Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Program & Reporting

The ZTC Degree Grant Program

In 2021, the California Legislature appropriated $115 million dollars to California Community Colleges for the鈥�, distributed in phases. Along with other colleges in the system, Imperial Valley College has received Planning, Implementation, Acceleration II, and Impact Grants designed鈥痶o fund and facilitate ZTC degrees and pathways. The pathways 色中色 has designated to become fully ZTC are鈥�厂辫补苍颈蝉丑,鈥疉苍迟丑谤辞辫辞濒辞驳测,鈥痑苍诲鈥�Child Development, along with our鈥�Microsoft Office Certificate. Along the way, we're working to get as many individual course sections to ZTC as possible!

Data Collection & XB12

As colleges develop ZTC courses and degrees, a new data tracking element has been introduced to record not just鈥�飞丑别迟丑别谤鈥�sections are ZTC or LTC (Low Textbook Cost), but鈥�丑辞飞鈥�they are achieving those aims. These data are reported to the state鈥攁nd collecting them before the semester starts allows us to make sure our schedule accurately reports ZTC and LTC sections for students. As a faculty member, it's not important that you know which letter refers to which designation鈥攋ust that you record which of the following describes each section you're teaching in a given term:

XB12 Code	Cost of Required Instructional Materials*	Schedule Attribute
A	Section has no associated course material	ZTC
C	Section has course material costs, but none of them are passed on to students	ZTC
D	Section has locally-defined low-cost materials (see 色中色's LTC guidelines)**	LTC
E	Section uses only no-cost, OER course material	ZTC
F	Section uses only no-cost digital course material that does not meet OER guidelines	ZTC
G	Section uses a mix of no-cost OER and other cost-bearing resources, but no costs are passed on to the student	ZTC
Y	Section does not meet no-cost or low-cost course material criteria

*NOTE

*"Required Instructional Materials" include required books (textbooks, novels, etc.), lab manuals, and required software, homework systems, or other subscriptions. They鈥�don't鈥痠nclude supplies like calculators, lab goggles, etc., or optional supplementary materials

**色中色 defines Low Textbook Cost (LTC) as having a total required instructional materials cost of under $50. This is the cost to purchase (not rent) the materials, and the price to buy them, new, from the Bookstore or the publisher鈥檚 site. If students are required to print course materials, even if they鈥檙e openly-licensed and freely available online (e.g. course packets, worksheets, lab manuals, etc.), the course would be LTC rather than ZTC.

Examples

A weightlifting course doesn't require a textbook, but does require that students have gym-appropriate footwear.
- XB12 Code: A
- Schedule designation: ZTC
A painting course doesn't require a textbook, but requires a supplies kit that the college pays for with lottery funds and provides to students at no charge.
- XB12 Code: C
- Schedule designation: ZTC
An English course uses an OER textbook, but requires students to purchase a novel that costs $15, new, from the Bookstore or Publisher.
- XB12 Code: D
- Schedule designation: LTC
A psychology course uses an OpenStax textbook that is available to students for free online.
- XB12 Code: E
- Schedule designation: ZTC
An ESL course uses a textbook written by the instructor, but not published or publicly available under a Creative Commons license.
- XB12 Code: F
- Schedule designation: ZTC
A math course uses an OER textbook available for free at LibreTexts and requires a commercial homework system that is paid for by lottery funds.
- XB12 Code: G
- Schedule designation: ZTC
A biology course uses an OER textbook but requires a printed lab manual that costs $55 to buy new.
- XB12 Code: Y
- Schedule designation: none

Help (and Funding!) Available

If you're interested in converting your section to ZTC, please check out our resources on Finding OER and Trainings for information about making the switch. There is also grant money available to help compensate you for your time and work in making the switch; check out our Funding page for full details. Visit the Support page for FAQ and personalized help!