I have learned so much from presentations about Open Education from people in Canada and Canadian RLOE collaborators. The Open Ed 2021 session entitled “Open Education Across Canada” included several panelists: Amanda Coolidge, Danielle Dubien, Heather Ross, Cynthia Holt, Urooj Nizami, Verena Roberts, and Alex Enkerli. Amanda Coolidge was the moderator. Urooj is amazing and spoke about professional development and grant funding from BC Campus and the work to “harness” information about Open use and engagement. Cynthia Holt described the work by the Council of Atlantic University Libraries and Atlantic OER. Heather Ross mentioned how OER adoption started in 2015 at the University of Saskatchewan and was then supported by grants. Danielle Dubien continued by explaining the work of E-campus Ontario and the projects by librarians that came together to conduct a survey. Verena Roberts spoke about the history of Thompson Rivers University and the creation of courses for the open repository. Alex Enkerli mentioned how around Quebec they raised awareness of Open. Nizami highlighted the OE Research Institute as a way of learning. Ross spoke about how in their area they shifted the focus to supporting instructors to develop new open resources. Holt explained that they are focusing on OER and building awareness within member institutions. They have partnered with student government leaders, library people (that’s how they called them!), and faculty advocates. Dubien talked about the creation and revision of materials and the growth of this initiative and funding toward this goal. Students at Mc Master developed a survey about awareness of OER and the lack of resources in French. Verena Roberts talked about the four pillars of their initiatives at TRU and the expansion of open across the campus. Enkerli highlighted the process of locally adapting resources for group learning and Quebec’s open leaders program. Ross then spoke about how they are a Pressbooks institution and have adopted ways of including local/regional connections. Roberts talked about the initiatives to access WordPress and collective resources. Nizami spoke about renewable assignments and that students retain the rights to their intellectual property. Urooj talked about the focus on decolonization and open. One of their grantees at KPU, Nizami mentioned, hired an indigenous content editor. Holt talked about the challenges and costs of translation. They also have a commitment to inclusion and accessibility. They have adopted standards of accessibility too. The Truth and Reconciliation report of Canada had calls to action to incorporate indigenous content. Holt added that they are working to identify the nations and their cultural guidelines. Holt mentioned it has taken patience, a lot of work with the “knowledge keepers,” and attention to being respectful. Their response was simple and thoughtful. I didn’t know that there are provincial stipulations on who you can share with! Urooj talked about the OEG renewable assignments and the UN SDG initiative. We recently spoke with Montgomery College about this. This panel was full of fascinating anecdotes from campuses across Canada. I am also really excited to get to work with some of these leaders and learn from their initiatives and values!
