The UC Office of the President, in collaboration with the CSU Chancellor’s Office, released the following statement regarding Open Educational Resources (OER) Textbooks as a reaffirmation of current policy (September 2017):
The District Office of Curriculum Services is working to provide a section in CurricUNET for Open Educational Resources.
From Guiding Notes for General Education Course Reviewers, page 8. Published jointly by The California State University and The University of California. Revised November 2016. (Bold emphasis added.)
Proposed courses should include at least one textbook. Reviewers use the representative text as a way to confirm their understanding of course content. It's understood that the instructor in a given section may choose a different text, but the proposed one is still given close attention. It's expected that the structure of the text will be consistent with the course outline. Including additional reading is a good way to demonstrate that multiple points of view will be evaluated, as a means of developing critical thinking.
Texts don't need to be published in hard copy. The UC and CSU welcome the use of online texts and other Open Educational Resources, so long as the resource is a stable, bona fide textbook, and not just a collection of links to lecture notes or other web pages.
The following comes from notes and discussions by SDCCD Articulation Officers and their CSU/UC partners (bold emphasis added):
Notes Regarding Course-to-Course Articulation