Business Division Faculty - Information Sources for Business

"OER" and "ZTC" are often used interchangeably but they are not necessarily the same thing. Here's how they're different.

 OER - Open Educational Resources 

Open Educational Resources (OER) carry an open license. -- Creative Commons - CC which grants permission to access OER materials for free along with the permission to modify the work in the following ways:

• OER Permissions - The 5 Rs
  1. Reuse the material in any context you'd like
  2. Remix the material from multiple resources and combine them to create a new resources
  3. Revise the materials by copying the original text and revising or changing it to meet the local need or context
  4. Retain control of and keep a copy of the material forever
  5. Redistribute or freely share the creation in accordance with the original Creative Commons License

ZTC - Zero Textbook Cost 

ZTC stands for Zero Textbook Cost and is a broad umbrella term for courses where there are no required textbook related costs. These courses may use a combination of openly licensed content, links to scholarly or professional websites, library resources, original content, or other free resources for students. In many cases, ZTC courses utilize a curated collection of many resources rather than a single text.

Some of the learning materials may cost the students zero dollars but a cost is incurred somewhere. For example, materials from Western Library's resources are considered ZTC but not OER. Why?

• While the learning materials cost the students zero dollars, there is a cost to Western Library in the form of database subscription fees and other material costs.