Open Education is a global movement to make education more affordable and accessible by reducing legal, financial, and technical barriers. The Students’ Union and other stakeholders on campus have been working to improve access to Open Education Resources at TRU for many years.
As part of moving Open Education forward here, we would like to invite you to join us in attending the annual Open Education Conference from November 9-13, 2020. This conference is a virtual event designed to share and learn about open educational resources and open pedagogy. To assist in building our campus movement the Students’ Union will be sending representatives and is committed to paying the registration fees for as many as 150 TRU Students to take part.
What is Open Education?
Open Education is a global movement to make education more affordable and accessible by reducing legal, financial, and technical barriers. One key area of Open Education you may have heard about is Open Textbooks or Open Educational Resources (OER). These are course materials created, published, distributed, and adapted under open copyright licenses. For students, that means they are FREE, accessible online on in multiple file formats, and can be kept as long as you like. For faculty, that means they can be revised or remixed to best suit the courses they teach. Win-win!
What have we done?
The Students’ Union has been working to promote open education and the creation and use of OER at TRU for over four years.
- August 2016 – we launched our Open Textbooks campaign calling for faculty members to use existing OER and for TRU to create a program to support the creation of new OER right here!
- April 2017 – the campaign had received over 1,600 student petition signatures, presented to every Faculty Council, and was endorsed by the Academic Planning and Priorities Committee
- October 2018 – the new TRU Open Educational Resource Development Grant created based on our proposal awarded $45,500 to eight faculty members to create new open resources that would impact 2,200 students and save them $250,000 per year! The successful program was expanded in 2019 and funded until 2020-2021!
- March 2020 – the Students’ Union built on this success and the network of partners we found in the Library, Open Learning, and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. We hosted the first ever Open Education Week at TRU with workshops and keynote speakers to celebrate our successes and share further possibilities.
What is the Open Education Conference:
The Open Education Conference is an annual international convening for sharing and learning about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education initiatives. This dynamic gathering celebrates the core values of open education that strive to realize education ecosystems that are accessible, affordable, equitable and inclusive to everyone, regardless of their background.
The theme of this year’s conference is “REIMAGINING OPEN EDUCATION” and topics will include:
- Open Education 101: The Basics and How to Get Started
- Applications of Open Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Creative, Innovative, and Effective Open Education Practices
- What Isn’t Working: Barriers, Challenges, and How to Overcome Them
- Strategies, Policies, and Best Practices for Sustainable Open Education Efforts
- Applications of Open Education in Social Justice, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism
- Exploring Intersections and Collaborations Across Borders and Contexts
- The Evolution and Study of Open Education as a Field
When and How:
The Open Education Conference will be held virtually:
November 09-13, 2020
7:00AM-2:00PM PST (for most synchronous programming)
Asynchronous content and recordings will be also be available
via Cvent Virtual Engagement Hub (a browser-based platform)
FURTHER DETAILS TO FOLLOW
We will meet in the week of November 02-06 to review the conference agenda and confirm session participation.
via Zoom
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
We will meet on November 09 to debrief on what you learned.
via Zoom DETAILS TO FOLLOW
If you are interested in attending the conference please complete the registration request form here by 2:00 pm on Friday October 16, 2020. Please keep in mind that spaces are limited so we encourage you to sign up as soon as possible.