Award for Excellence in Open Education – Tannis Morgan

This is the third Award for Excellence in Open Education, having awarded the first one to Irwin DeVries and the second one to Tara Robertson. We are extremely pleased to announce the third recipient is… Tannis Morgan!

Post by BCcampus’ editorial team

Tannis Morgan is the Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, & Innovation at the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC). She is a key champion of OER at the JIBC, including conceiving their Zed Cred initiative several years ago and systematically working towards it even before BCcampus put out a call for grants. Tannis has helped steer the Justice Institute towards leveraging open source tools such as WordPress and Learn Dash to create affordable and open resources used by students and by the community. In addition to being a true champion of open educational practices at the JIBC, Tannis has served the wider open community in a myriad of ways, including gathering and highlighting OER in languages other than English, coordinating the innovative, open, and collaborative Agora faculty development program at the University of Guadalajara (which received a 2017 Award for Excellence from the Open Education Consortium), and adding depth and historical context to discussions about open pedagogy. Spreading advocacy especially through her blog and many presentations around the globe.

Work in the B.C. post-secondary sector

Tannis began her work in the B.C. post-secondary section in distance education and e-learning with the Distance Education and Technology Centre at the University of British Columbia (UBC), under the direction of Dr. Tony Bates and Dr. Mark Bullen. Tannis also worked with the Office of Learning Technology (formerly Distance Education and Technology) at UBC. Prior to coming to the JIBC, Tanis was an instructional development consultant at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She also completed her PhD at UBC, looking at online teaching in international distance education contexts. Further, Tannis was a researcher with the Digital Learners in Higher Education research project with Dr. Mark Bullen and colleagues from the University of Regina and the Open University of Catalonia. Tannis’ current research focuses on student use of technology in applied education institutions and drivers that influence the uptake of open educational resources in higher education.

Notable quote:

“Tannis has been instrumental in initiating and leading the strategic direction of open at JIBC. Tannis’ passion for open education is also evident in her own open practice, which includes exploring and researching international open educational resources in different languages. At JIBC, she fosters a culture of innovation and creativity that has allowed open education at JIBC to flourish under her leadership. She has been a strong advocate for the use and adoption of open source platforms which provide the technology to support the growth of open at our institute.” – Krista Lambert, Instructional Designer, Centre for Teaching, Learning & Innovation, Justice Institute of British Columbia