Time for BC to legislate open textbooks?

California makes the big leap – first to establish open textbook legislation for higher education.

This looks like great news for students and instructors. California is establishing a fund to create a digital collection of open textbooks.

The main highlights of the California open textbook program include:

  • Free access to textbooks in the most highly enrolled first and second year courses
  • Government funding to create a library of free textbooks for students and faculty
  • Open, to ensure faculty can utilize their skills to remix, revise and repurpose these textbooks for their students
  • Courses and textbooks will be overseen by the establishment of the “California Open Education Resources Council” (COERC)
  • California Open Source Digital Library to house the open source textbooks and courseware.
  • Competitive “Request for Proposals” (RFP) process for faculty, publishers, and others to develop open digital textbooks and related courseware.
  • Creative Commons licensing structure
  • All materials to be reviewed for quality

B.C. needs to be next to do something similar that builds on our own SOL*R and OPDF.