The Alma Mater Society (AMS), alongside other University sponsors, is excited to announce that on November 30th, 2022, we will be hosting an event to honour those who work in Open Education at UBC. The call is now open for students and other members of the UBC community to nominate OER Champions — the faculty, staff, and administrators who dedicate their time to fostering accessible education at UBC — to be recognized and celebrated at this event.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined as teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and also carry legal permission for open use. OER include textbooks, full courses, course materials, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. They reduce student costs for learning materials and enable instructors to modify, edit, or adapt high quality resources to fit their individual teaching goals in order to provide meaningful, contextualised materials for their students.
The Alma Mater Society has been advocating for OER implementation at UBC for years, because of how much it benefits students, which is why we would like to recognize the hard work of those who work in OER at this upcoming event. In the past academic year the average UBC student at spent $1253 on textbooks and other course materials over the school year. This substantial amount, combined with other financial burdens students carry, means that students are forced to sacrifice important aspects of their academic experience to remain at UBC. Seventy percent of students reported going without a textbook or other course resource at least once due to cost. A further thirty one percent of graduate and twenty percent of undergraduate percent of students report that they may have to abandon their studies at UBC due to financial reasons. While “open” is the goal of OER, this does not mean the same thing as “free;” instructor time and efforts are significant costs that go into the development and adoption of OER.
The members of the UBC Community we wish to honour at this event are true champions of equitable access to education. They not only understand, but dedicate themselves to ensuring that socio-economic standing doesn’t act as a barrier for students being able to access course materials. Each (often unpaid) hour these champions devote towards OER leads to fewer students having to make the choice between accessing course materials and other financial burdens, like buying food or paying for housing.
So — do you know someone at the university who has bettered your own or others’ experience at UBC with their work on OERs? Be sure to nominate them through the simple form below to be recognized and appreciated for the amazing work they do! Student nominators may also be invited to attend the event (if you are interested in potentially attending, make sure to give your own contact information on the form too) and will be entered into a giveaway to win a $50 UBC Bookstore gift card.
Dana Turdy
Vice President, Academic and University Affairs
Alma Mater Society
