September 2023 Newsletter
Greetings! I hope your Fall 2023 term is off to a great start! As the Open Educational Resources Liaison for our college, it is my responsibility to share communications from the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI). Please read on to learn about upcoming events and opportunities that are open to all.
If you have questions or comments about OER or ZTC, please contact me at josue.franco@gcccd.edu or call/text 619-780-5674.
Creative Commons Training
The licenses that are used to identify resources as 鈥渙pen鈥 are provided by , a nonprofit that also offers training on the appropriate use of the licenses. The
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges Open Educational Resources Initiative
is pleased to announce that the Michelson 20 Million Minds Foundation is sponsoring
a Creative Commons (CC) Certificate Bootcamp for the California Community Colleges
from December 11 - 15, 2023 at San Bernardino Valley College. The 20 Million Minds
Foundation will cover tuition for the program. The application deadline is 11:00 pm,
Monday, September 25.
The program is a professional development opportunity that provides an in-depth study
of Creative Commons licenses鈥攈elping you become an expert in open licensing and the
global, shared knowledge commons. In addition to earning a certificate, those who
are selected will also have the opportunity to participate in a supportive cohort
of colleges with optional follow-up events, regional collaboration, and potentially
sharing the experience at related area conferences. Applicants with established OER
or ZTC roles and a clear vision for how they will maximize their Creative Commons
knowledge will be given priority in the selection process. The selection committee
will also strive to ensure the diversity of participants, including discipline and
institutional diversity. .
ZTC Acceleration Grants and ZTC Degree Program Information
If you鈥檙e looking to learn more about the ZTC Acceleration Grants, please consider attending a California Community Colleges Chancellor鈥檚 Office (CCCCO) ZTC Acceleration Grant Info Session from 12:00 鈥 1:00 pm on Tuesday through September 12 (link provided below).
for more information. The following is provided in NOVA under the heading 鈥淕uidance鈥:
Each college has already received a $20,000 planning grant and a $180,000 implementation
grant, for a total of $200,000 per college. Now, through the non-competitive process
outlined below, colleges are eligible to receive additional funding by submitting
the ZTC acceleration grant program plan for up to $200,000 (per program) to develop
and implement additional ZTC associate degrees or career technical education certificates.
Prioritization is to be given to existing associate degrees for transfer.
California Community Colleges are invited to submit program plans to request funding
to develop and implement one or more ZTC program pathways. All courses for a program
pathway must provide instructional materials at no cost to students. The ZTC program
pathway(s) must be developed and implemented by Fall 2026. Implementing a pathway
means that all courses in the program pathway have at least one section that is available
to students in the college鈥檚 schedule of classes that have zero textbook costs.
For questions regarding the ZTC Acceleration Grant Program or Program Plan Submission, please contact ztctap@canyons.edu. For questions regarding payment, reporting processes, or any other NOVA related questions, please contact ztc@cccco.edu.
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Additional ZTC information can be obtained by attending the ZTC Office Monthly Office Hours hosted by the CCCCO and subscribing to the ZTC listserv by sending a request to the CCCCO鈥檚 ZTC email (ztc@cccco.edu). The are held on the last Friday of the month from 9:00 am - 10:00 am.
The OERI has been archiving the messages sent out on the ZTC listserv, as well as other ZTC-relevant messages and information. Access the to find all the latest information about ZTC degrees and related textbook affordability requirements.
New OER
All the OERI products from its 4th funding cycle are in the final stages of review and revision. .
Below are the most recently completed resources. Please be sure to share them with interested colleagues. In addition, we will be highlighting new resources for specific disciplines each month. In September, we are focusing on psychology.
Textbooks
(Hana Kassas, Dr. Layla Bahar Al-Aloom, Sameera Murtada, Maysaa Toma, and Roula Aoneh,
CC BY) is a textbook equivalent to support Introduction to Arabic. It includes interactive
activities.
(Amber Rose Gonz谩lez, Mario Alberto Viveros Espinoza-Kulick, Melissa Moreno, Lucha Ar茅valo, and Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr.; CC BY-NC-SA) is a comprehensive, peer-reviewed introductory textbook written by scholars from the California Community Colleges and California State University. The content, spanning ten chapters, is guided by intersectional, transnational, and relational frameworks that build on current and emergent work in Chicanx and Latinx Studies.
(Kay Fischer, Mario Alberto Viveros Espinoza-Kulick, Ulysses Acevedo, Teresa Hodges, Melissa Leal, and Tamara Cheshire; CC BY-NC) is ideal for an Introduction to Ethnic Studies course. This textbook examines the development of Ethnic Studies as an academic discipline and provides relevant education centering narratives, philosophies, histories, and cultures of Black Indigenous People of Color, while countering eurocentrism and white supremacy. The content includes a comparative approach covering Africana/African American/Black Studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, Chicanx/Latinx Studies, and American Indian/Native American Studies.
(Aline Gregorio, Nazanin Naraghi, Waverly Ray, Jason Scott, Kristin Sellers, and Andrew Wallace, CC BY-NC-SA) was designed to serve as a foundational resource for students taking World Regional Geography courses. This book uses ASCCC鈥檚 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism framework and a critical geography lens and utilizes a thematic approach to world regional geography. This focus enables readers to understand processes driving global inequities and develop a better understanding of contemporary global issues.
Ancillaries
(Cristina Moon, Alejandro Lee, Sarah Harmon and Nancy Mel茅ndez-Ballesteros; CC BY)
The Tarea Libre project is a comprehensive and accessible Open Educational Resources
question bank of 1,400 interactive activities created in and for first-year Spanish courses for California Community Colleges. The content can
be used via ADAPT or linked to a campus Learning Management System via LTI. This LTI
integration seamlessly connects the assigned activities to the grade book streamlining
the assigning and grading of homework. Learn more about the project at the archive
of the
Assignments (Larry Green, Jessica Kuang, Cindy Moss, Scott Hubbard, and Saburo Matsumoto; CC BY)
Materials for Ordinary Differential Equations (C-ID MATH 240) Course ID: 140262
Materials for Introduction to Linear Algebra (C-ID MATH 250) Course ID: 140263
Learn more about MyOpenMath at the following archived webinars:
September Discipline Highlight 鈥 Psychology
Biological Psychology
Last year, the OERI shared the most recent draft of . While the book needs further refinement due to some 鈥渦nevenness鈥 in the length of
its chapters, several of the authors began to use it and others took the time to further
modify it for their use. Faculty who teach a biological psychology course are invited
to consider the following customized version of the text:
搂&苍产蝉辫; () (Sacramento City College)
Abnormal Psychology
In July 2023 a new edition of the Bridley and Daffin text, (CC BY-NC-SA) was introduced. Faculty who are seeking ancillaries in support of this
text might be interested in (Dose, Ibrahim, Means, and Callahan, 2022) (CC BY-NC-SA)
Psychological Statistics
Faculty looking for a statistics text may want to consider (Crump, Navarro, and Suzuk, 2018) (CC BY-SA). Although not new, this resource provides
elements that other resources are lacking. The authors鈥 reason for writing it may
generate some interest:
This is a mildly opinionated, non-traditional introduction to statistics. It acknowledges some of the major ideas from traditional frequentist approaches, and some Bayesian approaches. Much of the conceptual foundation is rooted in simulations that can be conducted in R. We use some formulas, but mostly explain things without formulas. The textbook was written with math-phobia in mind, and attempts to reduce the phobia associated with arithmetic computations. There are many things missing that should probably be added. We will do our best to add necessary things as we update the textbook.
OERI Events 鈥 September OERI Friday Forums
The OERI Friday Forums will be held from 10:30 am 鈥 11:30 am on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month, provided there are no scheduling conflicts (e.g., a holiday).
Due to Labor Day, September鈥檚 OERI Friday Forums will be on the 2nd and 3rd Fridays. All Friday Forum webinars are archived. The ASCCC OERI will provide automated
captioning for all webinars. If you would like to request live human closed-captioning
for any of our offerings, please contact us by e-mail at least 10 business days in advance.
OERI Friday Forums are intended for a diverse audience. Please share with your colleagues. We hope you all will join us!
Friday, September 8, 10:30 am - 11:30 am
The Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Program 鈥 An Overview and Update
In July, the Chancellor鈥檚 Office shared its intent to make 鈥淎cceleration Grants鈥 available to the colleges. An overview of the program plan will be provided to discuss the information required for submission as well as the basic criteria to be used for application awards. Although the stated due date to submit applications for this non-competitive funding opportunity is September 15, colleges can request an extension to November 15 in NOVA. During the webinar, an overview of the ZTC Program will be provided, and a representative from the Chancellor鈥檚 Office will give an update on the current funding phases and answer your questions.
Friday, September 15, 10:30 am 鈥 11:30 am
The Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Program 鈥 Sustainability, Updating Content, and Duplication
allocated to the California Community Colleges $115 million to 鈥渄evelop and implement zero-textbook-cost degrees and develop open educational resources.鈥 It also introduced the further requirements including that districts 鈥淸d]evelop degrees with consideration for sustainability after grant funding is exhausted, including how content is updated and presented,鈥 and that 鈥淸t]he chancellor鈥檚 office shall ensure that a grant does not result in the development or implementation of duplicate degrees for a subject matter to avoid duplication of effort and ensure the development and implementation of the greatest number of degrees for the benefit of the greatest number of students.鈥 In practical terms, what does this mean for your local ZTC efforts? Join us for a lively conversation about avoiding duplication and ensuring currency and sustainability in our ZTC Program efforts.
IDEA and H5P Webinars
The OERI is pleased to share that its IDEA Framework Lead, Tiffany Lanoix, and its
H5P Lead (and Spanish Discipline Lead), Cristina Moon, are providing the following
professional development opportunities during the month of September. We look forward
to hosting an array of Discipline Lead events in October. If you have an idea for
a webinar you would like to see, please let the OERI know (oeri@asccc.org).
Integrating ADAPT in Canvas
Friday, September 8, 1:00 pm 鈥 2:30 pm
ADAPT provides a mechanism for linking openly licensed activities to the Canvas gradebook. In this webinar, we will build auto-graded activities in ADAPT as summative assessments that can be integrated into Canvas and create fill-in the blank, multiple choice, true or false, select choice, and matching ADAPT native questions. We will also demonstrate how to add newly developed questions to an ADAPT assignment and how to use ADAPT in LibreTexts and, if locally available, within Canvas. Additional details regarding ADAPT integration into Canvas will be provided prior to the workshop.
Note: To participate, attendees will need to create both an ADAPT and a LibreStudio account.
How do you access ADAPT?
- Login:
- To create account, go to Contact us, Request Instructor access code
How do you access LibreStudio?
- Go to LibreStudio [ ]
- Then click on the register link [] to set up an account and use ASCCC for access code.
H5P/LibreStudio and ADAPT Office Hours
Friday, September 15, 1:00 pm 鈥 2:00 pm
Join us in office hours to address specific H5P/LibreStudio and ADAPT issues. Access and to learn more about these tools.
Anti-Racism in Action: Applying the IDEA Framework to OER
Friday, September 22, 11:00 am 鈥 12:30 pm
Using Open Educational Resources (OER) is an important element of student equity efforts. Join us for a hands-on training to learn how you can use the ASCCC鈥檚 Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (IDEA) Framework to ensure your course materials reflect anti-racist and culturally relevant pedagogy. In this training you will learn what the IDEA Framework is and how to use it as an assessment tool for your OER. Remember, equity is a journey and not a destination. Let鈥檚 keep going!