Skip Main Navigation
Skip Navigation
  1. Home
  2. Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Classes
  3. Resources for Faculty

Resources for Faculty

What is OER?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality teaching and learning materials that are freely available for anyone to use, share, and adapt. OER allows users to retain a copy of the content and reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute it. Examples include:

  • Textbooks and readings
  • Quizzes and assignments
  • Videos and multimedia resources
  • Lab books and workbooks
  • Manuals and other ancillaries

OER materials are often licensed under Creative Commons, allowing instructors to customize them for their classes. Please review our thorough AHC OER LibGuide for more information on Open Educational Resources.

side-by-side comparison tables of ZTC vs. OER

Why Choose ZTC and OER?

  • Based on a Fall 2025 survey, 84% of AHC students would be more likely to stay in a course if it offered the ZTC option
  • 77% of AHC students would be more likely to enroll in a course if they knew it was ZTC
  • Nearly 50% of AHC students have been unable to purchase required course materials due to cost
  • Nearly 50% of AHC students struggled to keep up with courses in which they were unable to afford textbooks
  • 20% of AHC students had to withdraw from courses because they could not afford the textbooks
  • 96% of AHC students believe that implementing a Zero Textbook Cost program would benefit students
  • Customization & Flexibility
    Instructors can adapt OER materials to fit their teaching style and course objectives. They can also create content to meet the specific needs of their students, which can be updated more easily than traditional textbooks without relying on commercial publishers' revision schedules.
  • Innovation
    Promotes the use of interactive and multimedia resources, and supports collaborative learning and open knowledge sharing.
  • Quality & Sustainablility
    High-quality, peer-reviewed materials that instructors can keep up-to-date with recent information. Students also achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER, while saving significant amounts of money (Crossfield & Ryan, 2022)
  • Lower Withdrawal Rates & Increased Retention Rates
    Withdrawal rates for OER courses are significantly lower than for regular courses (Hilton, 2020)
  • ZTC Courses Fill up Fast!
    According to the Chancellor's Office, ZTC-labeled courses fill up faster than non-ZTC courses
  • Compensation for Creating OER
    Our ZTC Team will fairly compensate instructors to take OER training and create their own OER materials. Great opportunity for both full-time and part-time faculty to make a genuinely positive impact on students while making some extra money.

Where are some useful resources and training for OER?

  • Comprehensive OER-Training offered directly by the current Allan Hancock College ZTC Faculty Coordinators, Liz West and Susie Kopecky. Compensation for Part-Time and Full-Time Faculty will be provided for completing the course. Please inquire by emailing lwest@hancockcollege.edu or susie.kopecky@hancockcollege.edu
  • AHC OER LibGuide
  • Free courses on OER & ZTC offered by the Chancellor's Office.
  • Webinars, trainings, professional development opportunities, and OER repository offered by ASCCC OERI (Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative). 
  • LibreTexts was recently selected by the Chancellor's Office as the official OER repository and platform for California Community Colleges. This is the most widely used platform to build, integrate, maintain, and distribute OER textbooks, homework, and ancillaries. Seemless integration with Canvas. 
  • COOL4Ed is the official referatory for all OER created, adopted, adapted, and remixed specifically by California Community College instructors. Simple to navigate and courses are organized by C-ID numbers. 
  • OpenStax is the second most widely used platform for OER. This resource allows instructors to pull from a range of completed OER texts which are already peer-reviewed. Seemless integration with Canvas.
  • MERLOT is an enormous platform for OER creation and offers access to learning objects, full course curricula, open access journals, assessment tools, open textbooks, and discipline-specific pedagogical resources. Learning materials are all peer-reviewed. 
  • ASCCC OERI Discipline Leads is another great resource on OER. The ASCCC OERI Discipline Leads are tasked with curating resources for their discipline and serve as a helpful resource for their discipline colleagues. 
  • Open Textbook Library provides a collection of over 1,000 high-quality open textbooks in many subjects with peer reviews. 
  • OER Commons California Community College Hub is a large repository of OER specifically curated by California Community College faculty. Courses are conveniently identified by C-ID numbers as with COOL4Ed.
  • OpenOregon offers information about the actual classes using the OER, links to materials, and instructor information. 
  • Pressbooks is a fantastic open source, self-publishing platform that offers a large OER repository