College of the Canyons officials celebrated the Zero-Cost Textbook Program Friday, awarding professors for their success.

The college implemented the OER program in 2014 and has served as a model for other California community colleges looking at zero-textbook cost for students, according to COC officials.

Dozens of students, educators, and administrators from COC met on campus to award faculty because of their success with the Open Educational Resources (OER) program.

OER materials are electronic textbooks that are available, free of cost, in an open domain for students to use immediately, according to officials.

With electronic textbooks, students can potentially save hundreds of dollars, which has held many students from completing more classes, or in some cases actually dropping out due to high costs, according to college faculty.

The OER department is working closely with COC professors to create free digital and printable textbooks in many different COC classes including astronomy, health science and communications.

“I think it’s really cool the faculty has control of content in the textbooks and not some publishing company in England,” said Dean of Learning Resources James Glapa-Grossklag during his speech Friday.

Textbook costs have increased about 88 percent between 2006 and 2016, with college tuition rising about 63 percent within that same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“You’re almost paying to be successful in the class. There’s a lot of classes where if you don’t get your textbook in the first week of class, you already fall behind and that leads to you not being successful in the class,” said Tariq Speights a current COC student. ”That’s why I think OER is a great program that cut the costs for students and giving them a chance to be successful.”

COC students that would like to view a comprehensive list of free OER textbooks the college has created can visit the website here.

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