A second round of state funding from AB 798, also known as the College Textbook Affordability Act, has been a great success both at El Camino College and statewide. Funds are supporting efforts to reduce costs for college students by encouraging faculty to accelerate the adoption of zero-cost, high-quality open educational resources (OER). So far, 43 El Camino faculty members campuswide reported success in replacing their textbooks with digital open educational resources. Nearly 95 ECC class sections have used OER, with 2,875 students benefiting from these affordable learning materials. In just one year, it is estimated that El Camino students saved more than $412,000 with OER.
As the cost of traditional textbooks rise, more faculty nationwide are turning to open educational resources. Providing access to digital textbooks and learning materials that reside in the public domain or are available under an intellectual property license, such as the Creative Commons license, allows them to be freely used, customized and shared. Free and low-cost (typically considered to be less than $40-$50 per course) educational resources can help remove a significant barrier to education that many students face, as well as open new opportunities for innovative teaching and learning. The ability to pay for books and other materials continues to be one of the most pressing affordability issues for college students. The OER initiative at El Camino supports student equity and success by removing obstacles for students, such as the high cost of textbooks, making a college education accessible and affordable to all who choose to enroll. For more information about El Camino's OER initiative, view: http://libguides.elcamino.edu/oer.