Digital Teaching, Learning, and Research at BCcampus
Digital Literacy Project
BCcampus is working with the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills and the Digital Learning Advisory Committee (DLAC) to deliver open educational resources (OER) and professional development that reflect the provincial Digital Learning Strategy and the eight competencies in its Digital Literacy Framework.
Digital Pedagogy Toolbox
The Digital Pedagogy Toolbox blog series highlighted interactive technologies and pedagogies. A diverse group of blog authors, representing many of the post-secondary institutions in B.C., shared their thoughts on current and relevant topics such as:
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Cultivating Digital Well-Being as a Social Practice with the PERMA Framework
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Let’s Make Friends with ChatGPT
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Use Games, But Use the Fun Parts!
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Early Considerations for ePortfolios in WordPress
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Designing for Care with Personas
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Creating Engaging, Interactive Learning Resources
- Digital Pedagogy Toolbox: Ethics as Design
Support for Educators
To meet the needs of faculty, staff, and students in post-secondary institutions across B.C., BCcampus designed offerings that support their work in designing and teaching courses.
“Right now we’re concentrating on keeping barriers to access low for critical teaching and learning topics. We have fantastic research projects in the works, including a speaker series that runs from October through December, brilliant books to review together in the online book club, a digital literacy program designed by educators, and learning events and activities to bring us together — online for now — to learn with and from each other.”
Director of Teaching + Learning at BCcampus
Student Research
The BCcampus Research Fellows Program provides B.C. post-secondary educators and students with funding to conduct small-scale research on teaching and learning and explore evidence-based teaching practices that focus on student success.
BCcampus Research Fellowships have an 18-month term. We welcomed the following group of Fellows, who began their terms in early 2022:
- Alea Rzeplinski: Open for All? An Analysis of the Barriers Marginalized Students Face Utilizing Open Educational Resources at Capilano University
- Colin Madland: Exploring Assessment in B.C. Post-Secondary
- Kim Ashbourne: Listening to Learn and Learning to Listen: Community-Engaged Digital Accessibility Research with Learners Who Use Audio-Supported Reading and Screen-Reader Technology in Post-Secondary
- Lily Ivanova: The Faculty Factor: A Cultural Approach to Diversity and Decolonization in Post-Secondary
- Marta Samokishyn: The Role of Algorithmic Literacy in Academia and Beyond: Some Considerations
Teaching and Learning Celebrations: Introducing New Leadership at BCTLC
BCcampus works with several groups involved in teaching and learning in B.C., including the British Columbia Teaching and Learning Council (BCTLC). Last summer the former co-chairs, Drs. Paula Hayden and Anne Sommerfeld, stepped down from their two-year appointment and welcomed the new leadership team of Dr. Laura MacKay, incoming director of Curriculum and Instruction in the Centre for Educational Excellence at SFU, and Melanie Meyers, program director at the Justice Institute of British Columbia Centre for Teaching Learning and Innovation. The new leadership team will guide the BCTLC for the 2022–2024 term of office.
West Coast Teaching Excellence Award
Led by the BCTLC, the West Coast Teaching Excellence Award recognizes educators in B.C. post-secondary for excellent learning design, facilitation, and student support. The 2022 West Coast Teaching Excellence Award winners were:
- Dr. Matthew Beedle, Coast Mountain College
- Dr. Awneet Sivia, University of the Fraser Valley
- Dr. Paola Ardiles Gamboa, Simon Fraser University
- Dr. Lyn Baldwin, Thompson Rivers University
- Larry Leung, University of British Columbia
Community-Engaged Learning
BCcampus worked with a team of students in the Educational Studies program at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to analyze and evaluate the BCcampus Research Fellowship program to see where we can improve it.
“Through interactions like this, learners find benefit that goes far beyond basic knowledge transfer. They gain an increased understanding of self in relation to the community by examining their beliefs, values, assumptions, strengths, biases, privileges, prejudices, and internalized stereotypes. They improve their understanding of how to speak across differences, and they leave this program with enhanced essential life skills through networking, knowledge exchange, and engagement with diverse community stakeholders. The benefits to the student are immense, and the value to the organization is significant.”
Community Engaged Learning Officer, UBC
Curriculum Map: A Tool for Mapping, Analysis, and Planning
In August BCcampus hosted a webinar: Curriculum MAP: Demo for Instructors and Professionals. This offering appealed to 140 registrants (90 attendees) across the province and other areas of Canada and the United States. The Curriculum MAP website was inspired by Curriculum Links (University of Calgary) and customized to meet UBC’s needs. However, anyone with an email address can use the site and its open-source software for their institution.
Learning While We Teach: The Experiences of Instructors in Community-Based Programs (Part Two)
BCcampus shared an update on a research project by BCcampus Research Fellow Dr. Carmen Rodriguez de France, associate professor of Indigenous education at the University of Victoria (UVic). The project looked at learning from the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous instructors who facilitated courses in four of the community-based programs in the Department of Indigenous Education at UVic.
Lunchable Learning Unpacked
This project began in 2021 to examine how BCcampus offers professional development to the post-secondary sector. The goal of the Lunchable Learning radio show was to provide B.C. post-secondary educators with professional learning using old but familiar technology in a new and fun way that explored digital literacy and a curious mindset.
The project uncovered several learnings and will be a valuable case study for future projects where researchers are interested in using audio to deliver content.
Mixing It Up at BCcampus
To reuse our library of high-value discussions from leaders in teaching and learning; educational technology; equity, diversity, and inclusion; Indigenization; and other topics, BCcampus gathered a selection of best-ofs from its webinars, videos, podcasts, the Lunchable Learning Radio Show, the Open Knowledge Spectrums podcast, and more, presented as the BCcampus Mixtape.
BCcampus Online Book Club: The Open Edition
The BCcampus Online Book Club started as a community-driven project by a group of volunteer post-secondary educators interested in connecting with colleagues on topics in teaching and learning. The guidelines for the book club are that it is open, informal, and fun — an easy way to share ideas and strategies.
During the past year, the book club facilitated engaging conversations with global open education experts, including:
Research Speaker Series
BCcampus hosted a Research Speaker Series to give BCcampus research fellows and scholars from post-secondary institutions in B.C. a chance to learn and share knowledge and advocacy on research methods, approaches, and pedagogies about accessibility; access; equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI); and Indigenous engagement in teaching and learning.
The webinars allowed educators to hear about new research and an opportunity to ask questions about the findings. We posted recordings of each webinar within a week of the event.
The series covered the following topics:
- Arts-Based Research – Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, University of Manitoba
- Community-Engaged Research – Nadia Beyzaei, Emily Carr University
- Creating and Managing Your Academic Profile – Erin Fields, University of British Columbia
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Research – Tanya Manning-Lewis, Thompson Rivers University
- Inclusive and Accessible Research – Afsaneh Sharif, University of British Columbia
- Indigenous Approaches to Research and Ethics – Tanya Ball, University of Alberta
Facilitating Learning Online
Going with the FLO
Since March 2020 BCcampus has hosted 66 FLO offerings to 4,009 participants. Through our programs, delivery, and instructional design, we are constantly evolving to meet the needs of post-secondary educators and students in B.C.
FLO Bootcamp
The asynchronous, self-paced FLO Bootcamp supported B.C.’s post-secondary educators with an updated online course. We originally created FLO Bootcamp in response to COVID-19, but it’s ultimately about good online course design and facilitation practice. We delivered the course in 2020 as an intense one-week experience and re-launched it with four themes over the summer of 2022.
FLO Tech Tool Tips
We shared a series of technology tool tips to help educators in today’s complex learning environment. Topics included: