- Bcoewg - lists.bccampus.ca

TopHat Marketplace
by Grant Potter 09 Jan '18

09 Jan '18

During the last couple conversations with faculty regarding OER development TopHat Marketplace has come up. They ask me to clarify the pros/cons of publishing at https://opentextbc.ca/ versus https://tophat.com/textbook/ This topic has come up recently on Feldstein’s blog https://mfeldstein.com/top-hat-marketplace-care/ Looks like they are approaching their free opentextbook platform as a value-added for their student-response system and realtime testing elements. https://tophat.com/legal/publishing-contribution-agreement/ Wondering if anyone else has been experiencing this? Cheers ~ Grant ------------------- Grant Potter UNBC Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology http://unbc.ca/ctlt http://twitter.com/unbc_ctlt

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Festival of Learning- Student Opportunities
by Amanda Coolidge 09 Jan '18

09 Jan '18

Good afternoon! The Festival of Learning is looking for student support during the event. If you are able to, it would be great to send this message out to your students at your convenience. See the template below. Please feel free to ad lib as you wish. Thank you for your help!! _____________________________________ Hello students! The much anticipated [ https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/ | Festival of Learning 2018 ] i s taking place this May and we are looking for volunteers. This is an excellent opportunity for the students of B.C. to meet new and interesting members of the educational community of B.C.; put your considerable talents to good use; and help us create an inclusive, genuine, and collaborative environment for the educators, administrators, faculty, designers, librarians, attending Festival of Learning 2018. As a thank you for your time (2+ hours per day), and awesome perk, we will offer you a [ https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/ | discounted rate ] so you can attend the sessions and enjoy #FoL18 with us. Application Information: Please tell us about your abilities, availability, and the type of job(s) you are most interested in volunteering for so our organizing committee can coordinate the assignments and make the best use of everyone’s talents. Important dates: * January 15 , 2018 – Application deadline * February 1 , 2018 – Volunteer assignments Volunteer opportunities: * Registration Desk/Wayfinder : Welcome people, distribute name tags, direct people, and answer questions. This position is suited to those who enjoy dealing with details and people, and don’t mind sitting/staying in one spot. Registration desk volunteers can expect intense, fast-paced periods followed by stretches of quieter time. * Audio Visual/Room Checker: Ensure rooms, equipment, and presenters are technically ready to go before the sessions start. You MUST be tech-savvy and able to quickly troubleshoot audio/visual issues with presenters using a variety of devices and platforms (Mac, PC, laptops, mobile devices, etc.) * Social Events: Help with set-ups, teardowns, and other logistics during the event. Timeslots include early afternoons and late evenings. This role is good for folks who love high-energy, fast-paced settings and can perform physical tasks (moving tables and chairs, carrying boxes, etc.) * Conference Add-Ons: Supervisors for self-care features of the festival (e.g., yoga/meditation room and gratitude/letter writing station). Be available for questions, triage, and keep areas organized and well-stocked. Timeslots are available all day, every day. This position is suitable for folks with calm demeanours who thrive in quieter environments. * Fit-Break Leader: Be the pace-setter for brief walks outside the hotel. This job is ideal for high energy folks who can’t stop moving and love engaging with participants. If you have any questions about #FoL18, please [ mailto:festival(a)bccampus.ca | contact us ] . Check out presentations, photos, and blog posts from [ https://bccampus.ca/the-festival-of-learning-archives-2016/ | #FoL16 ] . [ https://bccampus.ca/festival-of-learning-2018/call-for-volunteers/ | Submit your application today! ] Please feel free to ad-lib as you wish. Thanks for your help! -- Amanda Coolidge, MEd Senior Manager of Open Education BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate. [ callto:250-580-6949 | 250-8 ] 18-4592 | [ mailto:acoolidge(a)bccampus.ca | acoolidge(a)bccampus.ca ] 120-645 Fort Street | Coast and Straits Salish Territory | Victoria, B.C. | V8W1G2 [ http://bccampus.ca/ | BCcampus.ca ] | @BCcampus | #BCcampus Sign up for [ http://bccampus.ca/bccampus-around-the-web/ | BCcampus news ]

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BCcampus OpenEd: Jan 9/18 - new books and updates
by Lauri Aesoph 09 Jan '18

09 Jan '18

Hello Everyone, We've added two new books and one new ancillary resource, as well as, a few updates. Please see below. [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=8af49997-4d25-43fe-b6fa-… | Literature Reviews for Education and Nursing Graduate Students ] This new textbook, published by the Rebus Community, is designed for students in graduate-level nursing and education programs. Its intent is to recognize the significant role the literature review plays in the research process and to prepare students for the work that goes into writing one. [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=37d3b486-45ef-4e38-a764-… | The Originals: Classic Readings in Western Philosophy ] This collection of original source readings by philosophers who originated many of the issues we discuss today was written by TRU faculty member Jeff McLaughlin and was produced with funds from a BCcampus Open Education OER Grant. Major areas of philosophy covered are Ethics, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Socio-Political Philosophy, and Aesthetics. [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=75ab4802-42c4-4fb7-9051-… | Education and Career Planning Open Course ] This unique open course which is the result of a collaboration between seven colleges and BCcampus Open Education, and funded in part by an OER Grant. Authored by Mary Shier and Allison Schubert from College of the Rockies, it is at the provincial ABE level (grade 12 equivalent) and can be used as an elective course towards the BC Adult Grad Diploma. Three file formats are provided (D2L, Moodle, Common Cartridge) so the course can be downloaded into a learning management system. Other news We have added the following new categories to the B.C. Open Textbook Collection: * "Engineering" sub-category to the "Sciences" category * "Education" as a main category and "Early Childhood Education" as sub-category Pressbooks updates are now available on the BCcampus Open Ed website (open.bccampus.ca) under [ https://open.bccampus.ca/pressbooks-updates/ | https://open.bccampus.ca/pressbooks-updates/ ] Regards, Lauri Lauri Aesoph, Manager, Open Education BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovat e . 250-893-0258 | laesoph(a)bccampus.ca 120-645 Fort Street | Coast & Straits Salish Territory | Victoria, BC | V8W1G2 [ https://mail.bccampus.ca/bccampus.ca | BCcampus.ca ] | @BCcampus | #BCcampus Sign up for [ https://bccampus.ca/bccampus-around-the-web/ | BCcampus news ]

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Survey shows OER on the rise in higher ed
by Amanda Coolidge 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

Hello! (Apologies for the cross-posting) The team at Babson Survey Research Group is out today with a report on the use of OER in higher education. The study is based on responses of over 2,700 faculty and there are a number of helpful findings. Inside Higher Ed also published a very positive piece about the findings here: [ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/19/more-faculty-members-are-usi… | https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/19/more-faculty-members-are-usi… ] . And The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story on the findings: [ https://www.chronicle.com/article/Use-of-Free-Textbooks-Is/242086 | https://www.chronicle.com/article/Use-of-Free-Textbooks-Is/242086 ] Key Findings Include: * Faculty awareness of OER has increased, with 29 percent of faculty reporting that they were “Aware” or “Very Aware” of open educational resources, up from 25 percent last year and 20 percent the year before. * Graphic #1: Increase Awareness * Large enrollment introductory undergraduate courses have adopted openly licensed OpenStax College textbooks at a rate (16.5 percent) equivalent to that of commercial publication adoption. * Graphic #2: OER & Traditional Textbooks * A majority of faculty classify cost as "Very important" for their selection of required course materials. * OER can be as successful as commercial alternatives. * Faculty report equal levels of satisfaction with OER OpenStax materials and traditional textbooks. Thanks! Amanda -- Amanda Coolidge, MEd Senior Manager of Open Education BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovate. [ callto:250-580-6949 | 250-8 ] 18-4592 | [ mailto:acoolidge(a)bccampus.ca | acoolidge(a)bccampus.ca ] 120-645 Fort Street | Coast and Straits Salish Territory | Victoria, B.C. | V8W1G2 [ http://bccampus.ca/ | BCcampus.ca ] | @BCcampus | #BCcampus Sign up for [ http://bccampus.ca/bccampus-around-the-web/ | BCcampus news ]

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Question regarding development of Chemistry OER
by Grant Potter 13 Dec '17

13 Dec '17

I am trying to tidy up a student/faculty project made possible by the UNBC OER Development Grant https://www.unbc.ca/centre-teaching-and-learning/oer-development-grant and thought I’d put this question out in the event anyone else has encountered this type of challenge. I have an extensive Organic Chemistry workbook (with solutions) that is a new ancillary resource for an adapted Organic Chemistry opentextbook. All the chapters in this workbook correspond to the chapters in the adapted open textbook. There previously was no associated workbook for this resource. The faculty member assembled questions for all the chapters and worked with a student to confirm all of the solutions. The problem is … the student completed all of these solutions on paper and then scanned the entire workbook into a PDF. This is a great resource, but I really think it the solutions need to be provided as markup rather than images. I have chemfig https://ctan.org/pkg/chemfig working with ShareLaTex https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Chemistry_formulae but I expect having a student complete the markup for all of these chemistry diagrams (hundreds) may not be possible as the learning curve will likely be too to ask of a student. Even if I did find a student capable of taking this on, I expect it would take many hours over months to complete. I also have been exploring using Binder https://mybinder.org/ and Jupyter Notebooks for this http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/gist/greglandrum/4316430. This is a great option for ensuring shareable/editable markup, but again there is a learning curve for this that may be prohibitive for most students. I really feel like markup should be generated for these diagrams to avoid creating hundreds of images. I feel that generating the markup will allow easier adaptation/editing of the resources, but at the same time aware that there is a significant learning curve involved for the person taking this on. Anyone working with rending diagrams with markup? If so, what worked/failed? Cheers ~ Grant ------------------- Grant Potter UNBC Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology http://unbc.ca/ctlt http://twitter.com/unbc_ctlt

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Call for award nominations + Invitation for your Physics & Psychology faculty
by Rajiv Jhangiani 12 Dec '17

12 Dec '17

Dear colleagues, As you may be aware, BCcampus recently launched a monthly award for Excellence in Open Education. The first award went to Dr. Irwin DeVries (TRU-OL) and the second went to Tara Robertson (Mozilla, formerly CAPER-BC). We wanted to challenge each institution to nominate one or more of their colleagues for this award. Award criteria and the nomination form are available at: https://open.bccampus.ca/call-for-nominations-awards-for-excellence-in-open… See also: https://bccampus.ca/2017/11/07/award-for-excellence-in-open-education-irwin… https://bccampus.ca/2017/12/05/award-for-excellence-in-open-education-tara-… The second update I wanted to share is that we recently launched two COEPs (Communities of Open Education Practitioners), for Physics and Psychology. The idea behind creating these groups is to facilitate collaboration and sharing among like-minded disciplinary colleagues across different institutions, both within and beyond BC. This might, for example, involve proposing and peer reviewing revisions to within specific open textbooks, sharing ancillary teaching resources, or even helping identify the need for/collaboratively developing additional open educational resources. These groups are designed to be informal and, importantly, your level of involvement is entirely up to the individual. So, for example, an instructor may choose to draw on shared resources for their own teaching and assist colleagues by reviewing a newly-discovered open textbook. Or they may choose to propose the development of a question bank to support an open textbook, recruit collaborators, and apply to BCcampus for funding to support their project. In each case, we have created a Google Group to facilitate communication (this functions like a private listserv) and a private Hypothes.is group to facilitate sharing of annotations within specific open textbooks (click here if you are unfamiliar with social annotations). Anyone interested in joining a COEP should send an email to opentext(a)bccampus.ca. They will then be added to the Google Group and receive the link to join the private Hypothes.is group. Please feel free to share this email with interested colleagues. Thank you very much for your support of open education. On behalf of the BCcampus Open Education team, Rajiv Jhangiani Rajiv Jhangiani, Ph.D. Advisor, Open Education BCcampus | connect.collaborate.innovate. 200-555 Seymour Street | Vancouver BC V6B 3H6 Email: rajiv(a)bccampus.ca | www.bccampus.ca Twitter: @thatpsychprof

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BCcampus Open Education: new books, new course
by Lauri Aesoph 30 Nov '17

30 Nov '17

Hello Everyone, We're very proud to bring you the latest new additions to the [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/ | B.C. Open Textbook collection ] . The majority of these books (and one course) are by authors in B.C.and Canada with several from the University of Victoria. EDUCATION Made in British Columbia [ https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/7069 | Complexities, Capacities, Communities ] (English) [ https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/7342 | Complexités, Capacités, Communautés ] (French) This book describes approaches to capacity promotion that respond to the complexities and possibilities of communities—at local and country levels. These initiatives challenge established developmental narratives in ECD and international development, and in so doing provide alternative ways for scholars and practitioners in ECD, education, and the broad international development field to enhance capacities. HEALTH Made in British Columbia [ https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/7814 | Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based Approach ] This handbook presents the science and practice of eHealth evaluation based on empirical evidence gathered over many years within the health informatics discipline. The handbook describes different approaches used to evaluate the planning, design, implementation, use and impact of eHealth systems in different health settings. It also provides a snapshot of the current state of knowledge on the consequences of opting for eHealth systems with respect to their effects and implications on provider performance and health outcomes. Made in British Columbia [ https://dementiavoiceandchoice.com/ | Living Well with Dementia ] This website-based course from Judith DeGroot and Sharon Leitch, Health Care Assistant Program instructors at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Vancouver, explores how individuals can live a fully engaged, productive, and satisfying life with dementia. The course covers how to connect with afflicted individuals, learn about the disease itself, and discover useful tools. This resource was funded, in part, by an OER Grant from BCcampus. BUSINESS & ECONOMICS Canadian (Alberta) [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=16301119-8ec4-4241-b0f7-… | Business Math: A Step-by-Step Handbook ] Business math is the study of mathematics required by the field of business. This textbook covers taxes, gross earnings, product prices, and currency exchange; loans, lines of credit, mortgages, leases, savings bonds, and other financial tools. It also discusses how to execute smart monetary decisions both personally and for their business. There are two versions for this book: The "Basic Edition" and the "Premium Edition." While they cover the same content, the Premium Edition includes additional features such as Excel integration, Excel templates, Excel screenshots, along with lots of extra visuals and graphics to help student wrap their heads around the numbers, procedures, and concepts that they work with. The Basic Edition does not include Excel and those extra visuals and graphics in order to streamline the book. Made in British Columbia [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=d4468c30-938d-4ba9-acd8-… | Principles of Microeconomics, adaptation, UVic ] This book is an adaptation of Principles of Microeconomics originally published by OpenStax. This adapted version has been reorganized into eight topics and expanded to include over 200 multiple choice questions, examples, eight case studies including questions and solutions, and over 200 editable figures. This adaptation is a work by Dr. Emma Hutchinson with assistance from Maxwell Nicholson. This resource was funded, in part, by an OER Grant from BCcampus. A [ https://open.bccampus.ca/suggestion-for-the-collection/ | Suggestion for the Collection ] request [ https://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/?uuid=053bc0d1-fea6-44af-af18-… | Organizational Behavior ] This book is not be about giving students all the answers to every situation they may encounter when they start their first job or as they continue up the career ladder. Instead, this book gives students the vocabulary, framework, and critical thinking skills necessary to diagnose situations, ask tough questions, evaluate the answers received, and to act in an effective and ethical manner regardless of situational characteristics. Regards, Lauri Aesoph Lauri Aesoph, Manager, Open Education BC campus | connect.collaborate.innovat e . 250-893-0258 | laesoph(a)bccampus.ca 120-645 Fort Street | Coast & Straits Salish Territory | Victoria, BC | V8W1G2 [ https://mail.bccampus.ca/bccampus.ca | BCcampus.ca ] | @BCcampus | #BCcampus Sign up for [ https://bccampus.ca/bccampus-around-the-web/ | BCcampus news ]

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