BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1914
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Date of Hearing: April 19, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Jose Medina, Chair
AB 1914
(Bonilla) - As Amended March 17, 2016
SUBJECT: Public postsecondary education: academic materials:
textbooks: access codes.
SUMMARY: Requires the California State University (CSU)
Trustees, the California Community Colleges (CCC) Board of
Governors (BOG), and requests the University of California (UC)
Regents, to adopt policies for their respective segments
regarding when it is acceptable for faculty to require students
to purchase academic materials, including, but not limited to,
access codes. Specifically, this bill:
1)Express the intent of the Legislature that the faculty of the
public postsecondary segments be encouraged to consider free
or inexpensive options in selecting academic materials to
assign to their students.
2)Requires the CSU Trustees, CCC BOG, and requests the UC
Regents to, adopt policies for their respective segments
regarding when it is acceptable for a faculty member to
require students to purchase academic materials, including,
but not necessarily limited to, textbooks and access codes.
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3)Specifies that the policies adopted shall include, but not
necessarily be limited to, all of the following:
a) A prohibition of any requirement that students be
required to purchase any academic materials for purposes of
accessing resources that are otherwise available to these
students or for performing functions that can be otherwise
accomplished at no cost to these students on their
campuses;
b) A requirement that the total cost of academic materials
from the immediately preceding academic year be provided to
faculty members by the campus bookstore when academic
materials are being chosen for an upcoming academic term
or, if the cost of academic materials has not been
determined for the immediately preceding academic year, as
soon as is practicable; and,
c) A requirement for the provision of a summary of the
descriptors the campus bookstore may post next to the
academic materials offered for sale. The campus bookstore
shall not post "required material" next to academic
materials it offers for sale unless it has received consent
from the faculty member who assigned the material or from a
staff member of the appropriate department.
4)Defines "access code" as an identification number or password,
or both, that is used to gain access to digital content.
5)Specifies that the definition of "textbook" has the same
meaning, as defined in Section 66406.7 of the Education Code
(EC).
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6)Specifies that "function" includes, but is not necessarily
limited to, the submission of assignments, collection of
grades, and communication between faculty members and
students.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires the CSU Trustees and the CCC Board of Governors, 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 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 Section 66406).
2)Establishes the College Textbook Transparency Act, which,
among others:
a) Defines "textbook" as a book that contains printed
material and is intended for use as a source of study
material for a class or group of students, a copy of which
is expected to be available for the use of each of the
students in that class or group, specifying that "textbook"
does not include a novel;
b) Defines "adopter" as any faculty member or academic
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department or other adopting entity at an institution of
higher education responsible for considering and choosing
course materials to be used in connection with the
accredited courses taught at that institution;
c) Encourages adopters to consider cost in the adoption of
textbooks; and,
d) Requires each campus bookstore at any public
postsecondary educational institution to post in its store
or on its Internet Web site a disclosure of its retail
pricing policy on new and used textbooks (EC Section
66406.7).
3)Requires, as of January 1, 2020, any person, firm or
corporation that publishes textbooks offered for sale at the
UC, CSU, CCC, or a private college or university, to make the
textbooks available for sale in electronic format (EC Section
66410).
4)Establishes the College Textbook Affordability Act, which,
among others:
a) Encourages faculty to accelerate the adoption of lower
cost, high-quality, open educational resources in order to
reduce costs for college students;
b) Establishes the Open Educational Resources Adoption
Incentive Program ; and,
c) Defines "open educational resources" as high-quality
teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in
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the public domain or have been released under an
intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons
license, that permits their free use and repurposing by
others, and may include other resources that are legally
available and free of cost to students (EC Section 67421,
et seq.).
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Cost of instructional materials. According to the
February 2015 Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student
PIRGs) report, entitled, "Open Textbooks: The Billion-Dollar
Solution," the cost of a college degree has increased
significantly over the past decade. The report finds that, as
of 2013, seven in 10 seniors at public and private nonprofit
colleges, graduated with student loan debt; and, that as a
nation, Americans hold over $1 trillion in student loan debt.
Additionally, the report finds that, during the same time that
the cost of obtaining a college degree increased, college
textbook costs have skyrocketed. Though textbooks do not
represent the majority of costs in pursuing a college degree,
they are one of the largest out-of-pocket expenses that students
face each year. The report states that, "Since 1978, college
textbook costs have increased 812 percent. To put that in
context, it means that textbook prices have increased at 3.2
times the rate of inflation."
Citing data from the College Board, the report finds that, the
average undergraduate student should budget between $1,200 and
$1,300 for textbooks and supplies each year; which averages to
be as much as 40 percent of tuition at a two-year community
college, and 13 percent at a four-year public institution.
A 2014 Student PIRG study found that 65 percent of students
skipped buying or renting a textbook because it was too
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expensive, and 94 percent of those students felt that in so
doing, their grade would suffer in a course. Additionally,
almost half of the students said the cost of textbooks impacted
how many courses they were able to take.
Open Educational Resources (OER). 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 2012
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.
Access codes. An access code is a password needed in order to
access course content online. The content a student accesses
depends on the course, but can include things such as practice
exam questions, interactive videos, and course assignments.
Access codes are not always included with a subscription to an
electronic book. Additionally, access codes are generally tied
to specific textbooks; a student has to purchase the access code
that accompanies his or her specific textbook.
Not only are access codes an additional cost to students, access
codes are used for tasks that could be completed by platforms
already available to both professors and students on campus.
For example, access codes have been used for the submission of
assignments (without grading), storing and maintaining grades,
and for communication between faculty members and students.
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Purpose of this measure. According to the author, "An access
code is an identification number or a password that is used to
access digital content. Each student must purchase their access
code, they cannot be shared. Access codes cost students $50 to
$100 in addition to what they pay for all of the other
instructional materials required for a course." The author
contends that, the digital content protected by an access code
can truly enhance a student's learning through informal
assessments and immediate feedback. Many professors do not have
teaching assistants and the access codes can provide a method to
grade digital homework immediately without hours of additional
work for the professor.
Recognizing the academic freedom of faculty, and the need for
some oversight on how instructional materials are selected for
students, this measure tasks the CSU Trustees and CCC BOG, and
asks the UC Regents, to create specific policies as to what is
acceptable for faculty to require of students when purchasing
instructional materials, including, but not limited to,
textbooks and access codes.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
California State Student Association (sponsor)
Opposition
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California Federation of Teachers
Analysis Prepared by:Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960