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

Resource guide for instructors interested in adopting Open Access or Zero-Cost resources for their courses.
Open Education is an important part of the statewide Zero-Textbook-Cost (ZTC) Initiative across California Community Colleges and State Universities (CA Senate Bill 1329). This guide was created to help faculty find existing OERs for their subject, evaluate OERs for reliability and accessibility, and create their own OERs if desired.

What is OER?

This video gives you a short introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER), examines the ways they can be used in courses, and encourages instructors to use them with the support of the library.

 

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

OER Mythbusting

List of 7 false misconceptions about OER: Myth #1: Open simply means free, Myth #2: All OER are digital, Myth #3: “You get what you pay for,” Myth #4: Copyright for OER is complicated, Myth #5: OER are not sustainable, Myth #6: Open textbooks lack ancillaries, Myth #7: My institution is not ready for OER. We list counterarguments to each myth in the next section.

 

 

Myth #1: Open simply means free.

Fact: Open means the permission to freely download, edit, and share materials to better serve all students.
 

Myth #2: All OER are digital.

Fact: OER take many formats, including print, digital, audio, and more.
 

Myth #3: “You get what you pay for.”

Fact: OER can be produced to the same quality standards as traditional textbooks.
 

Myth #4: Copyright for OER is complicated.

Fact: Open licensing makes OER easy to freely and legally use.
 

Myth #5: OER are not sustainable.

Fact: Models are evolving to support the sustainability and continuous improvement of OER.
 

Myth #6: Open textbooks lack ancillaries.

Fact: Open textbooks often come with ancillaries, and when they do not, existing OER can provide additional support.
 

Myth #7: My institution is not ready for OER.

Fact: Any institution can start with small steps toward OER that make an impact for students.
Adapted From: SPARC, OER Mythbusting, 2017. http://sparcopen.org/our-work/oer-mythbusting 

 

Why Use OER?

Curious about the shift to OER? Why OER, why now? The video below can help to answer some of those questions. 

 

 

Finding OERs in the Library Catalog

Some Open Access titles are available in the library catalog. screenshot of left sidebar on catalog search results. The Open Access option is fourth on the "Availability" list. "Availability" is nested under "Sort By".

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

Under "Availability", check the "Open Access" box. 

If you only want peer reviewed open resources, make sure to check the "Peer Reviewed Journals" option above the "Open Access" option.

 

Finding Open Access Textbooks

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Top OER Repositories

Other OER Repositories

Cerritos College Library | 11110 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650 | 562-860-2451 | Reference ext 2425 | Circulation ext 2424