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.