Zero Textbook Cost
Overview
Skyline College recognizes the continued high cost of textbooks as a barrier that impacts student success. Inability to afford textbooks and course materials is an equity issue and it can be addressed through Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) & Open Educational Resources (OER) adoption. As part of our College Redesign, the primary goal of Skyline College Textbook Affordability Solutions is to reduce educational costs for students by providing free or low-cost learning materials that are available from day-one of their class and customizable to fit their learning needs.
What is ZTC?
S.B. 1359 states Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) course materials “may include open educational resources, institutionally licensed campus library materials that all students enrolled in the course have access to use, and other properly licensed and adopted materials.”
Zero textbook cost (ZTC) also means that students do not incur any costs for purchasing course materials. Zero-cost to the students does not guarantee zero-cost to the institution, i.e. subscription databases, library equipment loans. To create a ZTC course, instructors might use Open Educational Resources (OER); Open Access, Creative Commons, and public domain materials, along with teacher-created materials and electronic resources owned or licensed by the Skyline College Library.
ZTC materials include:
What is OER?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public
domain or have been released under an intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons license, that permits their free use and repurposing by others, and may include other resources
that are legally available and free of cost to students. (Hewlett)
OER Materials may include:
- Textbooks
- Course readings, articles, and journals
- Course packs
- Quizzes
- Streaming videos
- Virtually any other material used for educational purposes
Why use Open Educational Resources? OER are free, ready-to-use content for your classes. Creators and users are free to retain rights, reuse content, remix content, revise content, or redistribute content.
For more information on ZTC and OER resources, please visit our For Faculty page or For Students page!
ZTC at Skyline
Zero Textbook Cost materials (ZTC) and Open Educational Resources (OER) are changing the way our instructors teach and our students learn. ZTC and OER classes provide students with immediate use of digital textbooks! They are available online - anywhere, anytime. ZTC & OER materials remain available to students long after the end of the semester. ZTC and OER materials are often available to students at no cost!
Student Voice - Student Open Education Week 2021 Survey Summary*
We asked Skyline College students what they thought about textbooks costs. Here is what they had to say:
