STEM programs and faculty across B.C. and the Yukon are involved in creating, adapting, and adopting open educational resources (OER) for their courses. Thanks to funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills in 2019, BCcampus has supported institutions, stakeholders, and faculty to identify, develop and implement entire suites of freely available resources—including textbooks, test banks, instructor resources and other learning resources—to replace costly commercial products in STEM Education.
Goal
Our goal was to reduce education costs, increase student access, and incentivize students to pursue programs that meet the provincial labour market and human resource needs in STEM.
Activity
BCcampus began the STEM Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) project by conducting an environmental scan of STEM programs in B.C. to map current OER adoptions and identify gaps where open textbooks and other OER could be developed toward creating ZTC programs. In doing so we focused our initial efforts on supporting institutions to develop an entire ZTC programs in STEM subjects and to create a pathway for a science degree that institutions can follow. In addition, BCcampus has focused on identifying and developing OER that will align with the common core curriculum for first year engineering in the Province.
The following is a summary of the activities and OER that have resulted from the STEM ZTC project:
- First ZTC programs in STEM in BC
- Drafting Short Certificate (Vancouver Community College)
- Associate Science Degree (Thompson Rivers University) – Available in Fall 2022
- Associate Science ZTC Pathway
- Drafting open textbooks (Vancouver Community College):
- AutoCAD 2D eBook
- AutoCAD 3D eBook
- Auto Inventor eBook
- Auto Inventor Advanced eBook – coming soon
- Physics: Statics and Dynamics open WeBWork problems (University of British Columbia)
- Gap analysis and OER reviews for Common Curriculum for First Year Engineering
- Online Lab Manual for Geography (University of British Columbia – Okanagan) – coming soon
- Virtual Lab and Science Resource Directory
- Webinar: Pivoting online for STEM Educators
Advisory Group
To help guide this work, BCcampus put together a system-wide advisory group consisting of individuals familiar with STEM programs in B.C. and the Yukon. BCcampus would like to thank the Advisory Group members for their time, effort and valuable guidance throughout this project.
| Lin Brander | Librarian, Electronics and Computer Systems, Open Education, BCIT |
| Steve Earle | Faculty, Geology, Open Learning, TRU |
| Jennifer Kirkey | Physics Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Douglas College |
| Taco Niet | Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, School of Sustainable Energy Engineering, SFU |
| Jackie Stewart | Deputy Academic Director CTLT and Senior Instructor, Department of Chemistry, UBC |
| Jonathan Verrett | Instructor, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, UBC |
| Gaitri Yapa | Lecturer, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, SFU |
Further Information
If you have questions about the project or ideas about Zero Textbook Cost please contact us.
Download the following posters to share with colleagues, or contact us for print copies: