Faculty advocates helping to spread the OER movement across B.C.

The B.C. Open Textbook team is excited to announce three instructors who have joined BCcampus to fulfill a one-year term as our Faculty Fellows. Our 2016/17 Faculty Fellows: Jennifer Kirkey, Douglas College, Rod Lidstone, Camosun College and Arthur Gill Green, Okanagan College will work together to encourage greater educational and institutional uptake of open textbooks and the use of open educational resources in the B.C. post-secondary sector and beyond.

Getting to know the 2016/17 BCcampus Faculty Fellows:

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Jennifer Kirkey, Instructor, Physics and Astronomy, Douglas College

Jennifer Kirkey has taught at a number of community colleges in B.C., but has been at Douglas College for 23 years where she teaches Physics and Astronomy.

Joining BCcampus as a Faculty Fellow was the logical next step for Jenn as she’s been spearheading the adoption of open textbooks in B.C. for several years. This role will allow her to reach more people and share her passion for open educational resources (OER) within the higher education and K-12 sectors.

“With a little bit of support, we can change people’s lives. I plan to use this Fellowship position to get more people to adopt open textbooks and OER. We’ve got a crackle with Douglas College, KPU and UBC, but we need to get more institutions on board.”

Rod Lidstone Instructor, Plumbing, Pipe & Refrigeration Trades, Camosun College

Rod Lidstone has been connected to Camosun College for over 20 years, most recently as the champion in the creation of the 23 Common Core Trades Open Textbooks as the lead writer and reviewer. As a strong advocate for change within the trades industry, Rod actively promotes the use of these training textbooks, manuals, and OER in the trades programs at Camosun College and throughout B.C.

“Throughout 2016, I plan to talk to trades colleagues and instructors from the colleges and institutions in B.C., across Canada and internationally, to raise the general awareness of the benefits of open educational resources. As well, I hope to get the Common Core Trades Textbooks adopted by as many high schools and foundation trades programs as possible.”

Arthur Gill Green, College Professor, Geography, Okanagan College, Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC

Arthur Gill Green is a College Professor in the Department of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at Okanagan College and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia.

Since co-authoring an open textbook on Regional Geography in 2012, Arthur has become a passionate advocate of OER. He is currently working with the Department of Geography at UBC on the release of OER for learning Geographic Information Science using open source software.

“BCcampus are the enablers, it’s a group of really positive people whose work is at the cutting edge of open educational resources and open educational resources are at the cutting edge of responsible pedagogy. It’s the right thing to do.”

“It’s not just about the cost for students, it’s about how do we teach and what type of society we’re introducing the students into. At the end of the day, is it about individual ownership or do we want to live in a world where we collaborate together? Through the aid of the Fellowship position, I hope to answer this question.”