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Open Education Resources

This guide includes resources and information about Open Education and Open Educational Resources

Events

Open Education Week at Camosun

Open Education Week 2024 was March 4-8.  

While the Information Tables from the beginning of the week did not work out as anticipated, we ended the week with a bang and the Camosun College Open Education Recognition Awards.  I thought I would share with you some brief statements about the 41 recipients for you here.  A big thanks to BCcampus who provided funding for this event.

When I really think about the role of Open Education in our learning spaces, I think of Kayla Lar-Son's (Indigenous programs and services librarian at UBC) 6Rs of Indigenous Open Education: (Indigenous programs and services librarian at UBC) respect, relationships, responsibility, reverence, relevance, and reciprocity. These concepts are not only vital to honouring Indigenous knowledge and sovereignty in our work as educators, but also key to the work we do in Open Education in general.

  • When working in Open Education we must have respect for the work we do in this space, the students we are doing it for, and for the people who engage in the work.
  • We have a responsibility to provide our students with affordable education and to our colleagues to support them to meet that goal.
  • Building and nurturing relationships are key to collaborating and working together.
  • Reciprocity is central to the ideals behind Open Education through sharing the open work we create.
  • Because Open Educational Resources are flexible and can be adapted, we can provide more relevant resources and curriculum for our students.
  • And we need to remember how important it is that we show reverence for the people who engage in this work – and this is what we are gathered here today to do, celebrating for the second year in a row the open education work of our faculty at the college.

This year’s recipients embody these 6Rs, as faculty members who have made profound contributions to open education at Camosun College and demonstrated an impact on student learning and student costs by utilizing, designing, or adapting open resources in their instruction.

Puja Gupta, Community Learning Partnerships and Academic Career Foundations: Puja is passionate about providing her students with access to free resources and has adapted a combination of Open Textbooks for her courses.

Education and Career Planning (EDCP) Program (Diane Gilliland, Val Neaves, Allyson Butt: EDCP is a online seven-week tuition-free program which provides its learners with free online readings.

Katie Waterhouse, Anthropology: Katie has been using an Open Textbook for one course since 2020, and in 2020 moved away from a textbook to library resources for another.

Leanne Pyle, Geoscience: Leanne has been using Open Textbooks to support her students in Geos 100 since 2019 and moved Geos110 to all Open Textbooks in 2020.

Susan Chen, Math and Statistics: 10 years ago, Susan began using an Open textbook and online homework system for her Statistics 116 course and is a department leader in building OER for her classes.

Patricia Wrean, Math and Statistics: Pat has been a steadfast supporter of her students by making her classes more accessible for them, including using WeBWorK to provide free online homework problems.

Stephanie Ingraham, Physics: Stephanie created an Open Textbook for Physics of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy, and while the original course has been altered, she plans to take what she created and use it in future teaching.

Randal Tonks, Psychology: Randal has been using an Introduction to Psychology Open Textbook for 10 years in his section of Psychology 130.  In addition, Randal has helped to create an instructor’s test bank to support this text.

Michelle Clement, Marketing: From 2019-2021, Michelle adapted an Open Textbook, The Power of Selling.  A year later, she added supplementary material to encourage faculty to adopt the book.

Adventure Education (John Telford and Michael Pardy) and Sport Management (Charles Parkinson, Brianna Waldman, Chris Psutka, Anthony Pluta, Robert Bettauer, Michael Suraci, Graham Thomson, Simon Cass). These two programs are completely ZTC, using a combination of academic articles, research studies, etc. to support their courses.

Liz Morch, Dental Hygiene: Liz created a WordPress site covering basic topics in nutrition to support her DHYG328 Nutrition course and for anyone who needs access to academically sound nutrition resources.

Brian Coey, Sheet Metal: Brian has created several Open Textbooks with videos and animations for the BCcampus collection, including Pattern Development for all four apprenticeship levels.

Kyle Broad, Sheet Metal: Kyle, as a department chair, has not been directly involved in the development of OER, but supports faculty in his area who are engaged in OER development.

Plumbing and Pipe Trades Department (Al Paterson, Alasdair Reid, Andrea Durdle, Andy Wilson, Darren Hall, Darren Vaux, Dennis Morris, Derek Meadows, Josh Stull, Landon Martin, Robert Medwid, Rodney Lidstone, Ron Perkin, Steve Nixon, Steve Bitschy, Flynn Boles, James Smyth): These faculty members have been trailblazers in Open Education for years and have contributed many textbooks to the BCcampus Open Textbook collection.

Gwenda Bryan, Library: Open Education has its roots in librarians and their support for open access resources.  We recognize Gwenda for her work on Camosun’s Open Education LibGuide and many other advocacy pieces with CETL, faculty and students.

List of Open Education Week Resources