BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3652

By: Turner, Chris

Higher Education

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

It has been suggested that open educational resources are gaining in popularity due to increasing costs for textbooks. There are concerns that these resources are often decentralized, making it hard for some universities to gain information or access. H.B. 3652 seeks to make these valuable resources more available to individual institutions of higher education, to students, and to others who may benefit from accessing them.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 3652 amends the Education Code to require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to contract with a high-quality open educational resource repository to develop and maintain a web portal customized to meet the needs of individual institutions of higher education, students, and others who may benefit from access to open educational resources and to set out related requirements. The bill requires resources developed with state funds to be made available under a Creative Commons license and submitted for use through the portal. The bill authorizes a publisher to submit instructional materials for inclusion in a repository available through the portal and the coordinating board to request the assistance of the Learning Technology Advisory Committee to establish, maintain, and market the web portal. The bill requires the coordinating board to develop the web portal not later than September 1, 2020.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2019.