I have posted one blog a day for 365 days in a row! It has been a lot of fun, and I enjoy learning about open education projects and teaching strategies. Tonight’s session was from Open Ed 2021 and entitled “Embracing Open for All: Initiatives in Support of Kw’seltktnéws” by Ken Monroe, Brenda Smith, Christine Miller, and Catharine Dishke Hondzel from Thompson Rivers University. Dishke started with a Mentimeter poll: how did you first get involved in Open? I had not seen how the Menti “feed” works before: responses populated the screen with three columns scrolling as more responses were shared. There was also a map with several locations around the world. Thompson Rivers University (TRU) was described by Monroe as a “comprehensive, learner-centered, sustainable university” in Canada with 14,000 students on campus and 11,000 students attending classes by distance or online. Monroe built an H5P timeline to share the history of TRU and open education. TRU was formed from a fusion of two institutions and has a rich history of open learning. Monroe played an embedded podcast from Soundcloud within the H5P timeline. The integration worked really well. TRU Open Learning has been supporting open learning. Working with BC Campus, TRU continued expanding open activities and began a zero textbook costs initiative. Monroe included video clips, sound clips, H5P interactive timelines, and an engaging story to tell us about a “fifty-year journey of two separate institutions becoming one medium-sized […] and their journey in open.” Smith talked about how students are involved in advocacy for OER grants, as research assistants/focus groups, and OER writing springs, and now through open pedagogy projects such as the UN SDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship that I learned about through the Montgomery College initiative earlier this month. Smith emphasized that outreach is critical to “build that snowball” to get people to know that “open is supported and valued here.” Smith spoke about gathering data as a librarian and worked with the registrar’s office to identify and share the information about OER use and zero-cost textbook courses of study. Monroe talked about the Open Education Working Group that has the mandate “to foster and support a culture of inclusive Open Education initiatives at TRU” by expanding and supporting sustainable OE initiatives and open pedagogies. Monroe shared their inspiration in the form of a diagram with Open Education in the center and OER/open textbooks, open access publishing, open research practices, and open pedagogy surrounding it. TRU explained that they also joined the UN SDG Open Pedagogy Fellowship. Dishke talked about the OERDG Program that provides funding and staff support to integrate OER. The funds can be used for course release, hiring research assistants, and integrating OER broadly. They have also been responsive to equity, diversity, and inclusion in OER as part of the OER grant system at TRU. The projects promote indigenous people stock photos and truth and reconciliation and the histories of indigenous people through OERs. Smith ended the presentation with the word Kukwstsetsemc, thank you. During the question and answer session, Dishke asked if attendees could share how their OER grants programs run. I was curious about what was shared in the chat! Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting that awareness of OER and open practices are still challenges, yet there is interest by some to pursue this work and internal funding.
