Going global: Mary Burgess joins the OER Foundation

Our commitment to open underpins our daily operations: the photos, notes, and resources acquired through events and conferences we participate in; the keynote addresses we present and those we host; and the policies, processes, collected data, and accountability reports we share on a regular basis.

We have earned a global reputation for our contributions and support of open education by taking an active role in the creation, modification, distribution, and evaluation of open teaching, learning, and research resources. One of the main motivations behind our involvement in the creation and distribution of OER is to ensure educational materials are accessible to all students, no matter where they are in the world and regardless of their economic status.

To keep with our goal of facilitating B.C.’s continued national and international leadership in Open Education, we were thrilled when the OER Foundation approached Mary Burgess to serve on their Board of Directors as a representative from a non-teaching member institution. The OER Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides leadership, international networking and support for educators and educational institutions to achieve their objectives through Open Education.

The OER Foundation

The OER Foundation leads innovative projects helping individuals and organizations return to the core educational values of sharing knowledge freely in a sustainable way. As stated on their website, they:

Coordinate the international OERu network who will provide free learning opportunities for all students worldwide with pathways to achieve formal academic credit.
Connect individuals and organizations on a global scale to achieve their open education objectives with the help of WikiEducator — one of the world’s fastest growing and most productive open education wiki communities in the formal education sector.
Build capability and skills for educators to participate effectively in this new world through Learning4Content — the world’s largest free training project to develop wiki skills for education.
Provide professional consulting support including the development of OER strategy for your institution, design, mentoring and coaching services for your organization and staff to save cost (and time), improve the quality of teaching and learning and widen the diversity of your curriculum offerings through strategic investment in open education approaches.

Open educational resource University (OERu)

The OERu makes higher education accessible to everyone. OERu connects learners around the world with defined pathways to education, created by recognized educators and assessed by renowned global institutions.

Along with BCcampus, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Thompson Rivers University are also partners of the OERu. The OERu partnership is now in its 4th year and has led to the creation of courses at both institutions that will be offered as part of the OERu course listings.

Notable quote

“Working globally with organizations like the OERF is so helpful for us to get a better sense of the barriers being faced by learners around the world. Our focus here in North America can be incredibly myopic and this opportunity is another way for BCcampus to understand the needs in other parts of the world.” – Mary Burgess, Executive Director, BCcampus