Code Section

66409.  

(a) The California Open Education Resources Council is hereby established. The council shall be composed of faculty leaders from the three segments of public postsecondary education, and shall be administered by the Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, or a successor group.

(b) The council shall have nine members: three members shall be faculty of the University of California, selected by the Academic Senate, University of California; three members shall be faculty of the California State University, selected by the Academic Senate of the California State University; and three members shall be community college faculty, selected by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. Appointments to the council shall be made no later than 90 days after the act that adds this section becomes operative.

(c) The council shall be responsible for accomplishing all of the following:

(1) (A) Development of a list of 50 strategically selected lower division courses in the public postsecondary segments for which high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials shall be developed or acquired pursuant to this section.

(B) In developing the course list pursuant to this paragraph, the council shall consider the extent to which the selected courses:

(i) Are among the most highly enrolled courses at each of the three segments.

(ii) Are likely to generate significant saving in textbook costs for students.

(iii) Demonstrate relative consistency in content across existing textbook products.

(iv) Provide opportunities for faculty to augment the open textbook with free faculty-authored materials or other free open education materials from existing digital libraries and collections.

(v) Are conducive to discipline-based pedagogies that can be enhanced with digital resources and interactivity to support improved student learning success.

(2) Creation and administration of a standardized, rigorous review and approval process for open source textbooks and related materials developed or acquired pursuant to this section. This process shall ensure that all open source textbooks and related materials developed or acquired pursuant to this section have been tested and validated as having met accessibility requirements for students with disabilities before approval and release. The textbooks and other materials shall include documentation for students with disabilities that describes available accessibility features.

(3) Promotion of strategies for production, access, and use of open source materials.

(4) Regularly soliciting and considering, from each of the respective statewide student associations of the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges, advice and guidance on open source education textbooks and related materials. It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this paragraph that the council actively solicit and consider student perspectives related to open source education textbooks and related materials on matters such as format, accessibility, and usability.

(d) The council shall establish a competitive request for proposal process in which faculty members, publishers, and other interested parties may apply for funds to produce the 50 high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks and related materials in 2013. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to limit or restrict the council from developing or acquiring, either for a charge or for free, existing high-quality digital open source textbooks and related materials that otherwise meet the specifications of this section.

(e) The council shall submit a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the progress of the implementation of this section no later than six months after the act that adds this section becomes operative, and submit a final report by January 1, 2016.

(f) The textbooks and other materials produced pursuant to this section shall comply with all of the following requirements:

(1) The textbooks and other materials are 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.

(2) The textbooks and other materials are modular in order to allow easy customization, and are encoded in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format, or other appropriate successor format, and are designed and delivered to achieve interoperability enabling the materials to be made available reliably and successfully on the widest possible range of platforms, such as the Internet, tablets, smartphones, print, or other platforms.

(3) The textbooks and other materials conform to the most current, ratified standards under Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. Sec. 794d), as amended, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium for accessibility. The textbooks and other materials shall be furnished to colleges and universities for distribution to students with print disabilities in accordance with the requirements of Section 67302 or 67302.5, as applicable.

(4) The textbooks and other materials are submitted to, and housed within, the California Open Source Digital Library, when and if that library is established pursuant to statute.