A Pessimist’s Guide to Open Technologies

Posted on January 22, 2023 by eschudel

Here I am, January 2023, starting my third course in the open education program and here is my first assignment blog post for the course, on open educational technologies.

This week we are supposed to be “building on your reflections from weeks one and two, as well as the readings, research the bigger picture of the social and community aspects of open educational technologies as well as their sustainability, and reflect on the following questions:

  • How is the software developed?
  • How is it supported? By whom?
  • What is the licensing regime?
  • What is the nature of community involvement?
  • What types of support are available to an educator who wishes to use this tool?
  • How does it support or enhance teaching, learning and/or related processes?
  • Is there a governance structure for the project? How are decisions made within the project?”

But I have found myself struggling with the assignment this week perhaps because start-up this term seems to have been more stressful than usual, due to on-boarding many new and term faculty who have problems accessing the basics at the college, let alone the educational technology they need to support their students. While I agree that we all share ethical responsibilities to use and support tools that are open, provide much more access, and support collaborative community engagement, when the realities of life in a small post secondary institution hit the way they have this term, I can’t imagine having to support multiple tools as well as the myriad of new faculty and student challenges with navigating tech in general.

Now, to be clear, I do use open technologies in my work (probably more than I know I do, as I am honestly not sure of the status of technologies supported institutionally aside from the library’s Sitka Evergreen which I addressed in a discussion posting in week 1 of this course.). I do, however, promote and nominally support Pressbooks (the BCcampus instance), WordPress (the OpenETC instance) and H5P. When I say I support, I mean me, although a few of my instructional designer colleagues are now working with faculty on WordPress and H5P. But if those faculty (or the students who have been set up for course projects) try to contact our more central support, they will be redirected to me. Sustainable? Absolutely not. Necessary? You betcha – there is nothing else supported by the college that will do what these tools do, and the need is clear. But institutionally, I don’t see central support for them coming any time soon. Which is why an entity like OpenETC is so valuable for those of us who have no other options.

My question is more along the lines of what happens when I leave? Not that I plan on leaving any time soon, but I feel the weight of responsibility to share the load for these tools, so to speak, knowing that my colleagues are overburdened with everything else they are doing (including the aforementioned just getting new faculty up to speed on the things that are actually supported institutionally).

I think what really did it for me in our readings this week was Kahle’s discussion of open technologies allowing for meeting individual needs. When I consider this, I honestly want to call it a day. We already have so many demands to make the tools we support now work the way people think they should (because wouldn’t that be so much better). At least now we can say sorry we can’t do that and move on. I can’t help but imagine a nightmare scenario of Frankenstein proportions. Choice is only great when you are not talking about the individual wants of a thousand different people who don’t necessarily understand the concept of compromise.

But one other thing that resonated in the readings from this week was Morgan’s statement “There’s a lot of room for conversations about open ed tech in higher education that still need to happen. For example, what are the social justice considerations? What kind of open source technology literacy is needed at the leadership level so that decisions can be informed? Where are the institutional case studies who have moved to a more open source ed tech ecosystem?”

If the leadership in our institutions (not just at the college-level, but at the provincial level as well) don’t understand what adopting, adapting, creating, and most of all supporting open technology means, let alone what open source tools actually are and can do, I foresee only those institutions who already have capacity and lone rangers in place leading the charge to fuller openness, and others like mine being left further and further behind in the dust.

But when I think about one of our proprietary tools recently being bought out by another for its client list, meaning we are now having to switch to yet another proprietary tool because we simply do not have the capacity to adopt an open equivalent which would also offer much less functionality for our faculty, well I think maybe it’s time to think about retirement…

References

Kahle’s (2008) chapter Designing Open Educational Technology. (found in T. Iiyoshi & M. S. V. Kumar Eds., pp. 27–45).

Morgan, T. (2019, February 4). Open infrastructure and open education practices. Explorations in the Ed Tech World. https://homonym.ca/uncategorized/open-infrastructure-and-open-education-practices/

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 12

Posted on January 16, 2023 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from November 28.

Hi everyone!

Today I wanted to reflect a bit on some of the social justice perspective of Open Education both as presented in this year’s Open Education conference and in the courses I am taking from Kwantlen.

It should be of no surprise to anyone here receiving this email that Open Educational Practices (OEP) can go a long way toward addressing inequities in education.  In fact, the main goal of practitioners is to work towards a world where education is available to all, inclusive of the many diverse voices in our world, and accessible to anyone.  Lofty goals to be sure, and challenging given the complexity of our global community, and given the fact that so many of our educational institutions are built on, and sustaining of, colonial and elitist practices (and I recognize that I myself am the beneficiary of these practices given my own location in societal spaces.)  But OEP can help break down some of these old practices – and even integrating one or two can help move us, as members of the post-secondary education community, closer to those lofty goals.

At its simplest, OEP involve bringing cost savings to our students.  Open Textbooks and OER can go a long way to supporting students who have so many challenges when coming to post-secondary education.  My opinion is that it is well worth taking some time to investigate how you can reduce or eliminate course material costs for your students (librarians and folks in CETL can help you!)  And if you can work with colleagues in your department or program, all the better!  Institutions like KPU track which courses are ZTC (zero textbook costs) and students overwhelmingly appreciate not having to worry about paying for textbooks, or worse, worry about how their course and program outcomes may suffer because they can’t afford to buy their textbooks. 

Adapting or creating OER means you can bring in diverse voices into your course materials and share them with your colleagues and the world.  You don’t have to take a textbook on its face value, explaining to students why some of the material is irrelevant (or worse) to our Canadian/BC/Camosun context.  Find an existing open textbook and adapt it, fill in the gaps, work with others (including students) to be inclusive and to ensure that it becomes a living document, not a static book stuck in the past (and in this quickly changing world, even a 2-year-old book can be obsolete!)

Working our way to Open Pedagogy we start to bring in more student voices, to include their experiences, but also to give them more agency in their learning.  Think about it:  content is everywhere!  A quick google search brings you a world of information, so what do we as instructors bring to the table for our students?  Giving students choice in their assessments, asking them to identify (and potentially fill-in) gaps in your open textbook, or to evaluate the resources you have provided them are just a few examples of how to encourage students to take more control of their learning.  Choice is key.  Some students may not feel comfortable being given too much agency (especially if they come from very traditional – read Western – educational experiences).  Taking a more programmatic approach, we could scaffold students into finding their voice and confidence to contribute.  In other words, baby steps.

So many thoughts and ideas in my head around this, and I confess to being a little frustrated knowing that we, as an institution, aren’t probably ready to embrace all of this at once (remember baby steps?)  But we can start somewhere – how about talking in your departments and program groups about moving to open textbooks and/or ZTC for your courses and programs?  Reach out to your librarian or CETL to start a conversation about what you can do to bring open education to your students, your colleagues, your leadership.  And perhaps we can move Camosun towards those lofty goals of Open Education.

Around Camosun

Open Education Week is March 6-10, 2023, and Camosun is planning on putting on some events to celebrate this year!  We have some tentative things planned I wanted to share with you – and if you are interested in learning more, volunteering to help with something, or have some ideas of your own to share, let me know!

  • Open Education “table sessions” in the Fisher foyer (poster sessions, resources, people to talk about Open Education and what is happening at Camosun)
  • Open Education Conversation Café
  • Open Educational resources display at the Lansdowne Library
  • We will also be launching our new Open Education Libguide that week!

Around BC

Check out the BCcampus Book Club: The Open Edition.  Starting in January, join folks from around the world to discuss three different open books:

  • March 6 – March 31: Selected readings from Designing for Care
    • One-hour synchronous session Mar. 28 at 11 a.m. PT

Around the World

Check out this article in the open access journal, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning: Impact of COVID-19 on Formal Education: An International Review of Practices and Potentials of Open Education at a Distance | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (irrodl.org) in which the authors “after comparing examples of existing practice of open education at a distance, make recommendations and offer insights into how open education strategies can lead to interventions that are effective and innovative—to improve formal education at a distance in schools and universities in the future.”

Finally

I am still looking to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience! 

Have questions?  Looking for an Open Textbook for your course(s), or OERs to take your course/program to ZTC (zero textbook cost)?  Want to talk about a potential Open Education project (or are your students interested in talking or hearing about OpenEd)?  Contact Emily Schudel and/or Gwenda Bryan! 

Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

I think that is all for today – thanks for listening and see you in a couple of weeks!

Emily

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 11

Posted on January 9, 2023 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from November 15.

Hi everyone!

I promised a few more specific reflections on the Open Ed conference in October, so in this email I wanted to say a few words about the opening plenary for the conference, which was a panel discussion with “current students and recent graduates examined student leadership in higher education and how it intersects with open education.”  While the students on the panel were all from American institutions, I think it’s fair to say that many of the challenges they discussed would be relevant here in Canada. 

Students on the panel discussed the impact Open Education can have on reducing inequities through eliminated traditional textbook (and associated homework system) costs, providing open research and data for science students, providing more accessible content (as well as creating opportunities for diverse voices to be integrated into the open content), and giving students more agency in their education by engaging them in non-disposable assignments, etc.

What I found most interesting was the discussion of continuity of institutions engaging with student leaders around Open Education, since typically those students are only associated with an institution for a few years.  And with regards to engaging, what can this look like given that students are busy trying to get an education, and often don’t have time to get involved (not to mention that not all students want to get involved with advocacy of any kind at their institutions – they just want to get their credentials and move on). 

But most of all what I heard was a reminder that students are adults who are more than capable of taking ownership of their education if we let them, advocating for what is right (from cost savings to the climate crisis), and spreading the word about how Open Education can support themselves and their institutions – we just need to ask them, engage with them, and find ways to fairly and safely bring them on board in ways that work for them.

View the entire panel discussion on YouTube.

Around Camosun

If you are interested in open resources around Indigenization, BCcampus has produced several open Pulling Together guides. 

I am still looking to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience! 

 Have questions?  Looking for an Open Textbook for your course(s), or OERs to take your course/program to ZTC (zero textbook cost)?  Want to talk about a potential Open Education project (or are your students interested in talking or hearing about OpenEd)?  Contact Emily Schudel and/or Gwenda Bryan! 

Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

Around BC

Check out SFU’s new commitment to open education | SFU Library

And also have a look at this Open Curriculum mapping tool developed by BCcampus: Curriculum Map: A Tool for Mapping, Analysis and Planning – BCcampus

Call for proposals Open Education talks 2023  (University of Calgary)

“We are excited to announce the second annual offering of The Open Education Talks first offered in 2022 as The Open Pedagogy Talks, a series of lightning talks focusing on open education in postsecondary institutions. These 15-minute talks will be about facets of open education, including open pedagogy and learning, utilizing open educational resources, and integrating open strategies in higher education.  The purpose of these talks is to create an accessible, virtual space to engage in conversations about open education. We encourage talks that are student-led or otherwise showcase the important role of student-educator collaborations in open education, and welcome proposals from educators, students, administrators, librarians, instructional designers, and all other roles related to the design, delivery, and evaluation of open education in postsecondary institutions.  For these talks, we share our understanding of open education, which is from the UNESCO Cape Town Declaration:  “…open education is not limited to just open educational resources. It also draws upon open technologies that facilitate collaborative, flexible learning and the open sharing of teaching practices that empower educators to benefit from the best ideas of their colleagues” (UNESCO Cape Town Declaration, 2018).

Interested speakers are invited to submit a proposal for a 15-minute talk that falls under the umbrella of the following topics:

  *   Exploring Open Education:: These talks focus on the facets of open education, why it has been impactful in higher education, and examples in higher education.

  *   Open Learning Design: These talks focus on integrating open learning principles into current and future program and course designs.

  *   Creating Open Educational Resources: These talks focus on creating, identifying, using, and sharing open educational resources in higher education.

  *   Open Scholarship and Research Practices: These talks focus on how educators and learners integrate open research into their courses and scholarship of teaching and learning practices.

Talks Schedule: Every Wednesday in March, 2023 at 12:30 PM MST”

I think that is all for today!

Emily

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 10

Posted on December 16, 2022 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from November 1.

Well, well, well.  Can you believe it’s November already?  How did that happen?  I guess time waits for no one.

Anyway, today I want to share with you some reflections on the Open Education conference that took place online a couple of weeks ago.  It was an amazing conference, as usual, with jam packed days of sessions, from a student panel plenary to a multitude of live sessions, recorded sessions, and poster sessions.  I believe many of the recordings will eventually be available openly, but for now let me give you some highlights from my perspective.

First, one theme that stood out for me was around who does Open Education work, or rather, who is privileged to do this work and what kind of value is put on this work by institutions.  Sure, some institutions have OER support resources and offer faculty and staff incentives (like time and money) to created OER and to work on Open Pedagogy and Open course design. But by far the majority of people trying to engage in open work are doing it off the sides of their desk, where the work becomes essentially free labour for the institution.  Why would an institution resource Open Education if people are engaging in its practices for free?  I won’t unpack this more here, but food for thought. 

Second, engagement of students in Open Education. Hearing from students and how they are or how they are not being engaged in Open Education (and the complexity of including all students and developing continuity of knowledge as students come and go) was both inspiring and somewhat heart breaking as it becomes more and more challenging for students to come into post secondary education spaces with rising costs and lack of flexibility for access. 

Third, including diverse voices and supporting inclusivity and equity in Open Education.  This year’s conference theme was “Rise to Action” and many of the conference sessions discussed the interaction of Open Education and Social Justice.  If you have not yet read the UNESCO recommendations around Open Educational Resources, that is a good place to start if you want to learn more about how vital Open Education is to creating equitable educational opportunities globally. 

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working on a more thorough reflection on the conference as a whole and some of the sessions which really stood out for me, as well as compiling and organizing some of the resources shared during the sessions. 

On to other things…

Just released is a Special Issue of the Journal for Multicultural Education on The Intersections of Open Educational Practices and Equity Pedagogy. “In this special issue, we sought to further the discussion with a focus on pedagogical considerations and practical applications of equitable OEP, adding to the current dialogue and critical questions posed by scholars around the world.”

Check out the Winners of Open Education Awards for Excellence 2022 – OEGlobal

I am still looking to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience! 

Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

That is all for today…take care and keep warm!

Emily 

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Week 6 Assessment: Multimedia Presentation – on Open Access

Posted on December 11, 2022 by eschudel

And now, the final assessment of my second course!  This assignment is stretching me out of my comfort zone by making me create a video.  Not that I haven’t created videos before to present materials, but just that it is one additional layer of complexity that is making me over think things and wonder if I can ever get this done.  But, here goes!

“In this final assignment, you will create a 10-minute recorded presentation that discusses any aspect of open science, open data, or open access.  You could choose to share your key learnings in the course, an open project you are aspiring to, challenges you are facing, your philosophies; or simply your thoughts on one of the many topics encountered throughout the course.  You could consider recording a video, a podcast, a screencast, an animation or a narrated PowerPoint, but your presentation should be provided in a recorded, digital format.”  Phew…that was a lot of work!  You can also access my slides if you like – everything is CC-BY licenced!

This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

References and Attributions

Cham, Jorge, et al. 2012.  Open Access Explained. CC-BY, Attribution: PHD Comics  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY

Cornell University Library.  ND.  Open Access Publishing : What is Open Access? CC-BY, Attribution: Cornell University Library. https://guides.library.cornell.edu/openaccess

Meadowcroft, Taira.  2020.  Journal Prices Increase More than True Inflation. Library News, University of Missouri. https://library.missouri.edu/news/lottes-health-sciences-library/scholarly-publishing-and-the-health-sciences-library

Program for Open Scholarship and Education. 2021. CC-BY, Attribution: Program for Open Scholarship and Education https://pose.open.ubc.ca/

SPARC. ND. Open Access. CC-BY, Attribution: SPARC https://sparcopen.org/open-access/

SPARC Europe. 2022. Open Access Challenges.  CC-BY, Attribution SPARC Europe https://sparceurope.org/what-we-do/open-access/open-access-challenges/

Suber, Peter. 2012. Open Access.  Cambridge, Mass: MIT Pres. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10752204/9780262517638_Open_Access.pdf

Posted in Open, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 9

Posted on December 6, 2022 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from October 18.

Hi all!

So, this the second day of the Open Education conference (and I will be sending lots of goodies from the conference in the next emails). It’s been quite the amazing conference so far.  Yesterday we heard student voices around advocating for Open Education, heard about strategies for institutions like ours with currently no formal support for OER initiatives, and so far, have met (and re-met) a lot of amazing people ranging from those who have worked in this field for year, to brand newbies.  Over 1600 participants online this year!  There is a lot to absorb, and I am taking lots of notes in hopes of sharing something more formally to everyone at Camosun in the near future.

However, for this open ed email, I would like to give you some links to sites (some taken from the current Camosun Open Libguide) where you can find open images, and other amazing things to supplement your own open work, and you teaching, and some news about upcoming conferences and webinars you might be interested in attending.

Open or Copyright Free Images

Note that only CC or Public Domain images can be adapted.  For others, make sure to abide by any terms of use provided by the owner of the content.  Also make sure to talk to your subject matter Librarian or to our Copyright Officer (Young Joo) to check on any images you want to include in your Open work.

  • Canadian Archives: If you have the fortitude and the patience to wade through their sometimes-confusing search engines and parameters to find Public Domain images 
  • Creative Commons Content Directories: Lists websites providing images, music, video, and text that use Creative Commons licensing.
  • Flickr:  Source of images and videos. (If doing a general search, make sure to select the Creative Commons option first)
  • Getty Open Content Program: The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required. Open content images are identified with a “Download” link.
  • Google Advanced Image Search: Use the “Usage Rights” option to search for copyright-free materials.
  • National Science Foundation (US): Images credited to the National Science Foundation are in the public domain. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and non-profit/non-commercial use only.
  • Openverse (NEW!!): Openly Licensed Images, Audio and More | Openverse (wordpress.org)
  • Pixabay: Look for images in the public domain or creative commons domain deed CC0. Exceptions: some sponsored images (ex. from Shutterstock) will appear at the top of any search result (usually marked with an x through the image) – these images are not free and have copyright restrictions.
  • Sheridan College’s list of CC and Public Domain images sites
  • Smithsonian Open Access: Download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images. Access nearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
  • TinEye: A reverse image search made in Canada.  Use to find where images appear online
  • Unsplash:  As per their license: “All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.”
  • Wikimedia Commons: Find images, video and audio. Content is generally public domain or creative commons licensed.

Image Accessibility

Whenever you use images in your work, whether it’s on a WordPress site, in D2L, or in a PowerPoint or WORD document you are sharing, make sure you are paying attention to image accessibility to ensure equitable access by anyone.  Here are a couple of sites to help you with image accessibility.

Next week is Open Access week!

“Open Access Week 2022 is an opportunity to join together, take action, and raise awareness around how open can be a means for climate justice.” Find out more about events around the world at OpenAccessWeek.org

And that’s all for this email – I am off to more amazing presentations!  Have a great week.

Emily 

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 8

Posted on November 29, 2022 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from October 4 – it’s like the time rubber band is snapping ever closer to today!

Good morning everyone!

Wow, time flies.  Seems like only yesterday I was sending out an email about Open Education news and stuff, and here we are again.  Maybe today what you might be interested in hearing a bit about is the program I am taking through Kwantlen Polytechnic, the Professional Program in Open Education.   One of our Camosun Open champions, Brian Coey, is also taking the course I am currently in right now: Theory & Philosophy of Open Education, where in the past 2 weeks we have discussed the history, purposes, and definitions of Open Ed, as well as some historical perspectives.

We have been having some lively discussions about the definition(s) of Open Education in our first two weeks, and I have been finding myself wondering more and more about what it means to be Open and if institutions can truly be open if their governing bodies are not.  I know, deep thinking going on here.  You can get a better sense of my tangled thinking in my first assessment blog post.

If you are interested, here are the readings we reviewed to guide our thinking in these initial weeks.  They are well worth the time if you have it:

And now, here are a couple of new open online resources I thought might interest you:

  • Open Pedagogy as a tool for Student Empowerment webinar through the Community College Consortium for OER (Registration) – their webinars are great (there is one every month)
  • Biology OER resources – assignments, labs, projects on the searchable Qubes Hub:  (Anyone can use the qubes hub without joining, but anyone can join qubes and it’s free.)   
  • Open Medical Terminology textbook (it was produced in the US, but remember, with OER you can adapt!!)
  • Hypothesis – a free online annotation tool (you HAVE to check it out!!)

And now to other things:

  • I am still looking to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience! 
  • Have questions?  Want to talk about a potential Open Education project (or are your students interested in talking or hearing about OpenEd)?  Contact Emily Schudel and/or Gwenda Bryan!
  • Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!
  • Open Education Conference 2022 (October 17-22, virtual!)  Find out more and register at: https://openeducationconference.org/2022 

Well, that’s all for today!  Let me know if you have resources for me to include or any questions you would like me to address in these emails.  Thanks all!

Emily 

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Week 4 Assessment: Open Pedagogy Project Plan

Posted on November 27, 2022 by eschudel

And now, on to Week 4 of my course, and this week “Now that you’ve explored a range of tools, strategies and approaches; you will consider what you might use to support the creation of an Open Pedagogy project of your own design   This conceptualization can be an assignment, set of assignments, course design, student co-created OER project, or any combination of the elements.”

For this project, I am taking something I am co-developing right now and integrate open pedagogy/open collaboration into the project.  I think this will be a doable project with easily attainable goals which will result in a definable outcome. And also introduce a open tool for online engagement to our college community.

1) A project title: Open Education Libguide Community Engagement and Collaboration

2) A project overview: The Libguide (library research guide) for Open Education at my institution (Camosun College) has been outdated for a very long time, and this term as I take on more responsibility for Open Ed initiatives at the college, and as the open education portfolio is shifted to another librarian, we have decided to revise the libguide and bring it up to modern times. 

We were fortunate to discover another institution’s (Okanagan College) libguide matches very closely with our vision, so just this last week received permission to copy it and adapt it.  As we work on the updates, however, we think it is important to engage with our community, from librarians, to colleagues in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, to students, to faculty, to leadership, etc., but how best to do this?  Yes, we can have a survey or focus groups, and we will likely do some of this work in the new year, but what about ongoing commenting, feedback, and suggestions for additions?

Then I remembered Hypothes.is!  What a great way to get ongoing comments and feedback on any site on the open web.

3) List of your goals:

  • The first goal is to adapt the libguide we have copied from Okanagan College and make any changes we think need to be part of our own Open Education libguide.  We hope to complete this work in December so that in January we can soft-launch the new Open Ed libguide to the college.
  • At the same time, we need to come up with a communication plan introducing readers of the libguide to Hypothes.is and walking them through how to comment on the libguide publicly.
  • This open consultation/collaboration using Hypothes.is will be a pilot for us at the college as well, so we will need to provide our Director with a purpose statement and measurable goals for this as well.
  • After collecting feedback and comments for the Winter term, we can fully launch the new, collaboratively adapted Open Education Libguide to Camosun College and the world.
  • The libguide itself will become a living resource, where anyone can give feedback, comments, or collaborate with us to keep it current and relevant.

4) A list of tools, strategies, and approaches that could support your project:

  • Information about how specifically Hypothes.is can be used to collect collaborative feedback.
  • Best practice documents around using Hypothes.is.
  • Selecting faculty from across the college and providing them with information on how to use Hypothes.is to give feedback, and also what specifically we are looking for.
  • Example communication/education plans for engaging communities around using Hypothes.is and providing good critical feedback.

5) A list of resources that you will use to support your plan

Posted in Open, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 7

Posted on November 21, 2022 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from September 20 – getting closer to being caught up!  Some of the information here is specific to Camosun faculty, but this will give you a glimpse into the journey we have been embarking on for the past couple of years in our Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.  And if you have any comments or suggestions around how we are trying to spread the word about Open Education, let me know!

Good morning everyone!

Well, it is now past mid-September, and I hope that the initial rush of the new fall term has settled into more manageable chaos. In a few months, those of you in CCFA will be starting to think about SD projects for Spring 2023 (I know, 2023??) and maybe some of you are thinking of Open Education as a project you would like to spend some time on. If you are interested in adapting an open textbook, creating some OER, maybe developing some H5P activities, designing open pedagogy assignments for your students…whatever it may be, we in CETL are here to help you think about an Open Education project to support you and your students. Our Instructional Designers and Faculty Developers would be happy to sit down and talk about your ideas, help you put a proposal together, and support you as you work on your project before, during, and after your SD time. You can find our contact information on our website.

On a related note, I am trying to find out who is using open textbooks and OER in their teaching at Camosun.  If you are using an open textbook in your course(s), or you know someone else who is, and I have not already had a chat with you, please send me an email because I would really love to talk to you more about your experience!

 ​Searching for open resources for your courses?  Here are some reminders of where you can find OER:

Ask your librarian – not sure who your librarian is? Check here: Ask a Librarian

Ask me (Emily)!

And here are some common places to try:

Have questions? Want to talk about a potential Open Education project (or are your students interested in hearing about OpenEd)? Contact Emily Schudel and/or Gwenda Bryan!

Share the joy – CETL (Emily) is available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

The Open Education Conference 2022 i coming up, October 17-22, and once again it will be virtual!  Find out more and register at: https://openeducationconference.org/2022

Well, that’s all for today.  Enjoy the rest of your week!!

Emily 

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Open Education News and Stuff – Post 6

Posted on November 16, 2022 by eschudel

We are catching up – here is my Open Education News and Stuff from September 6 – remember the beginning of this new term?  Seems like a very long time ago…

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the first day of a brand-new term.  I know today, and this week, will be a busy one for you all, but I wanted to start the term off with a little Open Education news and stuff.

Updates from Emily’s Open Education desk

  • For a reminder of some of the amazing work being done on OpenEd at the college, see the eLearning blog site (open category).  Especially make sure to read our latest story from June, all about one student’s Open Education project in the Child, Family, and Community Services (CFCS) program.
  • Do you have questions about Open Education or Open Educational Resources?  Want to talk about a potential Open Education project (or are your students interested in talking or hearing about OpenEd)?  Contact Emily Schudel (instructional designer, eLearning) and/or Gwenda Bryan (Librarian)!
  • We in CETL are going to share the excitement and joy of Open Education across the college this term.  I (Emily) am available to come talk to your department/program about Open Ed – just shoot me an email to let me know if your department/program is interested in hearing more!

Open Education Conference

  • Second, a reminder about the Open Education Conference 2022 (October 17-22, virtual!)  It is a great deal, and one of the best (if not THE best) conference I have ever attended.  Find out more and register at: https://openeducationconference.org/2022 

Finally, some news from BCcampus

Apply to Review an Open Textbook

  • We invite you to apply to review an open textbook to help us deliver quality content to students and faculty. Approved reviews will earn a $250 honorarium as a token of our gratitude for evaluating and improving the materials being created for the post-secondary classrooms of B.C. and around the world.  Learn more: Apply to Review an Open Textbook

BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education

  • This award recognizes outstanding contributions to the open education movement in British Columbia. These contributions may include significant leadership, open educational resources (OER) development, research, or advocacy by faculty, students, support staff, or administrators at post-secondary institutions in B.C. or others who support the post-secondary system in B.C.  Learn more: BCcampus Award for Excellence in Open Education

And that’s it for today.  If you have anything you would like me to share in these every-other-Monday emails, let me know. 

Have a great week!

Posted in Open, open education | Tagged , | Leave a comment