Citrus College Academic Senate is calculating student financial capacity and enforcing state legislation to identify courses in which materials are sold at a reduced rate with a survey this year.
The survey was emailed to the student body by Sarah Bosler and Rebecca Rudd, co-chairs of the Textbook and Instructional Materials Committee, to identify and remove institutional barriers related to textbook affordability.
The survey expires at 5 p.m. March 27
“As a librarian and Open Educational Resources advocate, I am passionate about making college accessible to all students,” Bosler wrote in an email. “Reducing or removing the cost of textbooks is one way I see that all students can be more successful at Citrus.”
OER books are encouraged for success by the Academic Senate in its Annual Purpose Statement.
The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources defines OER as “teaching, learning, and research resources under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others.”
Zero Textbook Cost is one OER option that faculty can use in classrooms. So are Creative Commons open licensing, e-book libraries purchased for student use by libraries, and public domain.
The survey serves to inform options for book purchasing. For example, all students can filter Wingspan classes that use ZTC.
Student input will be reviewed by the Associated Students of Citrus College and Academic Senate for decisions.
“The survey hopes to put a mark on what dollar amount is reasonable for students,” Bosler said in an email.
The faculty in the end picks course material. Follett Higher Education Group sets those prices bought on campus. Follett cannot control anything outside that. The Owl Bookstore offers purchase options, like renting, digital copies and low-cost.
Winners selected from the pool of survey-takers win $50 each.
Passed in 2018, Senate Bill 1359 “requires each campus of the California Community Colleges to identify … courses that exclusively use digital course materials, as specified, and communicate to students that the course materials for these courses are free of charge…”
