10 a.m.
Dear fellow Open Educators,
Wow! This is excellent news. Check out the new Open Education
Alberta<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%…
program created in our neighbour province. See more information below.
A great way to support adoption and adaptation of OER and Open Textbooks.
Cheers,
Rosario
[rosario.jpg]
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<mailto:rosario_passos@bcit.ca>
www.bcit.ca/ltc
Education for a Complex World
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
Dear colleagues,
The University of Alberta Library and the Alberta OER Technology and Infrastructure
Working Group is pleased to announce the new Open Education
Alberta<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%…
program.
This no-fee provincial program seeks to eliminate barriers to adopting, adapting and
creating open textbooks by providing Alberta post-secondary institutions with easy-to-use
online publishing software. The University of Alberta Library will host and maintain the
Pressbooks publishing software, and partner institutions will establish workflows and
service models that fit their unique community needs.
Thank you to Mount Royal University, MacEwan University, University of Calgary, University
of Lethbridge and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology for their contributions to
the development of this program.
Why do we need this program?
Many institutions are eager to pursue the development of Open Education initiatives on
their campuses, but do not have access to the technical infrastructure or staff to host
the tools and software required to adapt or create new content. The UofA, which already
manages a local OER publishing program, is well-positioned to expand its hosting to
support more content, while institutions with special expertise in content and course
creation, open pedagogy, scholarly communications, and project management, can contribute
to the program through the development of content and supporting materials. Because the
published textbooks will be openly available to anyone, the entire post-secondary
community in Alberta can benefit from this collaborative program.
What are OER?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that allow free use
and reuse, without charge. OERs often have a Creative Commons
license<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%…
that states specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
What is Pressbooks?
Pressbooks<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…
is a simple publishing software for the authoring and publication of multimedia-rich print
books, ebooks, and webbooks. The published books are shareable in multiple formats
including pdf, epub, and mobi and can easily be adapted and updated using the Pressbooks
software.
For more information, see
https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca<https://can01.safelinks.protectio…
or contact library.publishing@ualberta.ca<mailto:library.publishing@ualberta.ca>
Working Group Members
Initiative Co-Leads (2019-present):
Michelle Brailey (University of Alberta) & Cari Merkley (Mount Royal University)
Institutional Representatives and Contributors:
Robyn Hall (MacEwan University), Christie Hurrell (University of Calgary), Jessica Norman
(Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Erika Smith (Mount Royal University), Joerdis
Weilandt (University of Lethbridge)
--
Michelle Brailey
Digital Initiatives Projects Librarian, University of Alberta
brailey@ualberta.ca<mailto:brailey@ualberta.ca>
The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6 territory and homeland of
the Métis peoples.
Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton
