No Cost Educational Resources Act
Bill: H.R.8204 | Sponsor: Rep. Foster, Bill (D-IL)
Policy area: Education

Summary:
No Cost Educational Resources Act
This bill authorizes the Institute of Museum and Library Services to award grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) for facilitating the adoption, adaption, and creation of open educational reading materials and establishing more open educational reading material courses.
Open educational reading material refers to a free digital text that is publicly available to be downloaded and redistributed.
Open educational reading material course refers to a science, technology, engineering, or math course offered by an IHE that uses only open educational reading materials as the form of the required readings for the course.

To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act to 
authorize the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services 
 to award grants to institutions of higher education for courses that 
  use only publicly available digital resources for required reading 
                  assignments, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``No Cost Educational Resources Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANTS.

    Section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act (20 U.S.C. 9162) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
                            (i) by striking ``nationwide and to'' and 
                        inserting ``nationwide, to''; and
                            (ii) by inserting ``, and to provide 
                        funding for open educational reading material 
                        courses'' after ``museums'';
                    (B) in paragraph (4)(B), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (C) in paragraph (5), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) facilitating the adoption, adaption, and creation of 
        open educational reading materials, and establishing more open 
        educational reading material courses, pursuant to subsection 
        (d).'';
            (2) in subsection (c), by striking ``The Director'' and 
        inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (d), the 
        Director''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d) Open Educational Reading Material Courses.--
            ``(1) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
                    ``(A) The term `open educational reading material' 
                means a free digital text that is publicly available to 
                be downloaded and redistributed.
                    ``(B) The term `open educational reading material 
                course' means a science, technology, engineering, or 
                math course offered by an institution of higher 
                education that uses only open educational reading 
                materials as the form of the required readings for the 
                course.
            ``(2) Application.--To receive a grant under subsection 
        (a)(6), an institution of higher education shall submit to the 
        Director an application that includes--
                    ``(A) a description of how the institution of 
                higher education--
                            ``(i) plans to facilitate the adoption, 
                        adaption, and creation of open educational 
                        reading materials by assigning leadership of 
                        the grant implementation to library 
                        administrators and librarians;
                            ``(ii) has collaborated with science, 
                        technology, engineering, and mathematics 
                        department faculty in developing the 
                        application and plans to continue to 
                        collaborate with such faculty in implementing 
                        the grant projects; and
                            ``(iii) plans to collaborate with other 
                        institutions of higher education to facilitate 
                        the wider adoption, adaption, and creation of 
                        open educational reading materials throughout 
                        the higher education community; and
                    ``(B) a plan to review the quality of the open 
                educational reading materials used at such institution 
                of higher education.
            ``(3) Priority.--In awarding grants under subsection 
        (a)(6), the Director shall give priority to an institution of 
        higher education that--
                    ``(A) enrolls a high number of low-income or 
                minority students, or both; and
                    ``(B) plans--
                            ``(i) to assign a member of the faculty and 
                        a librarian to coordinate the implementation of 
                        open educational reading material courses;
                            ``(ii) to use library resources to 
                        facilitate the use of open educational reading 
                        materials;
                            ``(iii) to use open educational reading 
                        materials as the form of the required readings 
                        for science, technology, engineering, and 
                        mathematics courses with high enrollment; and
                            ``(iv) to provide incentives for faculty to 
                        use only open educational reading materials as 
                        the form of the required readings for their 
                        courses, such as monetary awards or dedicated 
                        work time to adopt, adapt, or create such 
                        materials.
            ``(4) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date on 
        which the first grant is awarded under subsection (a)(6), the 
        Director shall submit to Congress a report that includes--
                    ``(A) the number of grants awarded under subsection 
                (a)(6);
                    ``(B) an evaluation of the effect of such grants on 
                increasing the number of science, technology, 
                engineering, and mathematics courses using open 
                educational reading materials as the form of required 
                readings for such courses; and
                    ``(C) an evaluation of the amount of money saved by 
                students who enroll in open educational reading 
                material courses in comparison to students who enroll 
                in similar courses with required readings that are only 
                available by purchase.''.
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