Zero Textbook Cost

What are Zero Textbook Cost Courses?

A Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) course is one for which students are not required to buy a textbook. There may be a materials fee associated with the course such as a calculator or art supplies, but students do not need to buy any books. Some courses might include a recommended textbook on a course syllabus, but it is clear that students are not required to buy it. So how exactly do faculty build a ZTC course? There are different ways. One of them is creating content on their own, but that is really time-consuming. Another way is to use Open Education Resources (OER).

The ZTC Logo

The State has adopted this symbol as the ZTC logo. Students can look for this logo when they register for courses.

Faculty teaching a ZTC course: Let your division secretary know that you will be teaching a ZTC course, and the Instruction Office will attach this logo to the course in the PiratesNet class schedule.

ZTC logo

Why should I build ZTC courses?

85% of MJC students qualify for the fee waiver, which means they are low income.
With ZTC courses, students won’t experience difficulties like these ones.
My textbook is
- back-ordered.
- in the mail.
- out of stock.
- the wrong edition.
- on hold until I get financial aid, etc.
Textbook cost prices have skyrocketed in the past 10 years, and many of our students cannot afford them, and even publishers understand that (source).
ZTC/OER courses impact student success.

Watch "Let’s Walk the Talk: Supporting Equity Efforts through Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Courses" by Barbara Illowsky

In a recent Temple University survey of 86,000 students from over 100 institutions, primarily at public universities and community colleges, 17 percent of students said they had been homeless within the past year while 45 percent said they had been food insecure in the past 30 days. In light of this reality, do we truly believe we are serving our students and promoting equity when we assign high-cost textbooks, software access fees, and course materials charges to our students? In years back, we did not have many options for eliminating those expenses. Now, we do! Let’s work together so that all our students have an equitable chance at success.

Dr. Barbara Illowsky is co-author of “Introductory Statistics” and “Introductory Business Statistics”, free and open textbooks published by OpenStax College that are used over 600 colleges and universities throughout the country and world. In 2013, the international Open Education Consortium awarded Barbara with its Educator ACE award. She later served on its Board of Directors. Barbara just retired the end of June after 30-years as a mathematics and statistics professor at De Anza College. She was on loan to many projects, including the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the California Community Colleges Online Education Initiative. She has served as a trainer on OER and is a frequent invited speaker on OER and online education.

Barbara is the first OER and Innovation Fellow for the Michelson 20 Million Minds Foundation. She spends her days advocating for and promoting adoption of OER and is continuing this work even since her college retirement.

View the PowerPoint slides for this presentation.

Watch "The Signaling Power of Zero Textbook Cost Degrees" by Hal Plotkin

The Online Education Department welcomed guest speaker Hal Plotkin on March 29, 2019 as he presented "The Signaling Power of Zero Textbook Cost Degrees." Key points in this talk:

The roots and history of the open educational resources movement.
How Zero Textbook Cost degrees help overcome the psychology of poverty.
How faculty members can use their keyboards and subject matter expertise to become philanthropists.
The pedagogical advantages and opportunities associated with open educational resources.
Opportunities to lead the global open educational resources movement.

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