Mary Burgess

Hi Carole,

There is definitely some difficulty finding open resources in some subject areas. In my experience, much of the focus so far has been on STEM subjects and those which have high enrolments. The project I'm working on falls into the latter category. That said, I am definitely seeing movement in the direction of sharing resources in other areas as awareness of OER becomes greater. I think many instructors are feeling as you do, that they would like to use OER, but have a tough time finding them. We have a list of places to look on our website which may be helpful to you.

In week 4 of this workshop, Clint Lalonde will be looking at finding, evaluating and modifying existing OER, so you'll get some guidance there. 

Hi Everyone,

Many of you are finding your way around the workshop site, which is great. For those who are feeling a bit lost, I thought I'd post to say that we have put a number of resources on this page: http://scope.bccampus.ca/course/view.php?id=374&section=1, which will introduce you to the topics of openness and open textbooks specifically. In the synchronous session on Thursday morning, I'll be going into a bit more detail and you'll have a chance to ask questions as well. If you can't attend, the session will be recorded and we'll post the link on the course site.

I share your hope Susan! I also agree that tailoring resources is one of the strengths of OER that sometimes gets missed in the conversations about them being available at no cost. Enabling instructors to revise resources so they're more closely aligned with the learning outcomes of a given course makes a lot of sense. 

What is your sense of instructor willingness to engage in this process? Would most of your colleagues be willing to spend time and effort on revision? Or are they already so overworked that they want something they can use "off the shelf" (whether it be open or traditionally published)?

Hi Theresa, great to see you here! The synchronous session will happen this coming Thursday, Sept 26 at 10am Pacific time in our BlackBoard Collaborate Room: http://urls.bccampus.ca/scopeevents

Hope to see you there!

Greetings everyone! I'm so happy to see so many of you already so keen to get going in this workshop! I'm one of the 3 facilitators, and you can see a short intro video from me here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Y-cbLfApY.

I live in Victoria, B.C., and work at BCcampus. You can learn more about our organization here: http://www.bccampus.ca. 

I'll be checking into the forums several times each day and look forward to conversing with you all. 

See you online!