCC), or private postsecondary educational
institutions, to the extent practicable, to make textbooks
available in whole or in part for sale in an electronic format
and requires the electronic format to contain the same content
as the printed version. (Education Code § 66410)
Current law, the College Textbook Transparency Act, requires
faculty members and academic departments at an institution of
higher education to consider cost in the adoption of textbooks,
and requires textbook publishers to disclose specified
information. (EC § 66406.7)
Current law requires the Trustees of the CSU and the Board of
Governors of the CCC, and requests the UC Regents to work with
the academic senates to encourage faculty to give consideration
to the least costly practices in assigning textbooks, to
encourage faculty to disclose to students how new editions of
textbooks are different from previous editions and the cost to
students for textbooks selected, among other things. Current
law also urges textbook publishers to provide information to
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faculty when they are considering what textbooks to order, and
to post information on the publishers' Web sites, including "an
explanation of how the newest edition is different from previous
editions." Publishers are also asked to disclose to faculty the
length of time they intend to produce the current edition and
provide faculty free copies of each textbook selected. (EC §
66406)
ANALYSIS
This bill :
1) Establishes the California Open Education Resources Council
(Council) with the following membership:
a) Three faculty selected by the academic senate of
the UC.
b) Three faculty selected by the academic senate of
the CSU.
c) Three faculty selected by the academic senate of
the CCC.
2) Requires the Council to do all of the following:
a) Develop a list of the 50 most widely taken lower
division courses in the public postsecondary education
segments.
b) Create and administer a standardized, rigorous
review and approval process for open source materials
developed pursuant to this legislation.
c) Promote strategies for the production, access,
and use of open source materials.
d) Require publishers of textbooks used in the 50
most widely taken lower division courses to, as a
condition of the purchase of textbooks, to provide the
campus with at least three copies of the textbook at
no cost, for placement on reserve at the campus
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library.
3) Requires the Council to establish a competitive bid process
in which faculty members, publishers, and other interested
parties may apply for funds to produce 50 high-quality
affordable, digital open source textbooks and related
materials in 2013.
4) Requires textbooks and other materials produced to be:
a) Placed under a creative commons attribution
license that allows others to use, distribute, and
create derivative works based upon the digital
material while still allowing the authors or creators
to receive credit for their efforts.
b) Modular in order to allow easy customization and
be encoded in an Extensible Markup Language (XML)
format or other successor format, so that the
materials can be made available on a wide range of
platforms.
c) Submitted to and housed within the California
Open Source Digital Library when and if that library
is established pursuant to statute.
5) Expresses legislative findings and declarations relating to
the cost of college and university textbooks.
STAFF COMMENTS
1) Need for the bill : According to the author, the cost of
textbooks represents a significant burden to students and
families. The author sites a recent report by the CSU
Chancellor's office that estimates CSU students pay
approximately $1,000 per year for textbooks. The author
also notes a finding by the Academic Senate of the CCC that
the cost of educational materials has become a "visible
barrier to college attendance for many students." The
author maintains that the old model of rigid, printed
textbooks and related materials can fall short in providing
flexible and dynamic teaching tools necessary to maximize
student success. This bill attempts to address those costs
for the 50 most common lower division courses by requiring
the availability of textbooks for those courses to be
available on reserve at the campus library and by enabling
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instructional materials for those courses to be available
through Open Education Resources (OER).
2) What are Open Education Resources ? Open Education
Resources (OER) are educational materials such as
textbooks, research articles, videos, assessments, or
simulations that are either licensed under an open
copyright license or are in the public domain. OERs
provide no-cost access and no-cost permission to revise,
reuse, remix, or redistribute the materials. According to
a policy brief by the Center for American Progress and
EDUCAUSE, digital OERs offer many advantages over
traditional textbooks: they allow students and faculty to
access textbooks and related materials for free online or
purchase hardcopies that are more affordable than
traditional textbooks; they enable faculty to customize
learning materials to suit their course objectives; and
they can provide students with a more flexible set of tools
that can contribute to a richer learning experience.
3) Practical matters . As written, this bill establishes the
Council and prescribes its membership but does not specify
an entity responsible for convening the Council or
providing for its administrative support. Further, the
current version of the bill does not specify a timeframe
for the Council to accomplish the required deliverables.
Recognizing that the cost of textbooks has increased for
students of private institutions, should the council also
include faculty representing the independent colleges and
universities?
4) Fiscal issues . This bill requires the Council to establish
a competitive request-for-proposal process for awarding
funds to enable the production of open source textbooks and
materials that could be used in the 50 most widely taken
lower division courses. This bill does not however,
identify the source of funds or specify how large grant
awards would be. This bill also finds that through a $25
million state-led strategic investment in OER, California
can offer students in the 50 most widely taken lower
division courses the highest quality textbooks and related
materials for free online or for about $20 per hardcopy.
The bill does not specify the source of the $25 million
investment or the process by which the funds would be made
available. Finally, it is unclear what resources would be
available to support faculty participating on the Council.
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Is it the author's expectation participation would be
funded by each segment?
5) Unintended effects ? California has 145 public
postsecondary education campuses between the UC, CSU, and
CCC systems. Many of these campuses have off-campus
centers that have small libraries and bookstores that
support instruction. This bill requires publishers of
textbooks used in any of the 50 most widely taken lower
division courses to provide at least three copies of each
textbook for placement on library reserve at each campus
where the textbook would be used. Is three the right
number? A very small off-campus center may only have 30
students enrolled in one freshman English course, while a
very large campus might offer multiple sections, taught by
faculty who might each select different textbooks. Since
instructors often require more than one book for a class,
this bill could result in a significant increase in the
number of books on reserve at any one library, particularly
community college libraries. The space and staffing
capacity to manage a larger reserve collection is unknown.
Although the author's intent is to enable students to have
a no-cost alternative to buying an expensive textbook, the
publishers' cost of providing the gratis books would likely
be passed on to students who actually purchase the
textbooks.
6) Related and prior legislation . This measure is a companion
bill to SB 1053 (Steinberg), also scheduled to be heard in
this Committee on April 11, 2012. SB 1053 would establish
the California Digital Open Source Library, to be jointly
administered by the UC, CSU, and the CCC for the purpose of
housing open source materials. SB 1053 becomes operative
only if SB 1052 is enacted and establishes the California
Open Education Resources Council.
SB 48 (Alquist, Chapter 161, 2009) requires any individual firm,
partnership, or corporation that offers textbooks for sale
at the UC, CSU, the CCC, or a private postsecondary
education institution in California, to the extent
practicable, make them available for sale in electronic
format by January 1, 2020. This bill was passed by this
Committee on an 8-0 vote.
AB 1548 (Solorio, Chapter 574, 2007) established the College
Textbook Transparency Act requiring the disclosure of
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specified information and requiring faculty to follow
specified practices in the sale and purchase of textbooks.
This bill was passed by this Committee on a 9-0 vote.
SUPPORT
California Community Colleges Board of Governors
California Teachers Association
Campaign for College Opportunity
Student Senate for California Community Colleges
OPPOSITION
None received.