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Zero Textbook Cost

This guide is designed for FSCJ faculty to discover learning objects and other open educational resources. Faculty will also find information on adding and uploading content to share with colleagues.

What are Open Educational Resources?

According to a quote from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation webpage, Open Educational Resources (OER) are

teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.  

 

OER allow users to:

  • Retain -- users have the right to make, archive, and own copies of the content
  • Reuse -- content can be reused in its unaltered form
  • Revise -- content can be adapted, adjusted, modified, and altered
  • Remix -- original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new
  • Redistribute -- copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.

 

FSCJ's LibGuide page for Finding OER offers resources for locating Open Textbooks and OER Repositories.

Open Textbooks have been released with an open license (usually a Creative Commons license) which allows them to be copied, shared and revised.

OER Repositories contain more than just open textbooks. They also have other digital learning materials such as:

  • full courses
  • modules
  • syllabi
  • lectures
  • homework assignments
  • quizzes
  • lab activities
  • games
  • simulations

Why OERs Matter?

What does Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) mean?

Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) refers to the cost of course materials required by students to succeed in that course. The ZTC course indicator is used as a course designation to inform students that there are no textbook costs required with the course. These ZTC courses are permitted to use library resources or other high-quality, freely available resources as long as there are zero costs for the students’ access and use of these resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) can benefit students in myriad ways, some of which include:

  • Eliminating the cost of the textbook
  • Ensuring earlier access to course materials
  • Enabling students to engage with course materials when and where they choose

Brandle, Katz, S., Hays, A., Beth, A., Cooney, C., DiSanto, J., Miles, L., & Morrison, A. (2019). But what do the students think: Results of the CUNY cross-campus zero-textbook cost student survey. Open Praxis, 11(1), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.11.1.932 

 

Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Courses at FSCJ

The Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) course indicator is a designation within the Online Course Catalog that courses receive when the course section requires course materials at no cost to students.

To find ZTC courses in the FSCJ online course catalog, review the document, Finding ZTC Course at FSCJ or watch the Finding ZTC Course at FSCJ video.

an image of the Creative Commons license icon CC BY NC SA

This guide is adapted from "OER: Open Educational Resources" by Los Angeles Valley City Library and is licensed under this Creative Commons license: CC BY NC SA.