“Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.”
In ZTC marked courses, students do not incur any costs for obtaining course materials. There are multiple ways to get a course to ZTC. Using OER is one (extremely important) way to get it there, but faculty may also use library eBooks or other resources, class sets that are in print, resources that are in the public domain, or other free materials.
OER Definition adapted from "About CC Licenses" Creative Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Go to the ELAC Schedule of Classes. Click on the searchable schedule of classes.
Limit your search as you normally would when selecting classes. Choose your subject (e.g. Biology, Art History), campus (e.g. East Los Angeles College), days of the week (e.g. Mondays), or any other criteria.
You're going to now limit to just search for classes that do not require students to purchase textbooks or other educational materials! Under "Class Search," there is an option to limit your results by "Class Search Type."
Choose, "Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC)." You can also search for "Low Textbook Cost."
Click on "Search." Now all of the classes you see will be ZTC (or LTC, depending on your search). For courses labeled ZTC, you will NOT be required to purchase a textbook. For courses labeled LTC, your course materials will cost $50 or less.
When you enroll in your courses in the SIS, search for this same course. You should see a note that says:
ZTC: All textbooks/readings will be provided free of cost.
or
LTC: Textbooks assigned to this class are less than $50.