TAS: ZTC Course Conversion Program

Overview

In Summer 2021, Cañada College's Textbook Affordability Subcommittee (TAS) of the Academic Senate initiated its pilot ZTC Adopter Program. Based on the successful Skyline College program of the same name, this pilot turned into a fully supported program in Fall 2022.

With the increase of funding at both the local and state level, Cañada College has grown significantly in the awareness and adoption of open educational resources (OER) and other zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) materials, the district-wide Textbook Affordability Solutions Workgroup (TASW) has evaluated their individual training and project structures and collaborated to ensure that all 3 colleges are offering the same opportunities and support for OER/ZTC training and projects. The result is the information presented in this document.

Supporting Faculty and Students

To increase ZTC course adoptions and encourage faculty exploration and innovation in finding new, better, and less costly ways to deliver quality learning materials to students, Cañada College’s Textbook Affordability Subcommittee is providing professional development support and incentives for faculty to convert courses currently using traditional textbooks to use ZTC material. In addition to supporting adoption of ZTC by individual faculty, the award encourages scaling of ZTC adoptions in order to impact a significant number of students. It is noteworthy that:

  • The incentive awards are over and above compensation for base and overload (when applicable) Faculty work assignments
  • All awardees must utilize materials associated with awards in teaching assignments for their course.
  • Faculty may only receive one award per course.
  • The initial determination regarding approval of ZTC Course Conversion Program applications shall be made by the ZTC Team and are subject to funds available.

Note that training can be done throughout the academic year, including summer, but course conversions are performed in the summer (May through July). 

Apply for Support

All faculty (full-time and part-time) are eligible to apply for ZTC training or ZTC course conversion.  Please review the information in the table below, then apply for the appropriate level of support.

Note: All faculty who apply for the ZTC Course Conversion Program to remix, adapt or author OER have the option of requesting training in their application; no separate application is needed. Those who haven't completed Cañada's OER Basics training, or equivalent, will be required to do so as part of the program.

The application is on Smartsheet. You can get a copy of the form once you submit it.

Student with laptop in a classroom

Compensated Training and Projects

All compensation will be documented via monthly time sheet.

District-created self-paced micro-courses that relate to OER/ZTC work: Copyright in Education, Path to ZTC, Pre-MOCAA File, Link and Page Management, Accessibility with PopeTech (linked through the VRC)

2 hours maximum of compensation for each micro-course completed.

Note: The Cañada Pre-MOCAA File, Link and Page Management micro-course is only available to those who are applying to the ZTC Course Conversion Program who also request a Canvas sandbox for their project.

Cañada OER Basics Course and/or MOCAA course (link forthcoming), or similar training (see CSM’s OER/ZTC Training site for a list of options)

10 hours maximum of compensation for each course completed.

Tasks include:

  • Evaluate existing OER and/or ZTC resources for this subject; minimal time is needed to update, adapt, or remediate content.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

5-15 hours maximum of compensation for this option.

Tasks include:

  • Evaluate existing OER and/or ZTC resources for this subject; minimal to moderate time is needed to remix, update, adapt, or remediate instructional content and assessments.
  • Minimal IDEA, Accessibility, and COR alignment remediation may be needed.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

16-35 hours maximum of compensation for this option.

Tasks include:

  • Evaluate existing OER resources for this subject; moderate time is needed to update, adapt, or remediate instructional content and assessments.
  • Minimal IDEA, Accessibility, and COR alignment remediation may also be required.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

36-55 hours maximum of compensation for this option.

Tasks include:

  • Evaluate existing OER resources for this subject; considerable time is needed to remix, update, adapt, and/or remediate some gaps in instructional content and assessments.
  • Moderate IDEA, Accessibility, and COR alignment remediation may also be required.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

56-80 hours maximum of compensation for this option.

Tasks include:

  • Evaluate existing OERs for this subject; significant time is needed to remediate content gaps as well as remix, update, and/or adapt existing OERs.
  • Moderate IDEA, Accessibility, and COR alignment remediation may also be required.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

81-100 hours maximum of compensation for this option. Note that this is only available if there is grant funding attached to the project.

Tasks include:

  • No existing OER content in this subject are; extensive time is required to author/create high quality OER to meet COR requirements.
  • Potential to pursue sabbatical or division/department release time; align with Program Review process and/or CCN course update.
  • Share your new ZTC course with a Creative Commons license (CC BY or CC BY-NC).

101+ hours of compensation for this option. Note that this is only available if there is grant funding attached to the project.

For all remix, adaptation and authoring projects, the ZTC Team will support faculty in the following ways:

  • Assist with Canvas integration of materials.
  • Assist with searching for library-based resources and/or Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) options.
  • Assist with accessibility remediation as necessary.
  • Share recourses to the Canvas Commons, LibreCommons, Cool4Ed and/or other permanent OER repository.

Supported but not Compensated Projects

In the previous ZTC Adopter Program, faculty who were looking to adopt OER and/or ZTC materials for their courses were compensated for their projects, as a way to expand the OER/ZTC course offerings at Cañada College. Given that the District has long viewed textbook selection as part of Appendix D duties and therefore not compensated, the TASW made the difficult decision to no longer compensate straight adoption projects. As a result, the revamped Cañada ZTC Course Conversation Program will not compensate faculty as they adopt single OER and other ZTC titles for their courses.

It should be noted that the TASW recognizes the significant effort needed to find ZTC resources, particularly with respect to library-based materials. To that end, the ZTC Team will provide support in their respective roles, as well as encourage faculty to continue their training in OER/ZTC materials.

Required Training

Faculty who wish to create a remix or adaptation of OER content will be required to have completed Cañada’s OER Basics course (or similar). It is also recommended that they complete the MOCAA or Accessibility Basics course, once it becomes available. Each training component will be tracked on a separate  timesheet from the conversion project.

Participation Requirements

If selected, awardees will commit to the following:

  • Meet with the ZTC Team monthly during the duration of the project. These meetings ensure finalization of the project plans, sharing of best practices, and addressing of barriers to student success.
  • Complete required training and additional training as necessary.
  • Submit monthly time sheets to document activities.
  • Teach the course using ZTC and/or OER in all assigned sections.

The College will provide program participants with the needed support to help develop and implement their projects through activities such as but not limited to:

  • OER/ZTC discovery and curation.
  • Face-to-face workshop(s) and training, including the require meetings with the OER/ZTC Program Manager.
  • Working with other support faculty and staff as the materials are implemented into the course. This includes our Librarians, Instructional Technologist, and other district support staff as necessary.
  • All work produced will be shared under an open Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY or CC BY-NC) and will be made accessible to the public through Cañada College OER Commons Hub, the LibreTexts Cañada campus commons and/or other instance that is connected with Cañada College.

A grey box with a stick-figure person and the Creative Commons logo This information is derivative of LCC and Skyline College; it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.