Oklahoma § 70-3241.1 - Instructional materials – Costs, purchasing, and

§ 70-3241.1. Instructional materials – Costs, purchasing, and

definitions.

A. It is the intent of the Legislature to:

1. Give students enrolled in institutions in The Oklahoma State

System of Higher Education more choices for purchasing textbooks and

instructional materials;

2. Encourage higher education faculty and staff to work closely

with bookstores and publishers to implement the least costly option

without sacrificing educational content; and

3. Provide maximum cost savings to students.

B. As used in this section:

1. "Instructional material" means any textbooks, workbooks, CDROMs, and other course-related material that are published with the

intent that they be used for or in conjunction with classroom

instruction and that are adopted for academic use by the faculty or

the person or entity in charge of selecting learning materials at

the institution within The Oklahoma State System of Higher

Education;

2. "Bundled" means a textbook and other supplemental

instructional materials that may be packaged together to be sold as

course materials for one price but shall not include integrated

textbooks that cannot be sold separately due to third-party

contractual agreements, custom editions, or special editions;

3. “Integrated textbook” means a textbook that:

a.

is combined with materials developed by a third party

and that, by third-party contractual agreement, may

not be offered by publishers separately from the

textbook with which the materials are combined, or

b.

is combined with other materials that are so

interrelated with the intent of the textbook that the

separation of the textbook from the other materials

would render the textbook unusable for its intended

purpose; and

4. “Custom edition” means instructional material that is

compiled by a publisher at the direction of a faculty member or

other person or adopting entity in charge of selecting course

materials at an institution, and may include, alone or in

combination, items such as selections from original instructor

materials, previously copyrighted publisher materials, copyrighted

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 70. Schools

third-party works, and elements unique to a specific institution,

such as commemorative editions.

C. Each board of regents of an institution or group of

institutions within The Oklahoma State System of Higher Education

shall adopt an instructional material policy that requires:

1. Bookstores located on campus or bookstores which contract

with the institution to provide bookstore services to students to:

a.

provide students with the option of purchasing

instructional materials that are unbundled when

possible, disclose to faculty and staff the costs to

students of purchasing instructional materials, and

disclose publicly how new editions vary from previous

editions,

b.

actively promote and publicize book buy-back programs,

and

c.

disclose retail costs for instructional materials on a

per-course basis to faculty and staff and make this

information publicly available; and

2. Higher education faculty and staff members to consider the

least costly practices in assigning instructional materials for a

course, such as adopting the least expensive edition available when

educational content is comparable as determined by the faculty and

working closely with publishers and bookstores to create bundles and

packages if they deliver cost savings to students.

D. In developing an instructional material policy as required

in subsection C of this section, each board of regents shall work

with and seek input from bookstores, publishers, students and

faculty representatives.

E. Each publisher of instructional material used by students

enrolled at institutions in The Oklahoma State System of Higher

Education shall make available to the faculty and staff of that

institution the:

1. Price at which the publisher will make the instructional

materials available to bookstores, either those located on campus of

the institution or those which have a contract with the institution

to provide bookstore services to students; and

2. A description of the substantial content revisions made

between the current edition of the textbook or supplemental material

and the previous edition, if any.

Added by Laws 2007, c. 368, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2007. Amended by Laws

2009, c. 58, § 1, eff. Aug. 1, 2009.