HB4924 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB101 18408 NHT 67856 b

101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
HB4924

Introduced 2/18/2020, by Rep. Grant Wehrli

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

110 ILCS 205/9.39 new
110 ILCS 805/2-27 new

Amends the Board of Higher Education Act and the Public Community College Act. Requires the governing board of each public university and community college district to annually submit to the Board of Higher Education or the Illinois Community College Board a plan to expand the use of open educational resources, open textbooks, and commercial digital learning materials in order to achieve savings for students enrolled in the institution of higher education. Requires the Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board to review the plans and report their findings and recommendations to the General Assembly. Effective June 1, 2020.

FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning education.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Board of Higher Education Act is amended by adding Section 9.39 as follows:

(110 ILCS 205/9.39 new)

Sec. 9.39. Open educational resources report.

(a) As used in this Section:

"Open copyright license" means a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable copyright license granting the public permission to access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise use a work and adaptations of the work for any purpose, conditioned only on the requirement that attribution be given to authors as designated.

"Open educational resource" means a teaching, learning, or research resource that is offered freely to users in at least one form and that either resides in the public domain or has been released under an open copyright license that allows for its free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with attribution.

"Open textbook" means an open educational resource or set of open educational resources that either is a textbook or can be used in place of a textbook for a postsecondary course at an institution of higher education.

(b) Within one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly, the Boards of Trustees of the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University, Illinois State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Northern Illinois University, and Western Illinois University, after consultation with faculty members at their universities, shall annually submit to the Board of Higher Education a plan to expand the use of open educational resources, open textbooks, and commercial digital learning materials in order to achieve savings for students enrolled in their universities. The plan may include strategies employed by the university during the previous academic year.

(c) The Board shall review the plans submitted by the Boards of Trustees to ensure that each plan has the potential to:

(1) achieve the highest level of savings for students through the sustainable and expanded use of open textbooks in courses offered by the university;

(2) produce the highest quality open textbooks that can be most easily utilized and adapted by faculty members at the university and that correspond to the highest enrollment courses at the institution;

(3) ensure that the full and complete digital content of each open textbook created or adapted in accordance with the plan is made available to students enrolled in the university:

(A) on the university's college bookstore website in an easily accessible location; and

(B) in a machine readable, digital format that a student can download;

(4) ensure that the university is making a good faith effort to provide open educational resources and open textbooks to students; and

(5) provide for the implementation of programs that reduce the cost of commercial digital learning materials.

(d) The Board shall, in consultation with the Illinois Community College Board, report its findings and recommendations concerning open educational resource programs to the General Assembly by filing electronic or paper copies of its report by December 31 of each year as provided in Section 3.1 of the General Assembly Organization Act. The first report shall be filed no later than December 31, 2021.

Section 10. The Public Community College Act is amended by adding Section 2-27 as follows:

(110 ILCS 805/2-27 new)

Sec. 2-27. Open educational resources report.

(a) As used in this Section:

"Open copyright license" means a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable copyright license granting the public permission to access, reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise use a work and adaptations of the work for any purpose, conditioned only on the requirement that attribution be given to authors as designated.

"Open educational resource" means a teaching, learning, or research resource that is offered freely to users in at least one form and that either resides in the public domain or has been released under an open copyright license that allows for its free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with attribution.

"Open textbook" means an open educational resource or set of open educational resources that either is a textbook or can be used in place of a textbook for a postsecondary course at an institution of higher education.

(b) Within one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 101st General Assembly, each board of trustees shall, after consultation with faculty members at the community college, annually submit to the State Board a plan to expand the use of open educational resources, open textbooks, and commercial digital learning materials in order to achieve savings for students enrolled in the community college. The plan may include strategies employed by the community college during the previous academic year.

(c) The State Board shall review the plans submitted by the boards of trustees to ensure that each plan has the potential to:

(1) achieve the highest level of savings for students through the sustainable and expanded use of open textbooks in courses offered by the community college;

(2) produce the highest quality open textbooks that can be most easily utilized and adapted by faculty members at the community college and that correspond to the highest enrollment courses at the institution;

(3) ensure that the full and complete digital content of each open textbook created or adapted in accordance with the plan is made available to students enrolled in the community college:

(A) on the community college's college bookstore website in an easily accessible location; and

(B) in a machine readable, digital format that a student can download;

(4) ensure that the community college is making a good faith effort to provide open educational resources and open textbooks to students; and

(5) provide for the implementation of programs that reduce the cost of commercial digital learning materials.

(d) The State Board shall, in consultation with the Board of Higher Education, report its findings and recommendations concerning open educational resource programs to the General Assembly by filing electronic or paper copies of its report by December 31 of each year as provided in Section 3.1 of the General Assembly Organization Act. The first report shall be filed no later than December 31, 2021.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect June 1, 2020.