Clint Lalonde

Clint Lalonde

Acting Director, Open Education, BCcampus

The New BC Open Collection

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In the spring of 2022 BCcampus launched a new open education website – the BC Open Collection. The Open Collection is a curated selection of open textbooks and course materials developed by educators in B.C. that can be accessed by educators in B.C. and beyond for use in the classroom, in an institutional learning management system, or in other teaching and learning platforms. All the materials are openly licensed, which means they are free to use, customize, and share. In this session we will demo the features of the new site and the work we have done to make open educational resources easier to find and use for BC post-secondary educators.

Screenshot of the BCcampus Open Collection site

AUTHORING TOOL(S) USED

Various

WHY WAS THIS PROJECT NEEDED?

This tool is needed for securing online exams in classrooms or proctored environments. It supports exam integrity without compromising student experience while writing an online exam.

HOW DOES THIS DEMONSTRATE INNOVATION?

While open textbooks have been around for over a decade, the new collection site also includes some of the first openly licensed courses produced by BC educators. The collection is also a custom built repository with a number of innovative features such as the ability to cross-reference open courses in the collection with the BC Transfer Guide to see what courses at other institutions the open course may be compatible with.

PROBLEMS OR CHALLENGES FACED?

An ongoing problem faced by those interested in open education resources is the lack of repository software available specifically designed to host openly licensed resources. To overcome this challenge, BCcampus designed and built a completely custom repository specifically for hosting OER which presented a number of challenges building and supporting a custom application from scratch.

LESSONS LEARNED

This project was one of the first web projects built using an Agile development methodology and made extensive use of user testing, personas and development sprints. This method of creating something has proven to be very effective as it allows for emerging issues to be prioritized and dealt with quickly, and features to be added as required during the development process.

ADDITIONAL INFO

Join Clint virtually for DEMOFEST Day 1 on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 from 10:00am to 11:30am in Teams.

Or you can visit Clint’s table for DEMOFEST Day 2 on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 from 10:30am to 12:00pm happening at JIBC’S New Westminster’s Main Campus.

About Clint Lalonde
Clint is Acting Director, Open Education at BCcampus. Wrangler of learning technologies by day, Dad, cyclist, soccer fan and lately, home roaster of coffee by night, Clint’s educational interests include network learning, social learning, open education and open educational resources.