Twenty-six community colleges received Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Degree implementation grants from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Eliminating the cost of textbooks removes a major barrier to student access and learning. Grantees were also interested in how ZTC degree pathways can address the critical issue of student equity. With this in mind, the ZTC Degree Technical Assistance team has developed four major strategies to promote and measure the link between ZTC degree pathways and equity. • Collect student outcome data for pathway courses and disaggregate by demographics to better understand the effects on all students. • Develop the ZTC Degree Equity Champion network to provide a community of practice, coursework, and training materials to promote awareness among students and faculty and linkages with student equity and guided pathways initiatives on campus. • Promote ZTC Degrees through summits, conference events, and marketing materials to drive awareness and build relationships with the statewide academic senate and the other public higher education systems. • Develop a course that ties Open Educational Resources to Student Equity, and Guided Pathways to ZTC Degrees.

1. Zero-Textbook-Cost Degrees Panel:
Reducing Equity Gaps
or Just Lowering Costs?
Unless otherwise indicated, this presentation is licensed CC-BY 4.0
Wed, June 19, 10:00 am
Cultivating Connections and Community

2. Welcome
Ron Oxford, EdD
Lead Librarian
West Hills College
Lemoore
James Glapa-Grossklag
Dean Ed Tech, Learning
Resources, & Distance
Learning
College of the CanyonsUna Daly
Director, CCCOER
Open Education
ConsortiumCherylee Kushida
Professor
Distance Education/OER
Coordinator
Santa Ana College
Andrew Park
Physics/ Astronomy
Professor
College of Alameda

3. 1.5 Trillion Student Debt
By David Shankbone - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16662416
Perry, Mark J. “The CD ‘chart of the century’ makes the rounds at the Federal Reserve.”
AEIdeas. 2018.
https://www.aei.org/publication/the-chart-of-the-century-makes-the-rounds-at-the-federal-
reserve/

4. 33,000 students at 70 community colleges in 24 states
Housing Insecure : 50%
Homeless : 14%
Food Insecure : 55%
Hungry : 36%
Hungry and Homeless in College

5. 64% of Students Don’t Buy Textbooks
2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey Executive Summary, https://dlss.flvc.org/colleges-and-universities/research/textbooks

6. Zero Textbook Cost Degrees
… community college degrees or career
education certificates earned entirely
by completing courses that eliminate
conventional textbook costs by using
alternative instructional materials and
methodologies, including open
educational resources …
CA Education Code Section 78052(a)
•$5 million total allocation
•Grants up to $150,000
•28 grantees, developing 34
certificates and degrees

7. “Open Educational Resources”
… high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public
domain or have been released pursuant to an intellectual property 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.
CA Education Code Section 78052(a)

8. Grantee Support (technical assistance)
© OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors
“ZTCD Phase 1 & 2”, by Kelsey Smith, on behalf of West Hills College Lemoore, is licensed
CC BY 4.0
● Monthly webinars
● Regional workshops, summits, and
conference meetups.
● Accessibility training to support students
with disabilities
● Support local campuses via on-site training
● Document impact via project evaluation
● Sustain momentum via leadership training
for college ZTC teams
● Highlight student voices throughout

9. ZTC Degree Impact 3 Years
• Affected students: 23, 373
• 34 certificate and degree programs
• Time frame: 3 years
• Cost savings anticipated $42,912,828
858% ROI of original $5,000,000 Image: pixabay.com

10. ZTC Degree Technical Assistance
James Glapa-Grossklag
Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning
Past President of the Board, Open Education Consortium
@JGlapaGrossklag

11. Guided Pathways
"Softball" by when i was a bird is licensed
under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
https://www.canyons.edu/offices/Counseling
"Wifi (request)" by Keistutis is in the
Public Domain
"315/365" by David Mulder is
licensed under CC BY 2.0

12. Risk Factors for Food Insecurity
●Disability
●First-generation student
●Former foster youth
●Housing insecure
●Low income
●Single parent
●Receiving food stamps

13. •50% food insecure in the prior 30 days
•60% housing insecure in the previous year
•19% homeless in the previous year
•n = 40,000

14. “I couldn’t go last semester because … I
couldn't’ find any money …
“The system sucks. Only people with money
can go to college. So poor people stay poor,
and rich people get to stay rich. They system
is rigged against the poor”

15. CCC Core Commitments
● Design with the student in mind—students say textbooks are a
burden
● Enable action and thoughtful innovation—honor academic
creativity and industry expertise
● Lead partnerships across systems—build on example of COC-
CSU CO collaboration
● Focus on students’ end goals—develop complete pathways as
ZTC

16. CCC Vision For Success Goals
● Increase degrees and certificates: reduce course load due to
textbook costs
● Increase currency and relevance of Career Education:
collaborate with industry
● Decrease units accumulated: reduce DFWs of all students
● Reduce equity gaps: increase grades and completions of all
students

17. Source: AAC&U, University of Georgia
The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics,
in International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2018

18. ZTC Degree Technical Assistance
Ron Oxford, EdD
Head Librarian
OER Grants Project Manager

19. Student Equity
SSSP (Student Success and Support Program) redesigned as Student Equity and
Achievement (SEA). Per Education Code section 78222, “...activities and practices that
advance the system-wide goal to eliminate achievement gaps…” The explicit usage of
OER with SEA funds is outlined here: .” Buried in AB 1809 (2018)
“Increased services for high-needs students may include the development of open educational
resources and zero-textbook-cost degrees that reduce costs for students. Community college
districts utilizing resources for this purpose are encouraged to first develop open educational
resources and zero-textbook-cost degrees for courses that are transferable to the California State
University and the University of California and for approved associates degrees for transfer. Open
educational resources and zero-textbook-cost degrees developed by a community college district
pursuant to this provision shall make the applicable course materials and curriculum available to all
community college districts through the online clearinghouse of information identified in…”

20. Expand ZTC programs to to reduce equity gaps
Strategies:
• Develop plan to create college-wide awareness of ZTC Degree program
• Link ZTC Degree with Student Equity & Achievement (SEA), Guided Pathways programs, and
Integrated Student Success.
• Provide ZTC Degree training for faculty and staff
• Share resoutces with other ZTC Degree Champions to encourage collaboration and
improvement.
Equity Champion Programs

21. ZTCD Equity Champions
Orange= grantee
colleges with Equity
Champion

22. Link to Other Programs
●Direct advocacy to Student Success programs on campus about ZTCD
○ Attend and present at Student Success committee meetings
including but not limited to
■ Student Equity Achievement
■ Guided Pathways
■ Integrated Student Success
○ Document attendance and presentations at meetings

23. Los Medanos — Scott Hubbard
● OER is in our SEA Plan!!! 🔥🔥🔥
“One example of our commitment to open and accessible education in an
applied form is our commitment to, and expansion of Open Educational
Resources (OER) at LMC. Due to income level as a substantial factor in all of the
state’s success indicators, we will use outside funding woven into SEA funds
and other operational dollars to build out a robust OER program.”
www.losmedanos.edu/oer

24. ZTC+Equity Course

25. Vision Resource Center

27. Panel Topics
● How do you inform students of the pathway programs?
● Do you focus on instructional material development or aim to
enact change throughout the institution?
● How does an institution create a schedule that part-time and
full-time students can both follow while respecting faculty
autonomy?
● How do open educational practices inform teaching practice
and engage students as co-creators of their learning?

28. ● Highlight the impact of Zero
Textbook Cost (ZTC) Degree
implementation
● Hear from student advocates on
how to promote ZTC Degrees
● Highlight link between ZTC
Degrees, reducing equity gaps, &
designing pathways
Find out more and register:
http://bit.ly/Sept6ZTCImage:byLizYataandislicensedCC-BY

29. Join the Community
• Access to a community of OER experts
• Community email list
• Monthly online professional development
• Collaboration opportunities
• Online resources
Twitter : @cccoer, info@cccoer.org

30. Thank you for joining us!
Questions?
Contact Info:
James Glapa-Grossklag:
james.glapa-grossklag@canyons.edu
Ron Oxford:ronoxford@whccd.edu
Una Daly: unatdaly@oeconsortium.org