BCcampus update – March 19, 2020

      BCcampus, Homepage

We are thinking of you all so much in this strange, challenging time.

If there is something BCcampus can do, please let us know. Our Open Ed and Teaching & Learning teams are working together on ideas for supportive responses, but if there is something on YOUR mind, we’d love to hear it. 

We truly appreciate that this is a difficult and uncertain time for all and understand it’s hard to be completely focused. We are feeling it too. Please be kind to one another and to yourself. If you are experiencing higher levels of stress and feelings of being overwhelmed, please seek help and support from those around you. 

We wanted to provide a couple of updates at the moment:

  • We have cancelled all our BCcampus-hosted, face-to-face events this spring, including Festival of Learning, the OER for the Trades Summits, the H5P and Pressbooks Workshop, and the WeBWorK Open Problem Library Sprint. We are issuing refunds now for registration and waiving all cancellation fees. We expect those to be complete in less than 2 weeks. In the meantime, should any questions arise, please contact eventreg@bccampus.ca. 
  • BCcampus deadlines for all Calls for Proposals and Projects are extended. Anyone involved in a current research project or want to submit for a live call has more time.
  • We are not making any decisions about fall events at this time.

Working Together, Learning Together

At BCcampus, we are doing a bunch of things online together to keep ourselves and our teams feeling supported and connected. Of course meetings, but also frequent check-ins and “virtual coffees”, meditations led by Mary Burgess, and BCcampus’ Online Office Hours:

Invitation:

  • To educators and anyone doing the work of “pivoting online” who would like to drop in with challenges, and/or to hear others’ challenges and solutions.
  • Drop-in on Friday, March 20 at 10:00am and/or 2:00pm PDT

Who is hosting: BCcampus has staff who used to work as instructional designers, learning technologists, and administrators in BC PSE institutions. Expect to see colleagues like Tannis Morgan, Krista Lambert, Melanie Meyers, Tracy Roberts, Amanda Coolidge, and others!

And why…We feel the enormous challenge you are facing today and in the weeks to come. We want to offer support, particularly to institutions and educators without access to a large teaching and learning support team.

Expectation setting: We cannot offer or replace institution-specific supports, but we CAN talk through challenges like:

  • I have an in-class final exam worth 30% – what could I do instead?
  • My students are freaking out and I can’t keep up with the messages – what can I try?
  • I want to do a live online session but I’ve never done that before – what can I do?
  • I have this assignment…I’m not sure how to do it online – do you have ideas?

Where: We meet online in BlueJeans – here’s how to connect via browser or phone:

Meeting URL: https://bluejeans.com/6045124365?src=join_info  

Meeting ID: 604 512 436 5

Want to dial in from a phone? Dial one of the following numbers:

Then Enter the meeting ID and passcode followed by #

  • +1.778.807.4955 (Canada (Vancouver))
  • +1.416.900.2956 (Canada (Toronto))
  • +1.438.788.3021 (Canada (Montreal, French))
  • +1.866.599.3622 (Canada (Toll-Free))
  • (see all numbers – https://www.bluejeans.com/premium-numbers)

Connecting from a room system? Dial: bjn.vc or 199.48.152.152 and enter your meeting ID & passcode

If this seems useful for others, please pass it on – all are welcome.