The 2016-17 Budget: Assessing the Governor’s Zero-Textbook-Cost Proposal

The 2016-17 Budget: Assessing the Governor’s Zero-Textbook-Cost Proposal MAC TAYLOR • L E G I S L A T I V E A N A L Y S T • MARCH 14, 2016 Summary Governor Proposes $5 Million (One Time) for Creating “Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees” at the California Community Colleges (CCC). Zero-textbook-cost degrees allow students to complete a degree entirely by taking courses that use only free instructional materials, called open educational resources (OER). Under the Governor’s proposal, community colleges would compete for grants up to $500,000 each to offer a zero-textbook-cost associate degree, certificate, or credential program. The CCC Chancellor’s Office could use up to 5 percent for program administration and technical assistance. Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees at CCC a Reasonable Next Step. The state already has funded efforts to select, compile, and make available free, open textbooks for 50 high-enrollment courses that are common to the three public higher education segments. In addition, the state has funded an incentive grant program to encourage faculty to adopt these textbooks and other OER for individual courses. We believe developing OER degree pathways at the community colleges is a reasonable next step. In designing an OER degree initiative, we encourage the Legislature to draw on lessons learned from other states. Most notably, earlier efforts have found that intensive professional development and technical assistance are essential both to facilitate short-term success (such as creating an initial OER degree) and help campuses build internal capacity to continue expanding OER use long term. Recommend Modifying Governor’s Proposal in Several Ways. Most notably, we recommend modifying the proposal by: (1) enhancing technical assistance to help CCC campuses build capacity for continuing to expand use of OER; (2) reducing grant amounts from $500,000 per degree to no more than $100,000 per degree; and (3) prioritizing the use of existing OER, which are broadly available in most subjects, over the creation of new OER. 2016-17 BUDGET INTRODUCTION Textbook affordability has been a longstanding “zero-textbook-cost degrees.” These are degree concern for the Legislature. In 2008, the pathways that students can complete entirely by Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested taking courses that use only free instructional the California State Auditor to report on the materials (called open educational resources [OER]) affordability of college textbooks. The resulting in place of publisher-owned textbooks. report confirmed that textbook costs constitute This brief is intended to assist the Legislature a growing financial burden for students. In in reviewing the Governor’s proposal. Below, we response to the report, the Legislature has taken provide background on OER, describe California a number of actions to expand the availability of efforts to encourage their use, and highlight free digital textbooks and other free instructional zero-textbook-cost degree initiatives currently materials. The Governor’s 2016-17 budget builds underway in other states. We then describe the on these efforts by including $5 million in Governor’s proposal and provide our associated one-time Proposition 98 funds for the California assessment and recommendations. Community Colleges (CCC) to spur creation of BACKGROUND Open Educational Resources These include many historical works (such as Shakespeare’s plays) and certain government OER Defined. OER are teaching, learning, and publications. research resources that educators and others can Benefits of OER Adoption. The use of free freely use and repurpose. These resources range materials in place of textbooks sold by publishers from course readings, modules, and tests, to full (1) reduces students’ costs of attendance, textbooks and courses to videos and software. (2) increases access to instructional materials, and In legal terms, OER differ from traditionally (3) can improve teaching effectiveness and efficiency. copyrighted textbooks and other instructional We discuss these benefits in more detail below. materials to which authors or publishers retain all Reduces Students’ Costs of Attendance. rights (such as the right to reproduce, distribute, The cost of books and other course materials are display, and make adaptations). Instead, OER notable for virtually all college students. Based authors can choose to retain only certain rights on data from bookstores at all types of higher (such as the right to receive acknowledgment or education institutions, the National Association of “attribution”) under an open copyright license. College Stores recently reported average 2014-15 Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization, textbook spending of $563 across all students has created a set of standardized open copyright and $1,019 (nearly twice the overall average) for licenses that authors may use to specify the first-year students. The amounts are higher for first- allowable uses of their work. Another category generation students, who spend about 10 percent of OER involves resources in the public domain, more than other students even as they acquire which are works whose intellectual property rights fewer textbooks. These students are less likely to have expired, been forfeited, or are inapplicable. 2 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov 2016-17 BUDGET use lower-cost options such as online editions and Drawbacks of Using OER. Though OER textbook rentals. can have the above benefits, they also can have Increases Access to Instructional Materials. shortcomings. Finding and selecting OER can Information about students’ average spending on be time consuming. In addition, faculty are textbooks does not fully describe the impact of accustomed to relying on publishers to verify the textbook costs on students. A 2012 survey with quality and accuracy of textbooks, provide periodic more than 20,000 respondents from 33 Florida revisions, and handle any copyright licensing colleges and universities published by the Florida for included content. Using OER shifts these Virtual Campus showed that, because of textbook responsibilities to faculty and their institutions. costs: OER Availability • Nearly half (49 percent) of students had at Many Organizations Provide Access to OER. some time in their academic careers taken Numerous individual institutions, state higher fewer courses. education systems, consortia of institutions, and • Nearly as many (45 percent) had not nonprofit organizations provide online OER registered for a specific course, and a repositories and search tools. Figure 1 (see next similar share had dropped or withdrawn page) highlights some of the most well-known of from a course. these efforts. All provide public access to OER, but they differ in several ways. Some, such as the • More than 60 percent of respondents had Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning not purchased a required textbook for and Online Teaching (MERLOT) project led by a course, and half said they had earned California State University (CSU), include a vast a poor or failing grade because of their array of resources across a variety of disciplines inability to afford the textbook. and educational levels contributed by authors from Using free course materials addresses these adverse across the globe. Others, such as Rice University’s impacts of textbook costs. OpenStax College and Carnegie Mellon Can Improve Teaching Effectiveness and University’s Open Learning Initiative, include a Efficiency. The process of adopting OER for a small number of materials carefully developed for course often involves “stripping down” the course common undergraduate courses. Other efforts to its desired learning outcomes and building it focus on certain subject areas, such as career back up by identifying teaching approaches and technical education, or are targeted to certain types instructional materials to help students achieve of institutions, such as community and technical each desired outcome. This is a very deliberate, colleges. targeted course design process that many experts Plenty of OER in Most Disciplines. believe improves the effectiveness of a course. In Increasingly, experts note that sufficient openly contrast, faculty members using a textbook often licensed, high-quality course material exists must adapt their teaching methods and course for common college majors such as business content to the available textbook material or add administration, social sciences, general or natural supplemental material that is directly relevant to science, and computer science, as well as general the course’s learning outcomes. www.lao.ca.gov Legislative Analyst’s Office 3 2016-17 BUDGET education courses. Experts believe additional OER OER Usage development is needed in a few areas, such as Across Nation, OER Usage Low but criminal justice, nursing, and social work. OER Viewed Positively. In a 2014 survey of a Figure 1 Many Organizations Across the Country Provide Access to OER OpenStax College Nonprofit organization publishing open textbooks for 20 gateway college courses (including (Rice University) biology, chemistry, macro- and micro-economics, sociology, United States history, and anatomy and physiology). Developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure readability, accuracy, and compatibility with course scope and sequence requirements. Open Learning Initiative Initiative publishing high-quality, research-based, classroom-tested online courses and materials. (Carnegie Mellon University) Currently offers educators free access to 27 complete courses they can adopt and adapt for their needs. Is working on several more with a focus on introductory community college courses. Open SUNY Textbooks Initiative that publishes high-quality, cost-effective course resources. Engages faculty as authors and (State University of New York peer-reviewers and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure. Initial pilot published 15 open Libraries) textbooks, with 12 more in development. Candela Courses Catalog of more than 60 OER college courses in high-demand subjects. Made available as a public Lumen Learning service by firm providing technical assistance for several system and state OER initiatives. Open Course Library Initiative offers collections of course materials that are free or cost no more than $30 for system’s (WSBCTC) 81 highest enrolled courses. Free Education Initiative Nonprofit foundation and associated Saylor Academy provide more than 100 open textbooks in (Saylor Foundation) common subject areas and dozens of open online courses that educators can mine for materials for their own courses. B.C. Open Textbook Project Curated collection of more than 100 open textbooks for the top 40 college subject areas in British (British Columbia Ministry of Columbia. Many of the textbooks have been reviewed and vetted by postsecondary faculty. Advanced Education) College Open Textbooks Collaboration of 29 educational nonprofit and for-profit organizations affiliated with more than Collaborative 200 colleges aiming to increase awareness and adoption of OER. Provides a repository of more than 100 peer-reviewed open textbooks and is in process of reviewing 250 more. MERLOT Online learning community created in 1997 by CSU that offers free access to more than 60,000 peer- (CSU) reviewed online teaching and learning materials across a wide range of disciplines. OER Commons Large database providing a single point of access from which educators and students can efficiently (ISKME) search, browse, and evaluate resources in project’s growing collection of links to high-quality OER. Includes more than 3,700 full courses. Community College Consortium of more than 250 community and technical colleges representing individual, regional, and Consortium for OER statewide members in 17 North American states and provinces. Provides links to OER materials (in existing databases such as OER Commons) that are suitable for community college courses. Skills Commons Repository of free and open learning materials developed under a federal workforce training grant for (Managed by CSU for federal career technical education and workforce development. Includes many types of materials, including Department of Labor) course modules, online courses, and open textbooks. Open CourseWare Nonprofit global network of institutions, organizations, and individuals supporting collective Consortium development and use of OER through greater awareness, implementation support, and capacity-building. Provides access to thousands of full courses, open textbooks, and other OER. University open courseware Several universities, including Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, initiatives Stanford, The Open University, Tufts, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Michigan, and Yale post videotaped lectures and course materials, many of which are free and openly licensed. Many of these courses also include copyrighted works that are available for purchase. OER = open educational resources; WSBCTC = Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; MERLOT = Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching; and ISKME = Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education. 4 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov 2016-17 BUDGET representative national sample of higher education of an OER textbook. California faculty appeared teaching faculty, nearly two-thirds of respondents more skeptical than the national sample, however, said they had never heard of OER or knew little with respect to quality and ease of acquisition. about OER. Most who were familiar with OER, Eighty percent said that academic quality is however, had positive opinions. Among these a concern in adopting OER. Two-thirds were respondents, about 90 percent reported that OER concerned about the effort needed to find, review, are easier or comparable to use and equally or more and select materials, but 72 percent said they were likely to be up-to-date compared to traditional willing to use OER given sufficient professional materials. Three-quarters of respondents said development assistance to modify the materials and OER are of equal or better quality than traditional adjust their courses. materials. Nearly one-quarter of faculty thought Recent California Initiatives to OER were easier to find and select than textbooks, a Promote OER Use similar share thought the opposite, and more than half found both types of materials equally easy/ California Has Several Initiatives to difficult to adopt. Encourage Use of OER. To accelerate OER Somewhat Similar Findings in California. A adoption, the state has supported several initiatives recent California survey found 60 percent of public (see Figure 2). Legislation enacted in 2012 California college and university faculty members (1) created the California OER Council to identify surveyed were unaware or only vaguely aware of or create open textbooks for 50 high-enrollment OER. Only 12 percent had adopted all or a portion courses across the three public higher education Figure 2 Recent OER Initiatives in California California OER Council Chapter 621 of 2012 (SB 1052, Steinberg) established the council to develop or acquire high-quality, affordable, digital open source textbooks for 50 high-enrollment, lower-division courses that are common across the three segments. Includes three faculty members each from UC, CSU, and CCC. (The council identified 160 low-cost or free textbooks for the 50 courses and is completing the process of providing three faculty reviews for each textbook.) California Open Online Library for Education (COOL4Ed) Chapter 622 of 2012 (SB 1053, Steinberg) established the California Digital Open Source Library (now known as COOL4Ed) to house the materials identified by the California OER Council and make them available over the Internet for students, faculty, and staff to easily find, use, and modify. Statute requires that materials in the library bear a Creative Commons license that allows others to use, distribute, and create derivative works based on them, with attribution to the authors or creators. Matching Funds for Council, Library, and OER Acquisition Chapter 575 of 2012 (SB 1028, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review) appropriated to CSU $5 million from excess funds in the Governor’s Scholarship Programs to support the council, library, and OER acquisition process, contingent on securing a dollar-for-dollar private match. A portion of the funding was to support a competitive proposal process for faculty to produce the 50 open source textbooks required by Chapter 621. (To date the council has matched and received $1 million.) OER Adoption Incentive Grant Program Chapter 633 of 2015 (AB 798, Bonilla) redirected $3 million of the funding provided in Chapter 575 for an incentive grant program to be administered by the California OER Council. The program will provide up to 100 grants of up to $50,000 to provide incentives and rewards for campus, staff, and faculty efforts to expand the use of OER at CCC and CSU. (The council issued a request for proposals for these grants in February 2016.) OER = open educational resources. www.lao.ca.gov Legislative Analyst’s Office 5 2016-17 BUDGET segments, (2) established an online library for the within them have begun efforts to support and resulting materials, and (3) provided $5 million promote the use of OER in courses. The CSU’s in matching state funds to support these efforts. Affordable Learning Solutions project, for example, A goal of the legislation was for the segments provides online search tools to help faculty to collaborate on methodically reviewing and members find free and low-cost course materials selecting electronic textbooks so that instructors at and offers training and incentive grants to spur each segment could adopt them without needing to their adoption. duplicate the selection process. Zero-Textbook-Cost Degree Newest Initiative Provides $3 Million for Initiatives in Other States Adoption Incentives. Additional legislation in 2015 repurposed a portion of the funds remaining First Complete Degree Pathway Relying from the 2012 legislation for a new grant program on OER. Until recently, only individual courses to accelerate the use of OER at CSU and CCC or groups of courses within a department had by providing training and incentive funds to replaced textbooks with OER. In 2014, Tidewater campuses. The program will require campuses Community College in Virginia created an OER to provide professional development and library degree pathway (called a Z-Degree) for students and technology services for faculty interested in in business administration. (Please see the nearby adopting OER. box for information about degree pathways.) The Numerous Other OER Efforts Underway in pathway includes both general education and California. In addition to these statewide efforts, a business courses and permits a student to earn number of colleges, universities, and departments an associate degree with no textbook costs. The How Does a Zero-Textbook-Cost Degree Differ From a Traditional Degree In the Same Subject? No Difference in Degree. Two students earning associate degrees in business administration— one by taking courses that use only open educational resources and the other by taking courses that use traditional textbooks—both earn the same degree. Multiple Pathways to the Same Degree. For any degree program, a student selects which courses to take to meet the college’s course requirements. These requirements typically include a set of core courses all students majoring in a subject must take, as well as courses students may choose from to satisfy general education and elective requirements. In addition to selecting individual courses, students often must select from among several course sections, each of which may have a different instructor, class schedule, textbook, and even mode of instruction (such as in-person or online). A student’s degree pathway is the specific set of course sections the student takes to complete the college’s degree requirements. “Zero-Textbook-Cost Degree” Is Shorthand. A zero-textbook-cost degree pathway is one in which all the selected course sections use only instructional materials that are free to students. Colleges use this term to convey to students that they can earn a degree without paying textbook costs. 6 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov 2016-17 BUDGET college’s data show high student satisfaction, courses, and, as a result, all of its degrees, will have improved course completion, and significant cost zero textbook costs. Other OER degree projects savings for students. (Degree completion data are are underway at the University of Mississippi, not yet available.) the Washington State Community and Technical Next Step: Pathways at All Virginia Colleges, and the Maricopa Community College in Community Colleges. With a combination of Arizona, among others. Here in California, College state, system, and private funding, the Virginia of the Canyons is developing an associate degree for Community College System has supported three transfer in sociology that has zero textbook costs. rounds of OER grant funding for colleges. The first National Demonstration Project. Achieving round was for colleges to adopt OER for individual the Dream, a national nonprofit organization courses. The second round involved adopting series focused on improving success for community of OER courses. The current round, called “Zx23,” college students, announced a new OER degree is to develop at least one OER degree pathway at initiative in February 2016. The goal of the each of the system’s 23 colleges beginning with the initiative, funded by a consortium of national first 12 courses for each pathway in the current foundations, is to lay the groundwork for academic year (2015-16). The system is providing nationwide adoption of zero-textbook-cost degrees. grants of up to $15,000 to colleges for this purpose. Grants to community colleges and college systems Participating colleges agree to share their course will support creation of OER degree programs at materials with each other and the public. The 20 to 30 colleges. The initiative will separately fund system also is contracting with a technical a technical assistance partner to provide intensive support provider to help faculty and staff at each support to faculty and staff at participating participating college build these pathways, host colleges. The Community College Consortium for an OER course catalog in the colleges’ learning OER will lead a “community of practice” to foster management system, and evaluate the initiative’s collaboration between faculty and staff across fiscal effect and impact on student success. institutions. Additionally, a research and evaluation Other Efforts to Create OER Degree Pathways. partner will collect data on educational outcomes, The University of Maryland University College, financial sustainability of OER degrees, and an online college with more than 80,000 students, formative evaluation to improve the work of the announced in 2015 that by fall 2016 all of its colleges and future adopters. GOVERNOR’S PROPOSAL Proposes $5 Million (One Time) to Spur assistance to participating colleges. Colleges Creation of Zero-Textbook-Cost Pathways. would convene multimember teams of faculty, Under the proposal, community colleges would instructional designers, and others from within compete for grants of up to $500,000 each to the CCC to develop the degree pathways. Colleges offer an associate degree, certificate, or credential would post the resulting course and program program a student can complete entirely by taking materials in the California Open Online Library OER courses. The Chancellor could allocate up for Education, or COOL4Ed, repository and in the to 10 percent of the funds to a community college CCC’s Professional Learning Network, an online to administer the program and provide technical clearinghouse of effective practices. The Chancellor www.lao.ca.gov Legislative Analyst’s Office 7 2016-17 BUDGET would report to the Legislature and administration savings to students, and recommendations related by June 30, 2019 on the number of degrees offered, to the program. the number of students participating, the estimated ASSESSMENT Focus on OER Degree Pathways a Reasonable sufficient support. In particular, faculty did not Next Step. To date, the state has supported efforts have enough help finding and selecting materials. to compile available OER and encourage their use The volume of available OER can be overwhelming in individual courses. We believe the Governor’s and faculty typically do not have time to sort proposal to develop entire OER degree pathways through all of it and select the best materials at CCC is a reasonable next step. Large numbers for their courses. (This would be especially true of students (including many low-income students) for part-time faculty, who provide nearly half of enroll at the community colleges. In addition, community college instruction in California.) In because all segments teach lower-division courses, addition, a faculty member in a particular subject OER courses developed for CCC degrees could be is not necessarily also an expert in course design, useful to CSU and University of California faculty. learning science, copyright law, or technology. Key Issues to Consider in Designing OER Providing support in these areas allows faculty to Degree Initiative. In refining this initiative, focus on the academic work of reviewing, adapting, we believe the Legislature could draw on or developing instructional materials while others lessons learned from other states. Most notably, help identify potential resources; advise on design; implementation leaders in other states have found and manage the licensing, posting, and integration that professional development and technical with the colleges’ learning management systems. assistance for faculty and support service Five Key Faculty and Institutional Support departments (such as libraries and technology Services. Figure 3 lists five specific support services offices) are vital to the success of OER initiatives. that experts recommend providing to faculty This type of support can facilitate short-term and institutions embarking on OER initiatives. success (such as creating an initial OER degree) With intensive assistance up front, faculty and and help campuses build the internal capacity to institutions are able to develop the skills and garner continue expanding OER use over the long run. the experience required to sustain the widespread Leaders also have found that collaboration across use of OER. In particular, institutions are able to faculty members results in improved quality and put in place crucial faculty support systems, such as broader adoption of OER courses developed. Below, instructional design assistance and library services we summarize these and other lessons based on our attuned to OER requirements. conversations with initiative leaders and our review Collaboration Results in Greater Impact. of reports, policies, and related documents. Historically, OER initiatives have relied on Faculty Support Services Are Vital to Success. individual faculty members or small numbers Faculty who have led OER initiatives in Virginia of faculty within a department or college to and other states emphasize the critical importance redesign courses. More recently, some initiatives of robust support services for faculty. Some early have encouraged collaboration across colleges, OER efforts in Virginia failed due to lack of for example, having math instructors from four 8 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov 2016-17 BUDGET or five colleges work together to build an OER likely resulting in costs between $3,000 and $5,000 math course. The collaborative approach leads to per course (which equates to between $60,000 improved courses (benefiting from more diverse and $100,000 for a full associate degree program). input) and makes broad adoption beyond an The Governor’s proposed funding of $500,000 individual course section or college far more likely. per degree is far higher than any of these other Modest Incentives Can Promote OER initiatives. Adoption. Given sufficient professional Faculty Should Be Able to Modify Materials. development and technical assistance, initiative In selecting materials for adoption, faculty and leaders have found that adopting OER need not instructional designers place a high value on the require extensive faculty time. Most of the OER adaptability of materials. This ability is especially initiatives we reviewed have not funded course important for connecting instructional materials to release for faculty members adopting OER. Instead, course learning objectives. To ensure faculty have programs tend to offer grants to institutions that, this flexibility, course materials selected should in turn, they may distribute at their discretion. have the type of Creative Commons license that Grant amounts range from $15,000 for developing permits educators to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and piloting the first 12 courses in Virginia’s Zx23 and redistribute content (known as the “five R initiative to $100,000 for developing and piloting permissions” of OER). At the same time, it is entire one-year or two-year programs (typically important to recognize that not all courses should 10 to 20 courses) in the national demonstration convert entirely to using only OER. Most literature project. California’s OER Adoption Incentive courses, for example, require that students read Grant authorized by Chapter 633 of 2015 (AB 798, original, traditionally copyrighted materials. (These Bonilla) will provide $1,000 per course section, materials typically are far less expensive than Figure 3 Key Support Services Underlying Successful OER Initiatives 9 Provide Training for Faculty Members, Instructional Designers, and Librarians on All Aspects of Using OER. Include information and skill-building about open licensing and finding, adopting, remixing, and creating OER. Goal of training is to build capacity at the institution to perform the faculty and support roles listed below, which are necessary for sustaining the long-term use of OER. 9 Provide Individual Help to Instructors in Finding, Selecting, and Adapting OER to Meet Course Learning Outcomes. Take instructional design approach to connect materials with outcomes. Ensure quality of OER by recommending only materials that have been thoroughly vetted by faculty and other experts. 9 Certify Materials. Ensure that new and existing materials adopted do not contain proprietary content, are properly published under an appropriate open license, and are accessible on multiple technology platforms (including tablets). 9 Make Resulting OER Publicly Available. Help instructors place materials in a repository that is easily accessible to other instructors and students and permits them to revise and reuse the material freely. 9 Provide Evaluation Data. Assess effectiveness of course materials in helping students meet learning outcomes. Provide recommendations for improving effectiveness of materials. OER = open educational resources. www.lao.ca.gov Legislative Analyst’s Office 9 2016-17 BUDGET textbooks because they are available in the mass • Faculty Proponents. Identify a core market.) group of faculty across disciplines who Plan for Replication and Sustainability. The are enthusiastic about redesigning OER initiatives we reviewed were created with courses based on desired student learning one-time grants, often from private foundations outcomes. or a combination of state and philanthropic • Professional Development for Faculty. funding. The Governor’s proposal also is for Ensure faculty have opportunities to gain one-time funding. To make the best use of these knowledge and skills in OER licensing, one-time funds, institutions and systems have attribution, and selection. tried to implement their initiatives in ways that are sustainable and can be replicated. Tidewater • Professional Development for Librarians. Community College has developed a model for its Provide opportunities for librarians to Z-Degrees with this in mind. Key components of develop expertise in OER. Librarians have the model include: a vital role in the ongoing success of OER • Organizational Commitment. Ensure efforts by providing hands-on support for leadership from faculty and support from faculty. administrators who can affect policies and • Continuous Course Improvement. Use resource allocation. Additionally, engage a teach-analyze-improve process based a broader network of stakeholders from on student assessment results aligned to student services, academic services, and course learning objectives. institutional services. RECOMMENDATIONS Several Ways Legislature Could Improve free instructional materials in their courses. We Governor’s Proposal. Below, we describe eight recommend directing the Chancellor to coordinate specific modifications we recommend the the new zero-textbook-cost degree initiative with Legislature make to the Governor’s proposal. these earlier efforts to get the most value from the These recommendations would avoid unnecessary combined initiatives. For example, the Chancellor duplication by taking advantage of existing efforts could work with the California OER Council in California and other states, result in nearly three to maximize the number of zero-textbook-cost times as many zero-textbook-cost degrees in the degree pathways a college could assemble from the next two years, and develop long-term capacity to OER courses developed under the council’s grant continue expanding the use of OER at community program and those developed under the proposed colleges. new initiative. The Legislature could request that Build on Existing State Efforts. To date, the the Chancellor submit a vision and plan for this Legislature has supported development and posting coordination prior to receiving funds. of open textbooks for 50 high-enrollment courses. Expand Technical Assistance Component. We It also has funded a grant program to help faculty recommend the Legislature amend the Governor’s at CCC and CSU use those textbooks and other proposal to include a stronger emphasis on 10 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov 2016-17 BUDGET professional development and technical assistance. design, and technology beyond what most faculty Specifically, we recommend providing as much as members possess. half the total funding to a professional development Set Time Lines. We recommend establishing a and technical assistance provider and specifying clear time line for piloting, evaluating, and offering the types of services this entity would offer to OER courses and degrees. Both the Virginia and campuses, faculty, and staff. California OER Council initiatives require piloting Reduce Grant Amounts. We recommend the developed courses within the first year of the reducing the maximum award amount for each award. The Legislature could require that colleges degree pathway to no more than $100,000 and participating in the zero-textbook-cost degree funding more degrees. At our recommended grant initiative pilot the full degree pathway over a level, CCC could fund 25 degrees with robust two-year period, with at least half of the courses technical assistance compared to only 9 degrees piloted each year. with very limited technical assistance under the Incorporate Three Other Lessons Learned. Governor’s proposal. Specifically, we recommend: (1) giving priority to Prioritize Adopting and Adapting Existing grant proposals that involve faculty collaboration Materials. Given the broad availability of existing across colleges and/or statewide; (2) requiring high-quality OER in most subject areas, we that OER identified under the initiative bear a recommend the Legislature avoid funding creation type of Creative Commons license that permits of new OER without very strong justification. modification by faculty (while recognizing that To this end, the Legislature could direct the certain courses still may use some low-cost, Chancellor to give higher priority for funding to more restrictively copyrighted materials); and colleges willing to use existing materials. New OER (3) requiring the Chancellor’s Office, working with creation is time-consuming and relatively costly. It faculty groups, to develop sustainability principles requires expertise in learning science, instructional for California’s zero-textbook-cost degree initiative. CONCLUSION The Governor’s proposal to fund the creation the Governor’s proposal that we believe would have of CCC zero-textbook-cost degrees has potential more far-reaching, long-lasting, and better impacts. to improve both affordability and student success. We believe our recommended modifications would It is not, however, best designed to promote broad better target state resources in ways that are likely and long-term impact across the CCC system and to reduce textbook costs and improve student the state’s other higher education systems. In this affordability and success for large numbers of CCC report, we have identified several modifications to students in the near future. www.lao.ca.gov Legislative Analyst’s Office 11 2016-17 BUDGET LAO Publications This brief was prepared by Judy Heiman and reviewed by Jennifer Kuhn. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) is a nonpartisan office that provides fiscal and policy information and advice to the Legislature. To request publications call (916) 445-4656. This brief and others, as well as an e-mail subscription service, are available on the LAO’s website at www.lao.ca.gov. The LAO is located at 925 L Street, Suite 1000, Sacramento, CA 95814. 12 Legislative Analyst’s Office www.lao.ca.gov