UBC Library’s Open Education services seek to support the UBC community in finding, adapting, and creating high-quality open educational resources, as well as planning and implementing innovative Open Education projects and Open Practices.

UBC Library’s Open Education services play an active role in moving forward UBC Vancouver Library’s Strategic Framework vision of,

… leading and collaborating to advance open scholarship…

Additionally, the supports and services for open education reinforce UBC Okanagan Library’s commitment to,

… support(ing) transformative learning experiences.

Year in Review

UBC Vancouver and Okanagan Library play an active role in progressing open education initiatives and practices on both campuses. For March 2020-March 2021 reporting period, UBC Library engaged in:

• consulting on 160+ open education projects
• developing highly-used resources, communication tools, and toolkits for open educational resource development, such as the Open Textbook Publishing Guide.
• organizing Open Education and Open Scholarship events attended by 650+ faculty, staff, and students 
• collaborating on the processes and adjudication for the $250,000 UBC Vancouver Open Educational Resources Fund 
• securing $41,525 in funding to pilot an OER Grant for UBC Okanagan

Total Consultations 2020-2021: 161

Subject Areas

• Faculty of Applied Sciences (SCARP; Engineering)
• Faculty of Arts (Anthropology, CENES, CNERS, FHIS, History, Social Justice Institute)
• Faculty of Education (LLED)
• Faculty of Forestry
• Faculty of Medicine (SPPH)
• Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Faculty of Science (Chemistry, Math)
• Vancouver School of Economics (VSE)
• UBC Library; UBC-O Library; Research Commons
• External: University of Alberta, University of Alaska Southeast, Cologne University of Applied Sciences

Open Scholarship in Practice

Open Scholarship in Practice is an annual weekly event where people and institutions around the world celebrate and discuss a variety of open practices. At UBC, we hosted 5 events that covered topics from specific tools and project planning, as well as a discussion on the challenges posed by working in public and the skills required to develop more publicly engaged scholarship. This year featured a keynote talk from Kathleen Fitzpatrick, author of Generous Thinking.

Program in Open Scholarship and Education (POSE)

The POSE program, a cohort-based course to increase knowledge of open access, open research, and open education, was developed in partnership with UBC Library and the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology. Beginning in January 2021, 147 participants navigated through modular content, completed activities, discussion boards, and joined online events featuring guest speakers. Participants completed over 460 activities and a capstone project to apply what they learned into their own practice.

OER Champions – UBV & UBCO

UBC Library also collaborated on OER Champions events on both campuses. UBCV Library supported CTLT and the AMS in the Leaders in Open Learning, a student-driven event to honouring 40 faculty engaging in open practices in the classroom. UBCO Library collaborated with the Student Union Office and UBCO Open Education Working Group on the first OER Champions campaign honouring seven 7 faculty who have made significant contributions to Open Education at UBC Okanagan.

UBC Okanagan Library OER Grant Pilot

This past year, UBC Okanagan Library has worked to develop their open education program and service. Under the leadership of the Library, the UBC Okanagan Open Education Working Group was formalized with cross-campus representation including students, librarians, bookstore representatives, administrators, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning.  The UBCO OEWG successfully received one of BCcampus’ 2020 Open Education Foundation Grant for Institutions to pilot an OER grant pilot. With additional funds from the Provost office, the Library implemented and supported the 2020/21 OER Grant program, and awarded $41,525 across 9 projects to create or adapt open educational resources to be implemented in UBCO courses by January 2022.

When I saw how much the students loved the textbook I was hooked! So, I went back to the library so I could get the training and mentorship I needed to expand and improve the textbook on an ongoing basis. The library also opened my eyes to the world of OER. This led me to a successful grant application to improve my text and prep it for public offering.

Dr. Chelsea Himsworth,  UBC School of Population and Public Health

Let’s Read French Books

Faculty Lead: Somayeh Kamranian

Published May 2020 – Jan 2021

461 Visitors (2020-2021)

This collection of 19th century French short stories was created to give students learning French the opportunity to read and engage with the language in context. To enhance student learning, vocabulary lists and glossaries with audio pronunciation were created as well as activities for engagement.

Laboratory Manual for Introduction to Physical Geography, First British Columbia Edition

Faculty Lead: Stuart McKinnon

Published Aug 2020

20, 878 Visitors (2020-2021)

This project was a collaboration between 14 different instructors across various BC institutions. Instructors wrote 1-2 lab manuals, with accompanying Instructor notes, for a total of 22 labs covering a wide range of topics appropriate for first year Physical Geography courses.