B.C. Open Collection: New Course Packs Now Available 

      BCcampus, Fiscal 2023-2024, General, Homepage, Open Education, Open Textbooks, Tutorials

Since 2012 BCcampus has actively supported the use, creation, and adaptation of open textbooks in B.C. This has resulted in more than $30 million in student savings over 10 years. With the pandemic and rapid switch to remote online teaching, we looked for ways open education could support faculty in that transition. One approach was to fund the development of open course packs designed to have all the materials an instructor would need to teach an online course, such as a syllabus, instructor guide, activities, assignments, and assessments. Because the course packs are openly licensed, instructors can customize the materials to their needs. 

Post by Josie Gray, manager, Production & Publishing, BCcampus

As of August 2023, the collection has 19 course packs in the subject areas of business, writing and communication, physical sciences, and social sciences. While most of these courses are designed for an undergraduate level, a number of them are aligned with courses in the Adult Basic Education program. 

These course packs are designed to be flexible. Use the whole course pack as is, use parts of it, or use it as inspiration. 

What’s New? 

Over the past few months, we added a number of new course packs to the collection. Read on for a summary of each. Click on the course name for more information and to access the materials. 

Adult Basic Education 

  • Intermediate Level Math: This course meets the goals of intermediate math in the B.C. Adult Basic Education program and enables students to broaden their understanding of mathematical concepts and extend their mathematical skills through problem solving. The course pack includes an open textbook, assignments, tests, and answer keys. 
  • Intermediate General and Applied Science: This course satisfies the learning outcomes for B.C. Adult Basic Education Intermediate General and Applied Science (Science 10). The principles of biology, physics, and chemistry are studied in a modularized format with an emphasis on the connection between disciplines. The course pack includes an instructor guide and lab manual, assignments, a capstone project, quizzes, and lecture slides. 
  • Provincial Biology: This course satisfies the learning outcomes for B.C. Adult Basic Education Provincial Biology. It introduces topics in cellular biology, genetics, anatomy, and physiology. The course pack includes an open textbook, a lab manual, a question bank, assignments, and lecture slides. 

Social Science 

  • Psychology of Language: This course provides students with the fundamentals of linguistic and psycholinguistic theory. The course pack includes an open textbook, a facilitation plan, lecture slides, a course assignment, and discussion topics.  
  • Sociology of Family: This course is an introduction to a sociological examination of contemporary family forms and relations in North American society. The course pack includes an open textbook, an instructor manual, assignments, and a sample final exam. 

Science 

  • Environmental Geology: This environmental geology course is about how geological processes affect the environment as well as humans and their infrastructure and also about how humans affect geological processes. The course pack includes an open textbook, instructor and student guides, assignments, marking rubrics for each assignment, and visual aids. 
  • Mechanics for Applied Science: This is a first-year course in engineering mechanics intended for students pursuing a degree in engineering. The course pack includes practice problems, quizzes, lesson plans, activities, and exams. 

Business 

  • Introduction to Innovation: In this course students learn to productively question the status quo, think creatively about challenging and complex problems, and innovate opportunities to create value. The course pack includes an open textbook, prompts for discussion and peer review, and lesson plans. 
  • Introduction to Entrepreneurship: Through foundational concepts and frameworks, this course examines entrepreneurship as a process, including forming an entrepreneurial identity, opportunity creation and evaluation, mobilizing resources, and growth. The course pack includes an open textbook, videos, activities, and marking rubrics. 

How to Find Course Packs in the B.C. Open Collection 

Want to explore all course packs in the B.C. Open Collection? Browse by subject, by searching, and by filtering. Read on to see the different ways to find course packs in the collection. 

Option 1: Browse course packs by subject 

  1. Go to the B.C. Open Collection home page. 
  1. Under “Find Materials by Subject,” click the subject card to browse all resources in that subject area. 
  1. Under the “Material Type” filter, select “Course Pack.” 


Option 2: Browse course packs by search term 

  1. Go to the B.C. Open Collection home page. 
  1. Click the “Find Materials” button to access the search bar. 
  1. Type your search term into the search bar. 
  1. Under the “Material Type” filter, select “Course Pack.” 


Option 3: Browse all course packs 

  1. Go to the B.C. Open Collection home page. 
  1. Click the “Find Materials” button to access the search bar. 
  1. Put your pointer in the search bar and tap your space bar once. This brings up the filters. 
  1. Under the “Material Type” filter, select “Course Pack.” 


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