When soil scientists at UBC, TRU, UNBC, U Saskatchewan and U of T-Mississauga wanted to engage a broader audience in contributing to and expanding knowledge about soil, they combined open source and mobile technologies, collaboration, and augmented reality to create SOILx. Dr. Maja Krzic SOILx – which stands for Searchable, Open, Innovative, Location-based, is an innovative project that provides rich, geo-located information about different soil… Read more »
Joseph Anthony has an interesting job with the UBC Faculty of Medicine – he facilitates the use of technology for educational purposes in the health professions. It’s a role that has allowed Anthony and other faculty staff to entwine video, drama and education into an array of engaging, interactive computer-based learning experiences focused around virtual patients (VP). For years, health professions students studied paper-based patient… Read more »
Developing digital stories is a compelling approach to the challenge of revitalizing aboriginal languages – and a perfect fit for the 2011-12 OPDF. The project, led by Vancouver Island University, seeks to develop language instructional materials and course curriculum by community-driven and community-supported research and design. VIU director of aboriginal education, Sharon Hobenshield, explained in a Skype interview recently that the funds will support the… Read more »
The selection committee for the Online Program Development Fund awarded funds to nine proposals in the 2011-12 round. BCcampus interviewed the lead proponents of some of the successful projects, and we are spotlighting those projects here in the next few weeks. Here is the second installment: Virtual Patient Modules. How do educators in the varied health care disciplines train a growing number of practitioners to… Read more »
California makes the big leap – first to establish open textbook legislation for higher education. This looks like great news for students and instructors. California is establishing a fund to create a digital collection of open textbooks. The main highlights of the California open textbook program include: Free access to textbooks in the most highly enrolled first and second year courses Government funding to create… Read more »
The selection committee for the Online Program Development Fund awarded funds to nine proposals in the 2011-12 round. BCcampus interviewed the lead proponents of some of the successful projects, and we are spotlighting those projects here in the next few weeks. Here is the first installment: Shipbuilding and Repair Entry level Training Modules, led by Camosun College. Tradespeople with special shipbuilding skills will be in… Read more »
This post is from a joint news release from BCcampus and the Ministry of Advanced Education, please see the government version on their media site. Post-secondary students and faculty in a diversity of programs from medicine to shipbuilding, Aboriginal languages to physics and engineering will have the opportunity to advance their learning online thanks to a new round of projects funded by the Online Program… Read more »
BCcampus is pleased to announce the $500,000 2011-12 Online Program Development Fund (OPDF). This annual fund, now in its ninth year, supports partnerships among all B.C.’s public post secondary institutions for development of strategically important online learning curricula. A broad range of Ministry of Advanced Education priorities are being targeted with this year’s fund: Technologies and applied programs related to natural resource sectors, construction and… Read more »
BCcampus is part of a consortium of Pacific Northwest higher education organizations on the receiving end of a $749,994 grant from the Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) – http://nextgenlearning.org/the-grants/wave-I-winners#36 an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The winning proposal was based on online science courses and Remote Web-Based Science Lab, a BCcampus Online Program Development… Read more »
BCcampus started supporting the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) back in 2003 with it’s inaugural Online Program Development Fund. The 2010 call for proposals was the eighth round and brings the total investment made so far to $9 million. Given the burgeoning interest in OER I thought it might be useful to describe this years outcome in the context of an eight year retrospective… Read more »