Whereas, Resolution 13.01 F17 Recognition of Course Sections with Low-Cost Course Material Options established that the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourages colleges to implement a mechanism for identifying course sections that employ low-cost course materials and supports efforts to increase student access to high-quality open educational resources and to reduce the cost of course materials and supplies for students in course sections for which open educational resources may not be available to accomplish zero cost for students;
Whereas, Resolution 17.05 F22 Adopt Student Senate for California Community Colleges Low-Cost Recommendation encourages local academic senates to adopt $30 or less as their locally established cost threshold that must not be exceeded for a course to be considered low-cost for designating and reporting purposes;
Whereas, XB12, the instructional-material-cost section level data element, was added to the California Community Colleges Management Information System Data Element Dictionary for implementation in summer 2022 and requires colleges to code course sections that have “low instructional material costs (as defined locally)” [1]; and
Whereas, Local academic senates have sought guidance regarding what parameters should be used to determine the cost used when deciding whether a given course section is below the locally established low-cost threshold;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Colleges recommend that local low-cost course material definitions specify that the price point be based on the costs of textbooks and supplemental materials—e.g., homework systems—at or through the college bookstore that are available to all students; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Colleges recommend that local low-cost course material definitions specify that the price point be based on the costs of textbooks and supplemental materials that students will own or have access to permanently.
M/S/C
1. California Community Colleges Management Information System Data Element Dictionary: https://webdata.cccco.edu/ded/xb/xb12.pdf