“I Know I’ll Be A Law Someday”: OER and Textbook Affordability Legislation in the United States
Contributed by OER & Beyond co-editors Sabrina Davis and Denis Shannon
As the use and knowledge of Open Educational Resources (OER) has grown in the United States, so too has the need, or desire, for states to pass legislation related to the use of OER within higher education. One of the most common types of legislation that has been passed relates to the requirement that institutions provide a list of courses that use OER so that students can view those lists when registering for courses. This process is commonly referred to as “OER course markings.” Denis (OER & Beyond co-editor), recently saw this article that highlights a tool being used by the University of Texas at El Paso to provide their students with their list of courses using OER and shared it with Sabrina (the other OER & Beyond co-editor). After reading this article, we both thought that we would highlight the states that have legislation requiring the use of OER course markings, as well as other legislation in those states that relate to textbook affordability. Below, we have provided links and brief descriptions for each state’s legislation.
This legislation is one of the oldest and was passed in 2016. It mandates that all community colleges, California State University, and all University of California campuses “clearly highlight…the courses that exclusively use digital course materials that are free of charge to students and may have a low-cost option for print.” These digital course materials can include OER, library-licensed materials, and other appropriately licensed materials.
This bill, also known as the Textbook Transparency Act of 2020 requires members of the University of Maryland system to “clearly and conspicuously show students” which courses use “free or low-cost digital materials” and/or low-cost print materials. This law also stipulates that if digital materials are used, the materials must be accessible to those with disabilities. The bill stipulates that this information must be provided to students in the course catalog, so information about course material costs can be considered when registering for courses.
HB 2919 was passed in 2021 and it mandates that all public higher education institutions should “prominently display” or give a link to a website that displays the estimated costs of all required course materials and related course fees.
Passed in 2020, HB 2213 mandates that all community and public institutions establish a textbook affordability plan. The requirements for these textbook affordability plans can be found within the legislation. This type of legislation seems to be unique to Oregon.
SB 810 was passed in 2017. Not only does this legislation provide a definition of open educational resources for educators in the state to use, but it also mandates that higher education institutions post a list of required course materials, including OER, within the institution’s course schedule. This information also has to be made available to the institution’s bookstore.
HB 1027 was passed in 2021. This law builds on TX SB 810 by reinstating that higher education institutions are required to post a list of required course materials to an institution’s course schedule but adds that public institutions must provide transparency on how the publisher or course material provider collects and uses student data. Institutions also have to provide information for students on how to opt-out of an inclusive access type of program. The level of transparency required in this legislation appears to be unique to Texas.
This piece of legislation, passed in 2019 in Virginia is an amendment of the Code of Virginia and doesn’t have a succinct name like some other pieces of legislation, but functions similarly. It stipulates that the course catalog or registration portal of each public institution of higher education in the state must be updated to clearly identify courses where no or low-cost materials are used as soon as the information is available. Interestingly, unlike some other regulations, this one specifically mentions that this should be done by, “the registrar or another appropriate employee.”
Washington first introduced HB 1375 in January 2017 and passed it later the same year. This legislation calls for all community and technical colleges to post the cost associated with the textbook and other materials for each course, and whether the course uses Open Educational Resources. The legislature calls for a list of each course that provides this information to students, and what percent of total classes this equaled on a biennial basis. HB 1119 applies a similar approach to the State’s four-year institutions but adds additional requirements that university-affiliated bookstores offer multiple purchase options for course materials, promote buyback programs for materials, and provide information on the retail costs of course materials to faculty as well as students. HB 1119 also calls for faculty to strive for the lowest-cost option for course materials and encourages collaboration with librarians if faculty have difficulty identifying appropriate Open materials.
This legislation is one of the most recent and it was passed in 2022. This law states that “each governing board shall establish…continue an educational materials affordability committee consisting of faculty, students, administrators, and bookstore representatives.” One of the things that this committee is called to do is to encourage and incentivize the use of “open resource materials.” Like other state legislations, this legislation also asks that institutions provide a list of courses that use OER to the students.
First introduced in January 2022 in the Alaska Legislature, SB 146, or the Textbook Cost Transparency Act, serves as the name indicates, to provide transparency related to the cost of course materials for public institutions in the State of Alaska. Specifically, it requires a list of course materials, specifying which, if any are zero or low-cost materials, and any “automatic fee” charged or required for course materials when the student registers for the course to be posted in the course catalog. It also requires that users be able to sort or search the course catalog by courses that only require free or low-cost materials. This bill has not been finalized yet and is currently working its way through the legislature. The SPARC State Policy tracker is a great way to keep track of this, and other Open-related legislation in the United States.
So far, seven states (soon to be eight, including Alaska) have created legislation to promote OER directly in their course catalogs. Some, like Oregon, also stipulate that whenever possible, cost information for textbooks and course materials should be included as well. Given the trajectory of the cost of higher education over the past decade, providing students with as much information as possible about the amount of money they are committing to when registering for classes is a much-needed improvement. Ideally, the next few years will bring additional states on board with this type of legislation. We will be watching the SPARC State Policy Tracker to see how things unfold!
This post is by Sabrina Davis and Denis Shannon and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.
