Section 66409 Of Chapter 6. Academic Materials From California Education Code >> Division 5. >> Title 3. >> Part 40. >> Chapter 6.
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.