111.04 Open Educational Resources and Publication Date 

Fall 2024, Resolution Number 111.04

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges supports removing the requirement of an international standard book number (ISBN) and a copyright date from all curriculum and articulation processes when open educational resources are specified[1];  

Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges was directed by Resolution 22F 09.01[2] to work with all appropriate statewide entities that establish textbook-related policies and requirements that impact the California community colleges to remove any requirements that act as barriers to the use of open educational resources; and  

Whereas, ASSIST requires that a year be provided on textbooks when courses are submitted for articulation, and the University of California Transfer Course Agreement guidelines state that “textbooks must be dated within seven years of the course submission date or clearly identified as a ‘Classic text’ in the course outline of record,” yet editable open educational resources can be modified at any time; and 

Whereas, Both the APA[3] and MLA[4] style guides recommend the date an electronic resource was accessed or retrieved be used when no publication date is available;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourage colleges to establish policies or practices that recognize the date of last access as the date of publication for an editable open educational resource that does not provide a publication or last updated date. 

[1] ASCCC. Resolution 22F 09.01. https://asccc.org/resolutions/removing-barriers-adoption-open-educational-resources

[2]Ibid.

[3] American Psychological Association. Webpage on Website References. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/webpage-website-references

[4] Columbia College. LibGuides: MLA Citation Guide. https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/MLA9/websites