BC Open Education Librarians

Events

BCOEL usually hosts an event during Open Education Week, and occasionally other events during the year, such as Open Access Week. All events are posted on the BCcampus events calendar.

Visit the BCcampus calendar

Archives

2025

  • Vectors of Trust: Practicing Reciprocal Values in Challenging Times (March 6, 2025)
    In eduspaces we talk about values in nebulous terms. We believe in open, we believe in barrier-free, we believe in social justice, we believe in student-focused pedagogies. But what are these values as praxis for those of us who support student-focused spaces? In this keynote, Dr. Ann Gagné will discuss how we are currently living through a crisis of trust in higher education, institutionally, governmentally, societally, and within our own communities. She will support reflection on how trust is a vector, with both magnitude and direction that impacts the work we do and the work we want to do. By highlighting broken reciprocal values and support systems, this talk defines the moral injury seen in our eduspaces and gives participants the opportunity to leave with tangible next steps to promote trust as reciprocal and etymologically radical.

2024

  • Planes, trains, and generative AI: Recentering open education values in new technology adoption (March 4, 2024)
    Host Brenna Clarke Gray (Thompson Rivers University) and guest Autumm Caines (University of Michigan – Dearborn) explore the pedagogical implications of generative AI in this conversation in honour of Open Education Week. They ask such questions as: 
    • What happens when we leap into new technologies without first pausing to imagine harms, such as surveillance, bias, and discrimination? 
    • Can recentering the core values of the open education movement—equity, inclusion, transparency, and social justice—in our pedagogy help us move forward in a good way?
    • How do we introduce these considerations to our students and empower them to make informed decisions with new technologies?

2023

  • Finding the Free Path: Making Zero-Textbook-Cost Courses Visible (March 10, 2023)
    You have adapted your course to ensure materials are free for students, but how can students choose to save money if they aren’t aware of their zero textbook cost (ZTC) course options? Learn from B.C. post-secondary institutions — including Thompson Rivers University, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Community College — that have created ZTC offerings for students. The panel of speakers will describe how they made ZTC course information visible and discoverable at their institutions and how highlighting or marking ZTC courses allowed students to make informed decisions regarding the cost of their course materials. Together, we can help students find the free path. 

2020-2021

  • Wicked Problems and Open Remedies: A Student-Centred Approach
    A wicked problem is one that is difficult or impossible to solve due to incomplete, contradictory, interconnected, or changing factors. A problem that requires a major change in practice, belief, or behaviour for many people is often a wicked problem. Drawing on this idea, we turn our attention to the wicked problem in higher education of empowering students in the classroom and centring student voices in exploring the challenges of and potential solutions for this problem. Arley Cruthers (Kwantlen) will moderate the session. Student panelists include Kristen Morgan (UBC Okanagan), Sophia Nguyen (Simon Fraser University [SFU]), and Caitlin Spreeuw (Douglas College).  Open Education Week (March 1–5, 2021) is an annual global event that aims to “raise awareness and showcase the impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide.”
  • Open Access in Action: Tales from Five Institutions
    Join us for a quick review of five different Open Access initiatives at five different institutions (KPU, Langara, UNCO, BCIT, and Okanagan College). Presenters will offer a quick overview of their project and answer questions.

2019-2020

2016-2017

2015-2016

2014-2015