Mary Burgess

Hi Everyone, sneaking in a bit late here but excited about this seminar!

I'm Mary Burgess and I work at BCcampus. I'm interested in the use of digital badges as an alternative to traditional credentialing systems, particularly as a way to acknowledge work done in open spaces. 

I live and work in Victoria, B.C., Canada.

Good question Wayne, I was actually thinking about that last night. Our HR department uses the Hay evaluation system to determine salary ranges for each position, and that valuation is partly based on the level and type of formal education we think someone should have to do the job (i.e. a credential). In addition to that, when we are in the offering stage, whether the candidate has the credential we asked for in the posting is part of our decision making around salary, but I would say experience is much more relevant to that decision for us. Fortunately we have quite a lot of influence as the unit doing the hire, and ultimately if we can make a good case for a particular salary, usually we get what we want.

What complicates things further is that I work at a University, which of course means the atmosphere is perhaps more focused on credentials than other employers might be. It's not just HR who wants the credential, it's the faculty member who needs to take my instructional designers seriously when they are giving pedagogical advice. If the ID doesn't have a credential, their credibility as an expert may be in question.

I wonder what would happen if someone applied for a faculty position that required a PhD. and a candidate had done an equivalent amount of learning using OERs but had no actual credential.

Wow, here we are again, question the whole system! I love it!!

Asif I think your idea is great! As someone who employs a number of staff with varying levels of education, I can certainly see hiring more based on competency than credential. And in fact, when we do hire, we test candidates competency as part of our short-listing process. If a candidate sent me a link to an e-portfolio that included learning through OER and was able to demonstrate all the competencies of someone with a credential, I'd be happy to hire them.

Hi Everyone

I'm Mary Burgess, and I'm the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies at Royal Roads University and our resident OER advocate. With support from BC Campus, we've been working on an OER project here at RRU for the last couple of years.

We use PLAR here for gaining entry into our programs, but mostly it is based on professional experience, not the use of OERs. That change could be very interesting for us and other institutions I think!

Looking forward to continuing the discussion!

Hi Julia and Meg - we at Royal Roads are also looking at Mahara - we had a fantastic demo from Brent Lee awhile back to see what you guys are doing at VIU, which looked great to us, and really induced us to install it and get playing. Terri Bateman (who is leading our Mahara charge) and I will both be at ETUG, it would be really great if we could all connect!

Mary