HB3247 - Open College Textbook Act

• Creates a grant program through the Board of Higher Education to fund creation, updating, or adaptation of open textbooks (electronic course materials licensed under open intellectual property licenses) for college courses.

• Defines eligible grant recipients as Illinois higher education institutions, professors at those institutions, and nonprofit or for-profit organizations that produce open textbooks, with grants awarded competitively with 3 grants per fiscal year for 6 fiscal years.

• Requires grant recipients to make textbook digital content freely available online, downloadable, and modifiable by the general public while implementing plans for quality review, distribution, adoption tracking, and impact reporting.

• Mandates that all educational materials created with grant funding be licensed under open licenses and made freely available on accessible internet websites.

• Requires the Board to submit a report to the General Assembly by September 30, 2019, detailing textbooks created, adoption rates, and student savings generated through the program.