Welcome to Pierce College’s OER & ZTC Initiative
At Pierce College, we’re committed to reducing textbook costs for students and supporting faculty innovation through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses.
These programs promote equitable access to learning materials by using freely available, openly licensed, or no-cost digital resources for teaching and learning.
OER are teaching and learning materials that can be freely used, adapted, and shared by anyone. They are typically released under a Creative Commons or GNU license that clearly specifies how they may be reused, remixed, and redistributed.
Examples of OER materials include:
Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) refers to courses that use only free learning materials—meaning no cost to students for required readings or textbooks.
While OER and ZTC frequently overlap, “ZTC” is the designation used in California course schedules for classes with no required textbook costs. Many ZTC courses use OER materials, but some may rely on other freely available or library-provided resources instead.
At Pierce, you’ll see the ZTC symbol in the class schedule for courses with free textbooks:
Save money—no expensive textbooks
Equal access to course materials from day one
Online access anywhere, anytime
Freedom to modify, remix, or combine materials
No edition-change hassles or publisher restrictions
Stipends available for switching to ZTC (See ZTC Grant for more information)
