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As our learning environments increasingly include online resources, many faculty have considered alternatives to traditional textbooks. Online textbooks and materials provided by publishers are one option, but free resources available through the MiraCosta library, and Open Educational Resources (OERs) offer high-quality, Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) options worthy of review, especially as more attention has been given to the financial challenges many students face with food, housing, and other basic necessities. MiraCosta's OER/ZTC website is a great place to start your explorations; the material below is just a select set of highlights from that site.

Library Resources

MiraCosta's library includes access to digital resources such as academic journals, eBooks, and professional educational video on par with many universities. You can add links to your Canvas courses providing seamless access for your students to most library resources. To learn more, and to browse MiraCosta library resources in your discipline, here are some starting points (MiraCosta login may be required for these links, or when you begin drilling down from these):

The library has some great how-to guides for faculty on linking to reading lists, journal articles, eBooks, and library video from your Canvas course.
Subject guides can help you and your students more quickly find relevant articles for your discipline. Or team up with a librarian to create a research guide specifically for your class.

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials shared under a license allowing for free use, alteration, and/or integration into new contexts. Many faculty are finding OER to be at least as effective as traditional publisher texts for their courses, and students are far more likely to acquire, use, and retain course materials when they are free or very low cost! Research is showing OERs positively benefit equity and student success by enabling more students to access and use course materials, and by enabling access to disciplines that students might previously have avoided due to a reputation for high textbook costs.

Zero-Textbook Cost (ZTC) classes and programs rely on OER and other online resources to eliminate textbook costs for students; Low-Textbook Cost (LTC) classes have materials costing $40 or less. ZTC and LTC classes have special designations in MiraCosta's class schedule. See details about the ZTC and LTC designations and learn how to mark your class as such in SURF.

Faculty interested in OER and/or ZTC course materials are encouraged to first discuss their interest with colleagues. You may discover that someone in your department is already using OER and/or has at least investigated some options. OER users are sharers! Also be sure to explore the disciplinary OER/ZTC page to see if materials for your discipline are listed there.

MiraCosta has received several OER-related state grants since 2016. Funds may still be available to help support faculty with OER discovery, curation, and course redesign to reduce textbook costs. MiraCosta's instructional designer, Nadia Khan, can also support faculty efforts to investigate, curate, and adopt OER, and adapt course designs around the new material. Contact Jim Julius if you are interested in exploring this possibility.

Extending Your Professional Learning

Would you like to explore Open Educational Resources further?

Image Credit

Photo by Finn Hackshaw on Unsplash

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