The grant is an outcome of the passage of AB 798, the College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015, which was passed “to reduce costs for college students by encouraging faculty to accelerate the adoption of lower cost, high-quality open educational resources, as defined.”  The bill is available at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB798

Subsequently, CSUEB applied for and received a grant to implement the bill.  Key points include the following:

• Faculty may use any form of existing alternative and affordable learning solutions (ALS), e.g., open educational resources (OER), library resources (which are no charge to students), or other learning objects. 
• Faculty are required by the grant to reduce the total cost of their course materials by a minimum of 30% (more being better).  By grant requirements, CSUEB bookstore figures are used to calculate savings.
• Faculty may “convert” their course sections in fall, winter, or spring quarters of 2017-2018, but the conversion must be complete by spring 2019.

Each participating faculty member will receive $1,000 for:

1. participating in workshops (description under "Training" tab); and
2. researching OER resources with help from mentors, librarians, and staff, as needed; learning about re-mixing, re-using, or re-configuring their chosen titles for their specific classroom use; and sharing their changes/improvements on an open site and with colleagues
3. Faculty considering adopting OER will be given $100 for each workshop they attend as preparation for future years' conversions to OER.
4. Faculty will also be added to the CSUEB listserv for ALS for communication purposes.  Emails were minimal in 2016-2017, but, of course, any member may communicate through that list.
5. It is possible that faculty will be invited to provide an e-portfolio of their experience(s) with OER and ALS.

In 2016-2017, fourteen faculty joined the grant and converted close to forty sections to alternatives.  Recruitment for 2017-2018 is underway.  Contact aline.soules@csueastbay.edu 

Assistance in finding suitable alternatives is available by consulting your library liaison or the ALS Coordinator, Aline Soules.

The reporting process is primarily with the ALS Coordinator.  “Before” costs are provided by the bookstore and are the cost of all materials (new) required the previous time the course was taught (by you or another faculty member).  For “after” costs, the bookstore is consulted about any items that may be listed as “required” for that course and, if there are questions or discrepancies, the ALS Coordinator consults faculty.

If you have other questions, please email aline.soules@csueastbay.edu

The following faculty participated in the AB 798 grant in 2016-2017:

• Matthew Atencio, Kinesiology
• Lonny Brooks, Communications
• Paul Carpenter, Kinesiology
• Li-Ling Chen, Teacher Education
• Patrick Fleming, Chemistry
• Patrick Huang, Chemistry
• Sukari Ivester, Sociology
• Kevin Kaatz, History
• Robert Lin, Accounting and Finance
• Maria Ortuoste, Political Science
• Edward Pizzini, Chemistry
• Farida Stark, Public Affairs & Administration
• Shirley Yap, Mathematics
• Elizabeth (Missy) Wright, Kinesiology
• Fay Zhong, Computer Science

The following faculty participated in the AB 798 grant in 2017-2018:

• Pascale Guiton, Biological Sciences
• Nolan Higdon, Communication
• Dave Matsuda, Anthropology
• Jean Moran, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Sahar Nouredini, Nursing
• Nazzy Pakpour, Biological Sciences
• Steve Peng, Management
• Lyn Scott, Teacher Education
• Claire Valderama-Wallace, Nursing
• Shirley Yap, Mathematics