Working Together, Learning Together 

“The scholarly information life cycle has traditionally focused on the published article or book as the key output of the process but with the growth of social media and networked technologies, the cycle has expanded the reach of a scholar's ideas in new and interactive ways... Each form of social network engagement provides different opportunities to communicate but also different levels of engagement..."

— Erin Fields, open education and scholarly communications librarian, University of British Columbia

Learn more: Creating and Managing an Academic Profile

Learning Opportunities 

📅 Research Speaker Series 

BCcampus is happy to host a spring 2023 Research Speaker Series that offers all BCcampus research fellows and scholars across post-secondary institutions in B.C. an opportunity to learn and share your knowledge and advocacy on research methods, approaches, and pedagogies regarding accessibility; access; equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); and Indigenous engagement in teaching and learning. 

• January 26, 2023 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. – Erin Fields, Creating and Managing Your Academic Profile
• February 16, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, Arts-Based Research
• March 9, 2023 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. – Dr. Afsaneh Sharif, Inclusive and Accessible Research

Learn more: Research Speaker Series

📅 FLO Lab: Staying Current with Essential Digital Literacy

February 1, 2023 | 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PT

Digital literacy skills, including using various technologies and critically evaluating digital sources and information, are essential for today’s graduates. Educators must also possess these skills to incorporate digital tools and technologies that support learners effectively, help learners find relevant information, and identify gaps in their digital skill development. Amid a pandemic, with so many new and emerging technologies available, it is natural to feel overwhelmed. 

Learn more: FLO Lab: Staying Current with Essential Digital Literacy

📅 BCcampus Online Book Club: The Open Edition

February and March 2023 | Asynchronous

The BCcampus Online Book Club started as a community-driven project by a group of volunteer post-secondary educators interested in opportunities to connect with colleagues on topics of professional interest in teaching and learning.  The guidelines for this book club are that it is open, informal, and fun — an easy way for participants to share ideas and strategies and take what we learn to practice. 

Our upcoming reading and authors are as follows:

• February 6 – March 3: Teaching in a Digital Age by Dr. Tony Bates
• March 6 – March 31: Selected readings from Designing for Care

Can't make it but want to participate? We're hosting one-hour synchronous sessions about each book every month. Registration and more information available at the link below. 

Learn more: BCcampus Online Book Club: The Open Edition

📅 Micro-Credentials: Competency at the Core

February 22, 2023 | 8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Learn about competencies, one of the core components of micro-credentials, from experts in the field. Keynote speaker Lena Patterson from Toronto Metropolitan University will situate micro-credentials and competencies on the world stage and give us context for the day. International competency expert Dennis Green will tackle the basics of competencies. 

Learn more: Micro-Credentials: Competency at the Core

📅 FLO Friday: Assessment Strategies for Linguistic Justice

February 24, 2023 | 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

In the past two years, linguistic justice, or the decolonization of language, has emerged as an important dimension for equity and inclusion. In this workshop, our facilitators will use context-specific examples to introduce assessment strategies for linguistic justice. Participants will engage in mini-activities to develop an understanding of linguistic justice concepts and macro-level strategies useful for planning assessment practices.

Learn more: FLO Friday: Assessment Strategies for Linguistic Justice

A complete list of our upcoming events, archives, and resources are available on our website. 

Recommended Reading 

📘 Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Use Games, But Use the Fun Parts!

In this fifth post in our Digital Pedagogy Toolbox blog series, Selina McGinnis digs into what makes games fun and explores how to use them to promote engagement in teaching and learning.

Learn more: Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Use Games, But Use the Fun Parts!

📘 Taking the Time to Create Student Guides

In the fall of 2020, BCcampus regional open education representatives were provided an opportunity to issue grants to post-secondary institutions that wanted to kick-start or expand the use of open educational resources (OER). As the common refrain was “I would if only I had the time,” removing the barrier of time appeared to be the best way to meet those institutions’ needs. This focus on time as a barrier resulted in BCcampus creating the Open Education Time Investment Grant. Here is the story of how one institution used it.

Learn more: Taking the Time to Create Student Guides

📘 Indigenization Guide: Reconnection and the Need to Indigenize

Indigenization is more than including courses in programs and content in curriculum. To appreciate why Indigenization is important in education, we need to acknowledge some important political and societal shifts.  

Learn more: Indigenization Guide: Reconnection and the Need to Indigenize

Check out the latest news from BCcampus on our blog. 

Open Education Updates

Happy New Year from the Open Education team at BCcampus!

Our team hit the ground running this month with one result being the addition of 11 new books to the B.C. Open Collection. The majority of these textbooks were funded by BCcampus through the ABE Grant, Time Investment Grant, and Trades OER Grant.

BCcampus wasn't the only group to publish new open textbooks: KPU and UBC also announced new books.

Finally, to learn about the great work that B.C. Open Education Librarians are doing, read their newly released BCOEL meeting notes posted on the BCOEL website. BCOEL is a supportive community for British Columbian librarians to learn about open education practices.

Learn more about Open Education Updates for January 2023

See OpenEd updates for a complete list of what's happening at BCcampus.

Accepting Applications

💻 Digital Literacy Project: Call for Open Content

We are currently seeking content submissions for the collection that fulfill the requirements of the eight areas of digital literacy thematic competencies identified in the ministry's Digital Learning Strategy: ethical and legal consideration, technology supports, information literacy, digital scholarship, communication and collaboration, creation and curation, digital well-being, and community-based learning.

Learn more: Digital Literacy Project: Call for Open Content

💻 Collaborate With Us

The BCcampus Collaborative Projects & Indigenous Engagement (CPIE) team is one of the ways we directly collaborate with learning communities. Our team regularly puts out calls for proposals (CFPs) to develop open educational resources for B.C.’s higher education community. 

We need your unique abilities and experiences to help us build learning communities where everyone feels welcome and valued. So come and collaborate with us by submitting a proposal.  

For those of you who prefer engaging with information in video format, please check out the “Collaborate With Us” video.

Open Calls For Proposals:

• Call for Proposals – Development of Deaf/Hard of Hearing Early Learning and Care Professional Training
• Call for Proposals – Early Learning and Child Care Training and Professional Development for Participants Who Are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
• Call for Proposal: Redesigning Professional Learning to Improve ECE Accessibility
• Call for Proposal: Developing Professional Learning to Improve the ECE Experience for Indigenous Children and Families
• Call for Proposal: Developing Professional Learning to Improve ECE Practice in B.C.
• Call for Proposal: Developing Professional Learning to Improve Knowledge and Understanding of the Current Context for ECE in B.C.

Learn more: Collaborate With Us

BCcampus acknowledges the səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Peoples and the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations of the lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) Peoples on whose traditional territories we are privileged to live, work, and learn. Through our work we are learning to incorporate Indigenous epistemologies into our actions and understandings, supporting decolonization, reconciliation, and Indigenization to advocate systemic changes in the post-secondary environment of B.C.