Welcome Faculty!
Interested in transforming your course into a low-textbook cost (LTC) or zero-textbook cost (ZTC) course? Simply curious to see what all the excitement is about?! Well look no further as we have all the information you need!
Quick Links
Textbook adoption form. If you are using any LTC or ZTC textbooks, please submit using this form each semester. This allows the CALM Committee to help ensure you receive the proper label in the class schedule (and may help boost your enrollments too!)
CALM Committee. We meet twice a month and everyone is welcome to attend our Zoom meetings! Find out more information (including how you can become a member of the committee when we have openings).
Newsletters (current and archive). Review our current and past newsletters to stay hip and in the know.
Historical information on CALM. Interested in learning about how we got where we are today? Look no further than our historical archives!
CALM Faculty FAQs
Can you give me a quick overview of CALM?
The cost of textbooks is prohibitive for many of our students. CALM works with our faculty to help you find and create affordable textbook and learning materials options. When textbooks are free (or low cost), students are able to begin the semester with all the tools they need for success.
The affordable textbook movement has a lot of acronyms, so to help we have assembled a quick overview:
- CALM (Comets Affordable Learning Materials). This is the name for the affordable textbook program here at Palomar. This acronym was chosen to mirror CSU San Marcos’s affordable textbook program, for the consistency of our students (their CALM program incorporates their Cougar mascot in their name).
- OER (Open Educational Resources). This is the name given to all materials created with an open license, allowing anyone to adopt and use the free materials. All OER are zero cost, but not all zero cost materials are necessarily OER.
- LTC (Low Textbook Cost). In order for courses to receive the LTC logo in the class schedule, the total of all required textbooks must be $40 or less, as priced from the campus bookstore. The reason why the price must be what is listed at our bookstore (rather than just found anywhere online) is that our students receiving financial aid can only spend their textbook money at our campus bookstore. Materials fees are not currently included in this criteria.
- ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost). In order for courses to receive the ZTC logo in the class schedule, all required textbooks must be available for free to our students. It is ok for an option to purchase a physical copy of the textbook to be available to students, however all students must have individual access to the free option in order to qualify for the ZTC logo. Often ZTC courses are OER, though not always.
How can I get a logo next to my course in the class schedule?
Faculty who have adopted Low Textbook Cost (LTC) or Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) textbooks are eligible to receive a logo indicating such in our online class schedule. By submitting your textbook information through the Textbook adoption form the bookstore is notified and works with the District to ensure the logos are placed.
ZTC. Zero Textbook Cost
This ZTC logo will appear next to your section in the online class schedule if all your required textbooks are available for free to students. Your course may also list the option to purchase a physical copy of the textbook, but all students must have individual access to the free option in order to qualify for the ZTC logo. Your students must not be required to purchase any textbooks in order to succeed in your class.
LTC. Low Textbook Cost
This LTC logo will appear next to your section in the online class schedule so long as the total cost of all required textbooks for your course is be $40 or less, as priced from the campus bookstore. While students may of course find their books cheaper elsewhere, we are required to use the bookstore pricing so that those students receiving financial aid are able to purchase their textbooks as low-cost.
How do I adopt an LTC or ZTC textbook?
Many faculty have participated in the CALM program and created resources for their courses (which are free and available to all faculty to use and adopt). Browse our CALM Creations to see if your course is already represented! If your course is not listed, fret not – there are many more resources available (which we explore further down this page).
Finding OER
Simultaneously the greatest joy and frustration is the fact that there are many resources for faculty in finding OER materials to adopt, adapt, and use in their courses. Currently there is no singular clearinghouse to search; you will need to grab your detective gear and hunt through this collection of repositories to see if other enterprising faculty have already created OER useful to your course. The CALM Committee is here to help answer your questions and work with you through your searches too!
OER Repositories
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Palomar Library CALM Guide | List of OER materials compiled by Palomar librarians, organized by subject. |
| California Community Colleges CVC | California Community Colleges California Virtual Campus (CVC) website with information on copyright and licensing and many links to OER repositories. |
| Cool4Ed: California Open Online Library for Education | CC, CSU, and UC collaboration. Browse by subject. Many reviews. Includes materials in MERLOT, the existing repository of open learning objects hosted by the CSU. |
| Community College Consortium for OER | Select from their collection of links to search for open textbooks, open journals, subject-specific OER projects, and general OER repositories. The site also serves as a community of practice for cc professors adopting OER. |
| College Open Textbooks | Browse for textbooks by subject. 550 are listed and more than 100 have been reviewed by college faculty. |
| OER Commons | Search for lessons, case studies, data sets, and more. |
| OpenStax | Browse by subject. 20 textbooks for common cc gateway courses. |
| Open SUNY Textbooks | New York State | Browse or search. Includes more specialized subjects than OpenStax. Includes a list of forthcoming titles. |
| Open Textbook Library | Browse or search this collection based at the University of Minnesota. The Open Textbook Network consists of 350 member institutions. |
| British Columbia Open Textbook Project | Browse by subject. Includes more specialized subjects than OpenStax. 173 books listed and 79 reviewed by college faculty. |
| Skills Commons | Free and open learning materials and program support materials for job-driven workforce development. The $1.9 billion investment by the US Department of Labor produced a comprehensive collection of workforce-related Open Educational Resources (OER) created by over 700 community colleges across the nation. |
| WikiUniversity: OER Adoptions by colleges | This wiki shows adoptions organized by disciplines and colleges. |
| OASIS | Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 63 different sources and contains 160,433 records. OASIS is being developed at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library in consultation with Alexis Clifton, SUNY OER Services Executive Director. |
| Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources list serve | This is a curated list from topics posted to the CCCOER Advisory Google Group. |
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