The teaching and learning environment in B.C. has evolved consistently and drastically; our primary focus continues to be grounded in supporting the B.C. post-secondary system through learning and collaboration opportunities that advance high quality teaching and learning throughout the province. We work in three areas, shared curriculum and learning resources, open education, and technology enabled teaching and learning shared services to achieve our goals as follows:
Open Education
Iterative design and collaborative development, built on an informed foundation, enables a flexible teaching environment for educators and an affordable, accessible quality education for learners.
To best serve the faculty and staff at post-secondary institutions throughout B.C., we use an adopt/adapt/produce approach to the development of open educational resources (OER). These resources are used by local institutions and international educators seeking economical, effective tools for their curriculum, and through innovative activities, such as the BC Open Textbook Project, we continue to showcase that the educators in British Columbia are in the vanguard of open education. We work broadly in the open education space, promoting the use of open educational resources and the advancement of open pedagogy to improve access to education and enhance the learning itself.
Collaborative Projects
We have created an ecosystem of collaboration for the post-secondary system of B.C., and offer our collaboration leadership, project management services, technological support, instructional design and development, stakeholder coordination, and expertise for the development of tools, techniques, and resources that improve teaching and learning in B.C. and beyond.
System savings is an essential component of the programs and applications we support. Reducing education costs through improved OER is good for our partner institutions, collaborating educators, and ultimately, the learners of British Columbia and the rest of the world.
Learning & Teaching, and Educational Technology
We help facilitate an open future that supports student-centric learning environments by encouraging educators from our partner institutions throughout the province to develop and share educational resources and subject matter expertise. In addition to improved learning outcomes, this approach enables substantial financial benefits: achieving economies of scale through a systemic approach.
By developing and delivering learning opportunities aimed at enhancing quality teaching and learning in the B.C. post-secondary system, and by coordinating and managing the testing of educational technologies designed to improve teaching and learning, BCcampus:
- Fosters and supports learning and teaching innovation that adapts to the rapidly changing professional needs of students, faculty, and instructors
- Focuses on effective student-centered learning environments
- Evaluates learning technologies to identify their pedagogical value and ability to meet the needs of students and faculty
- Employs a systemic approach to realize economies of scale
Programs such as the Sandbox Pilot projects, B.C. EdTech Privacy group, and the EdTech demonstrations bring opportunities for collaboration, advancement, and awareness, enabling higher education institutions to participate in the development and application of open source Next Generation Digital Learning Environments.
Additional BCcampus activities that support Technology-Enabled Teaching and Learning Shared Services:
- The Festival of Learning – this annual festival celebrates teaching and learning in post-secondary education while bringing multiple education groups together to learn, laugh, create, and collaborate
- Symposium on Scholarly Inquiry into Teaching & Learning Practice – exploring and sharing our adventures in adding scholarly inquiry into the teaching and learning practice for PSE in B.C.
- Hosted workshops:
- Liberating Structures – hosted workshops that provide educators with powerful facilitation strategies to use in classrooms, meetings, workshops, presentations, and anywhere else that requires collaborative leadership
- VizEd – a hands-on workshop to explore the process of creating and using handmade visuals in teaching and learning
- FLO – Facilitating Learning Online – research-based adult and online learning concepts, principles, and strategies to enhance online learning
BCcampus provides consultation and practical expertise to institutions and government agencies on the appropriate use of open licensing of curricular resource, as well as emergent trends that may provide value to teaching and learning in B.C.
Learn more about the current activities and upcoming events within BCcampus Lines of Service by signing up for our monthly newsletter.