Spotlight: Getting to know Denise Goudy, Director, BCcampus

As part of a new series, we will share behind-the-scenes stories, experiences, and tips on what makes our staff truly shine and what makes BCcampus continue to thrive as the small, but robust organization that it is.

We were able to catch up with Denise Goudy to ask her a few questions about what it is like to be the Director of BCcampus, here’s what she had to say:

Denise Goudy, BCcampus - October 6, 2015-0035

How long have you been working at BCcampus and what brought you here?

I started at BCcampus in 2012 after working with the Ministry of Advanced Education (AVED) for a couple of years. Before AVED, I came from the North Island College where I had worked in various roles for close to 20 years. The previous Executive Director of BCcampus, David Porter, thought my experience at the Ministry and within B.C. post-secondary institutions would add value to the already great talent at BCcampus.

What does a typical day as the Director for BCcampus look like?

First, I don’t think there is a typical day – as an organization, we are always looking at things differently and hopefully each day brings new discoveries. The types of activities I engage in on a regular basis are budget planning, coaching, advising, and listening, exploring proposals both within and with our external communities, and helping make evidence-based decisions for our work here. I am very lucky to work with a broad range of responsibilities here at BCcampus and am kept on my toes in keeping up with the excellent suggestions put forth by our teams.

What about BCcampus inspires you to come to work each day?

Knowing that at the end of the day we are trying to improve the student experience in post-secondary education in B.C., whether it be through Open Education Resources that allow students to afford their studies, through access to resources they normally can’t afford, improved quality of teaching through professional learning opportunities for faculty, and even having the rights tools available for faculty and students to communicate, learn and collaborate together.

What are you passionate about in post-secondary education?

I am passionate about making sure students who don’t fall into the “A” grade student category have every opportunity to be successful in their educational journey. Post-secondary education isn’t limited to those that do well with traditional approaches to learning – all students can be successful if provided with the right learning environments.

Can you tell us about any great collaborative experiences you’ve had with a post-secondary institution in B.C.?

Over the twenty some odd years I have been in B.C.’s post-secondary system I have had some great opportunities to collaborate. One experience that comes to mind is the Health Care Assistant Curriculum Guide, where we worked closely with the Registry, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Advanced Education and the articulation committee to tackle the challenge of incorporating a new competency into the program without changing the length of the program. It amazed me how dedicated these folks were to working together to achieve a common goal. Everyone was really honest and trusting in the process.

One of my favourite collaborations is when we facilitate the piloting and onboarding of an educational technology so that it becomes more affordable for each of the individual institutions. Recently we did this with a video enterprise system whereby UBC hosts the platform; BCcampus provides support and coordination for the participating institutions (5) in a shared service and each institution can then offer a solution to their faculty and students that is FIPPA compliant and affordable (compared to doing it on their own).

Are there any projects or events that you are really excited about in 2016 at BCcampus?

2016 is going to be another great year. We have just booked the facilities for the inaugural Festival of Learning that will be held in June this year. It is a co-located event combining many of our individual events around educational technology, open, and teaching & learning into one large event. Although there will be unique tracks for each specific group, there will be an opportunity for crossing streams and building individual event journeys. It is the first time this has been done in B.C. and I am very excited by the potential of this event.

I am also excited by the different activities that are occurring under the Hewlett Foundation grant – there will be lots of opportunity for capacity building at institutions around Open Educational Resources. It is inspiring to see the early adopters become champions of Open in B.C and how we can continue to support this agenda.

We continue to get requests for collaborative leadership and each year we take on a project that isn’t necessarily in our normal catalog of services but often provides an opportunity to learn outside of the traditional post-secondary education sector. This year we are taking on a multi-year project for the Building Officials’ Association of BC who have contracted us to project lead their education program for qualifying Building Officials in BC. We are still at the infant stages of this project but it already brings some gems around professional learning, stakeholder engagement and collaboration across government and agencies.