Rich Fiscus
14 Dec 2011 5:15
New legislation being proposed in California could substantially change the cost of providing textbooks to college students.
The bill would mandate the creation of new textbooks to be offered for 50 different undergraduate courses. Electronic versions of the textbooks readable on computers and mobile devices would be available for no charge, with print versions costing around $20.
The textbooks would all be published under a Creative Commons license.
"There's a clarion call from students and middle class families to make higher education more accessible and affordable," said California Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg. "Open source digital textbooks can bring real relief of nearly $1,000 a year to each college student."
Dr. Larry Green, Lake Tahoe Community College professor already uses a free textbook in some of his classes. He said of his experiences with it:
Choosing to adopt the open digital textbook for my students spares them thousands of dollars in textbook expenses, and the book's academic quality is comparable, if not better, than the pricey versions offered by publishers.