Hi there fellow Open Educators,

 

Open Education Week (OEW) is just around the corner: March 1-5. OEW is an annual, global event that aims to “raise awareness and showcase the impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide.”

 

BCIT is co-hosting an event through the  BC Open Education Librarians (BCOEL)  group on Monday, March 1, 12:30 – 1:30pm, so save the date on your calendar! You can register for the event here.

 

Event title: Wicked Problems and Open Remedies: A student centered approach

 

On March 1st, please join us for this Open Education Week event exploring wicked problems and open remedies. A wicked problem is one that is difficult or impossible to solve due to incomplete, contradictory, interconnected, and/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 centre student voices in exploring the challenges and potential solutions for tackling this problem. This session will be opened and moderated by Arley Cruthers. Student panelists are Kristen Morgan (UBC Okanagan), Sophia Nguyen (SFU), and Caitlin Spreeuw (Douglas).

 

Featured speakers include: Arley Cruthers (Kwantlen), Kristen Morgan (UBC Okanagan), Sophia Nguyen (SFU), and Caitlin Spreeuw (Douglas).

 

Moderator: Donna Langille

 

Facilitator: Arley Cruthers

 

Arley Cruthers is a Paralympic medalist, novelist, and writing instructor. She won two World Championship gold medals and a bronze at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. She has received accolades for both her novels, Post and The Time We All Went Marching. She teaches Applied Communications at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, where she also currently serves as the Open Education Teaching Fellow. She’s also the author of the OER Business Writing for Everyone: An Inclusive Guide to Writing in the Workplace. Arley is passionate about open education, open pedagogy, ungrading, UDL and disability justice. She holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

 

Student Panelists:

Kristen Morgan (she/her), UBC Okanagan

 

Kristen is a Physics and Maths student at UBC’s Okanagan campus, where she works in the library as the Open Education Assistant and serves as a Senator-at-Large. She is passionate about the intersection of policy and advocacy, especially as they relate to sustainable long-term institutional changes. Her latest policy work addresses the prevalence of fee-based Digital Assessment Tools (pay-to-play online homework systems) in the undergraduate student experience, and reimagining assessment activities in an increasingly online environment. You can find Kristen on Twitter @KrisTheMorg.

 

Sophia Nguyen, SFU

 

Sophia Nguyen worked on a group project for an IAT 330 class that resulted in a children's book on textile sustainability titled "Jordan and the Magic Cape" that has just been published via Open Monograph Press (OMP) with support from the Library.

 

Caitlin Spreeuw, Douglas College

 

Caitlin Spreeuw is a science student currently studying at Douglas College with hopes of getting into the Faculty of Science at SFU. She is the Director of External Relations at the Douglas Students’ Union, and through this role she has had the opportunity to be a part of the Open Douglas working group. Students face a lot of financial pressures due to post-secondary education; tuition fees are at an all-time high, and with the extra costs of purchasing textbooks and academic materials, students often struggle to come up with the funds they need. Caitlin is interested in open education because it is an initiative that will save students a lot of money in the long run, and help relieve that financial burden.

 

Cheers,

Rosario

 

                    

 

Rosario Passos

Instructional Development Consultant (IDC)

Learning and Teaching Centre

British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)

3700 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2

Tel: (604) 456 1266    rosario_passos@bcit.ca             www.bcit.ca/ltc

 

Education for a Complex World

 

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