Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC)

Looking for Open Educational Resources or other free materials for your ZTC classes? Fill out the ZTC Search Request Form to get personalized help from the ZTC Librarian.

• Find OER alternatives to your existing textbooks
• Find articles and excerpts to include in a course reader
• See if there are unlimited access eBooks for assigned novels
• Find open-licensed and public domain images
• ...and more!

About the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Degree Program

In 2021, California legislature appropriated $115 million to the California Community Colleges Zero-Textbook-Cost Degree Grant (ZTC) Program. This supports the creation of degree and certificate programs that students can complete without purchasing any textbooks or other materials.

All ZTC pathways must have enough ZTC classes for students to complete the entire path without textbook costs, including General Ed classes. Commercial textbooks and resources are replaced by resources students can access for free, such as library resources, public domain works, and Open Educational Resources (OER).

"Zero Textbook Cost Program," California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO).
"California’s Zero Textbook Cost Degree Program," SPARC, CC BY 4.0

What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning resources that are licensed to be accessed, distributed, and modified freely, unlike traditional copyright-protected works. ZTC Grant funds are given to faculty for revising, developing, or curating collections of OERs for their department.

Watch this video to learn more.

Source: Open Educational Resources by Myroslava Zhuk, University of Groningen, CC BY 4.0.

Finding Open Educational Resources (OERs)

California Community College (CCC) Specific Collections

The following OER collections are curated by California Community College faculty at different campuses.

General OER Collections

Search Multiple OER Collections at Once

"Searching OER Repositories and Collections," OER Basics, Rachel Arteaga & Suzanne Wakim, ASCCC OERI, CC BY 4.0.

Finding OERs With Google Advanced Search

Use Google Advanced Search to find resources by license type. Here are directions on how to use Google Advanced Search to find materials with open licenses.

Instructions

1. Open Google Advanced Search.
2. Scroll to the bottom and look for the "usage rights" field.
3. Change the "usage rights" field to one of the options presented:
   • Free to use or share
   • Free to use of share, even commercially
   • Free to use or share or modify
   • Free to use, share, or modify, even commercially
4. Always double check the license on the actual resource! These options can apply to multiple licenses (for example, "free to use or share" can pull up CC BY-SA, CC BY-SA, or CC BY-ND works) so you have to check the specific resource to see which specific license applies.

Search Tips

• To find specific types of websites such as .gov or .edu, type in the search box Site:.gov or Site:.edu.
   
• To eliminate specific websites or words you can use a minus symbol before the word. For example, if you want to search for something but do not want Wikipedia to show up in the results simply type in the search box -Wikipedia.
   
• Use quotations around a phrase to search for results containing that exact phrase. For example, searching for "climate change" will return fewer, but more relevant results than searching for the phrase without quotation marks.

OER Basics, Rachel Arteaga & Suzanne Wakim, ASCCC OERI, CC BY 4.0.

Finding Open Content in the Library Catalog

Some OERs are available in the library catalog. If you adopt an OER, contact a librarian to add it to our catalog.

Search for your subject. When the results appear, find Sort by on the left sidebar.

Under Availability on the left sidebar, check the Open Access box.

You can use library materials in your ZTC class as long as all students have access to it (with no limits on how many copies/users can access at a time). This includes copyright-protected books and articles, as long as all students can access it at any time.

1. Copyright-protected works such as contemporary novels may be accessible through the library. Check with a librarian to see if we have an unlimited access copy of it. If we don't, we may be able to order it. Note that the eBook must have unlimited user access to count as Zero Textbook Cost material.

2. Be aware that many online materials, such as eBooks and journal articles, are not owned by the library. This means that resources may change from semester to semester as subscriptions change.

3. When using library materials in your course, such as an article from a database, put the work's library catalog link (called "Permalink" on the page) in Canvas or your syllabus. This ensures that students will have access to the book with their student credentials.

"Using Library Materials," OER Basics, Rachel Arteaga & Suzanne Wakim, ASCCC OERI, CC BY 4.0.