*Note: This session has passed. Please view the resources and recordings below. 

You have adapted your course to ensure materials are free for students, but how can students choose to save money if they aren’t aware of their zero textbook cost (ZTC) course options? Learn from B.C. post-secondary institutions — including Thompson Rivers University, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Community College — that have created ZTC offerings for students. The panel of speakers will describe how they made ZTC course information visible and discoverable at their institutions and how highlighting or marking ZTC courses allowed students to make informed decisions regarding the cost of their course materials. Together, we can help students find the free path. 

Speaker bios:

Brenda Smith

Benda Smith (she/her) is the open education librarian at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. She is a past recipient of a BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education and supports open education by conducting workshops and webinars, helping faculty identify existing open educational resources (OER), and co-facilitating open textbook sprints.

Elena Kuzima

Elena Kuzmina (she/her) is the copyright and OER coordinator and a librarian at Vancouver Community College (VCC). In her role as OER coordinator, she advances an OER strategy that increases stakeholder engagement. Her master’s degree in library studies is from the University of British Columbia, and her MA in linguistics is from Kharkiv University.

As a SPARC Open Leadership Fellow, Elena focused on OER accessibility and discoverability. In collaboration with the VCC marketing team, she developed a novel approach to highlighting ZTC programs on the VCC website. The free textbook symbol featured on program pages makes programs that use OER visible to potential students. The public-facing OER website linked to ZTC programs aids in the discoverability of OER. 

Amanda Grey

Amanda Grey (she/her) is an open education strategist at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), supporting faculty in the sharing, creating, and use of open education practices and facilitating open education initiatives such as the ZTC initiative, the OER grant program, and KPU’s Open Publishing Suite. As a trained librarian, Amanda has worked on open education initiatives for several B.C. institutions.

Archives:

• Find the Free Path Making ZTC Courses Visible Transcript [DOC]
• Find the Free Path Making ZTC Courses Visible Transcript [PDF]