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Getting Textbooks to Zero Student Cost: ZTC and OER

Merced College Library guide with resources for lowering student textbook costs.

Textbook Requirements, Legislation, and Advocacy

Overview

  • You do need to have a textbook. 
  • The Curriculum committee checks textbook information when new courses are developed and/or courses come up for review. 
  • It is a good idea for OER textbooks to also be listed on the Course Outline of Record as representative samples. 
  • Textbooks must be dated within 7 years unless expressly marked as classic.
  • The textbook can be OER but should not merely be a list of links to webpages on the open web.
  • Courses in the state exchange that are badged and are zero textbook cost (ZTC) have more visibility.

Looking Ahead

  • While MCCD does mark courses in which required course reading materials are zero cost to students in its own schedule, the district does not yet mark low-textbook cost (LTC) courses.
    • In February 2024, the Merced College faculty passed an Academic Senate resolution defining LTC as $30 or under (pre-tax) ("Establishment of Low Cost Textbook Threshold").
    • Self-Service should have filters for both ZTC and LTC in the future.
  • A request has been made that the CVC Exchange include an option to search for low textbook cost (LTC), which will also boost visibility for LTC sections ("Low Textbook Cost Designation and Search in CVC Online Course Finder").
  • Colleges will be required to list the estimated cost of required course materials in phases:

Prominently display, by means that may include a link to a separate internet web page, the estimated costs for each course of all required course materials and fees directly related to those materials, for no less than 40 percent by January 1, 2025, 55 percent by January 1, 2026, 65 percent by January 1, 2027, and 75 percent by January 1, 2028, of the total number of courses on the online campus course schedule for which a faculty member or course instructor has been assigned. “Course materials” as used in this paragraph includes digital or physical textbooks, devices such as calculators and remote attendance platforms, and software subscriptions. ["Implementation of AB 607 (Kalra, 2023) Amendments to California Ed. Code §66406.9"]

Resources