In this session, Amanda Coolidge will walk participants through the what, why, and how of open educational resources. She will share issues of access and affordability, as well as equitable design principles that lay the foundations for open practice. Further, she will highlight the digital inequities that have surfaced and heightened as a result of the pandemic and how open practices can help to alleviate those inequities. In addition, Amanda will share examples of open educational practices in the post-secondary environment.
Amanda Coolidge is an uninvited settler on the Esquimalt and Songhees Nation of the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) Speaking Peoples. She is the director of open education at BCcampus in British Columbia, Canada. From open textbooks to open pedagogy, she leads the province’s initiatives in open education with a team of nine other people, who work across British Columbia to enhance access for students. Amanda has a master’s degree in educational technology and many years of experience as an instructional designer at various universities across Canada. She has worked in open education in Calgary, Alberta; Nairobi, Kenya; and British Columbia. When Amanda is not at work, she can often be found on the beaches and in the woods of British Columbia, travelling with her family in their 32-foot fifth-wheel RV. Amanda lives in the RV with her husband and son seven months of the year, enjoying everything about the outdoors and the opportunity to explore across North America.