SACRAMENTO – Assemblywoman Bonilla’s bill, AB 798, which saves college students money by increasing the use of open educational resources (OER), was signed into law today by Governor Brown. This measure provides essential technology support and professional development for professors who choose to utilize and provide OER.
“Far too many of our students and families are struggling to afford college or taking on insurmountable debt due to the rising cost of higher education,” said Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord). “A significant portion of college expenses are spent on required textbooks. Open educational resources are a great solution to the rising costs, which are not only hurting students financially, but hindering their academic success when they’re being forced to get additional jobs or work extra hours to afford school.”
OER can include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, tests, software and any other tools or materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing. AB 798, which is sponsored by the California State Student Association and supported by the California State University System, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, faculty Academic Senates, and others, empowers professors and colleges to accelerate the implementation of open educational resources by creating the OER Adoption Incentive Fund (AIF). Under this legislation, if a local campus faculty Academic Senate passes a resolution to increase student access to OER, they will be eligible for an initial AIF grant to transition to the full integration of OER.
“By providing grants to individual campuses to expand the open education resources available to students, AB 798 provides much needed resources to campuses and faculty to identify, curate, and/or develop high quality OERs that offer lower cost course materials to students,” said Meredith Turner, Chief Governmental Officer, California State Student Association. “We encouraged members of the Legislature and the Governor to support AB 798 in order to help lower the extreme costs of textbooks for students.”
“Ultimately, this bill leverages existing funding to provide the critical support and technology for the development and expansion of open educational resources, which will save students billions of dollars every year,” said Bonilla.
Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla (D-Concord) was elected in November 2010 and represents California’s 14th Assembly District, which includes Contra Costa County and Solano County.
