The CSU, CCC, and UC systems have been collaborating on initiatives to reduce the cost of course materials for California students. Since 2012, funding through California legislation and large grants has supported various activities in supporting the adoption by faculty of zero cost course materials. These three higher education systems continue to work together by sharing zero-cost course materials, organizing events to share successful strategies, and cataloging the majority of zero-cost course materials for easy access by faculty.
On January 1, 2013, California legislation was enacted which directed the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California State University (CSU), and the University of California (UC) Intersegmental Council of Academic Senates This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. (ICAS) to establish the California Open Education Resource Council (CAOER Council) through Senate Bill (SB) 1052 This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. and directed the CSU to establish the California Digital Open Source Library (CDOSL), also known as COO4Ed, through SB 1053.
The California Legislature SB 1053 called for the creation of the California Digital Open Source Library (CDOSL), also known as COO4Ed, by the CSU. The COOL4Ed website was designed to leverage its existing online open library of OER – MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (www.merlot.org and its Affordable Learning Solutions initiative (als.csuprojects.org).
Collaboration on the open digital library services has been a part of our 3 higher education systems. The CCC and the CSU have long term, sustained policies and business practices for articulating courses across campuses within our two systems. CSU Affordable Learning Solutions has worked with OER projects in the UC over the years including NEEDS/Engineering Pathway of the NSDL (National Science Digital Library) at UC Berkeley, an OER teaching commons for the College of Nursing at UCLA, and recently the Open Chemistry Project at UCI.
The grants awarded to the California State University Office of the Chancellor were responsible for the implementation of the California Digital Open Source Library (CDOSL), which continues to be improved so faculty can easily find, adopt, utilize, and/or modify OER course materials for little or no cost. The COOL4Ed website is the first library service of the CDOSL, and we anticipate that additional websites will be designed for specific purposes and different stakeholders. No language in the legislation shall be construed as mandating faculty to use any particular textbook or related materials.
The COOL4Ed provides:
- A collection of Course Materials Showcases where faculty, staff, and students can find free and open educational resources aligned with 52 CID courses.
- Over 200 teaching ePortfolios of faculty using free and open eTextbooks/OER in their CCC, CSU, and UC courses.
- Comprehensive accessibility evaluations for every eTextbook in the Course Showcase conducted by the CSULB Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility. Easy-to-use handbooks for conducting your own accessibility evaluations are also provided.
- Easy discovery of almost 5,000 free and open eTextbooks within a collection of over 70,000 free and open educational resources.
- Explore methods for reviving classic or well regarded, out-of-print textbooks in digital, open source formats.
Per CA Education Code This link will take you to an external website in a new tab., COOL4Ed has been designated the library for the community college Zero Textbook Cost Degree (ZTC) program This link will take you to an external website in a new tab. initiated by the CA legislature. The CSU continues to collaborate with the CCCs to support the implementation of their ZTC-created Open Educational Resources (OER) into COOL4Ed.org.
Since 2020, the three systems have been collaborating on a virtual joint conference on topics such as how we are engaging students in OER, advocating for OER, the sustainability of OER and demonstrating the impact and efficacy of open pedagogy. For more conference information This link will take you to an external website in a new tab..
