BCcampus Executive Director David Porter met with B.C. College Presidents and was asked the question: “What advice could I give to institutional Presidents to advance a more collaborative future in BC higher education?”

Here were his answers:

1. Encourage opening data as a standard practice, including asking registrars and senior administrative staff to work with BCcampus to make systemic data more accessible for mashups by students, institutions and systemic service providers. This would include asking government and AVED to move more quickly to a real open data warehouse, congruent with the open government strategy that is currently in play provincially.
2. Think “shared services” for educational delivery systems before installing standalone systems on your campuses. Cloud computing is here now. Big cost savings, and the opportunity to deploy educational technology staff more directly in support of faculty are the upsides. There are also easier migration paths when new systems emerge, and community of practice benefits that can be immediately realized.
3. Think “open content” as a viable alternative to proprietary content, especially in light of the proposed Access Copyright tariff hikes. Look for the presentations and streaming media from this recent forum, http://open.bccampus.ca and take a look at Creative Commons as a future-oriented model that BCcampus is promoting in British Columbia.