Collaborative Projects at BCcampus

Fostering Strategic Partnerships and Relationships

We are working on a variety of short-term and multi-year projects through partnerships and agreements with government agencies, non-profit groups and associations, and B.C.’s post-secondary institutions, with a shared goal of improving learning and teaching experiences.

Health Care Assistant, Access to Practical Nursing, and Practical Nursing Curriculum Guides

Over the past year, BCcampus worked with the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills and sector partners to review and update the Health Care Assistant (HCA), Access to Practical Nursing (APN), and Practical Nursing (PN) curriculum guides. These reviews are scheduled to take place every five years to ensure the content is aligned with the standards of practice and competencies of the British Columbia College of Nurses & Midwives (PN and APN curricula) and the B.C. Health Care Assistants Core Competency Profile (HCA curriculum).

The updated HCA, APN, and PN curriculum guides and supplemental materials will be published with Pressbooks and available in the B.C. Open Collection in late 2023.

Intersectional Sexualized Violence

In partnership with Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) and the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, BCcampus worked with community members to develop new training resources and facilitation guides that support Indigenous, international, and graduate students. We are also working on technology-facilitated sexualized violence resources.

These resources will go through a pilot phase in fall 2023 and are set for completion in winter 2024. They will help post-secondary institutions support student populations, address systemic barriers, and develop a comprehensive response to sexualized violence that uses an intersectional approach.

Mental Health and Wellness

In partnership with the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, BCcampus released three mental health and wellness resources for faculty, staff, and students.

Articulate Rise: Capacity to Connect: Support Students’ Mental Health and Wellness (for faculty and staff). This adaptable training resource covers foundational mental health and wellness for post-secondary faculty and staff and ways to support students in distress. It can be used for two-hour online or in-person training or for self-study. It includes a facilitator’s guide, slides, and handouts.
Starting a Conversation About Mental Health (for students) is a 60-minute online, self-paced course that provides foundational mental health and wellness information for post-secondary students and covers ways students can support peers who are in distress.
Nanihtsulyaz ‘int’en (Do things gently) ʔes zuminstwáx kt (We take care of one another) is a short illustrated resource that honours Elders’ teachings and perspectives on mental health and wellness. Recognizing, valuing, and celebrating Indigenous perspectives and knowledge in mental health and wellness promotes culture, belonging, and an inclusive, culturally located approach to student wellness.

These resources provide ways for faculty, staff, and students to increase foundational mental health knowledge and literacy.

The Mental Health project, which began in 2019, is now finished, with this full suite of mental health resources now available to the B.C. post-secondary sector.

Micro-Credentials: Competencies at the Core

Micro-credentials are flexible, bite-size pieces of learning that are competency-based. The micro-credential project aims to help residents in B.C. who need to retrain to meet an industry skills gap or want to be recognized for skills they already have as well as learners who have barriers to access.

The micro-credentials project is now in its third phase. BCcampus and the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills are building the capacity to design, develop, and implement micro-credentials in B.C. post-secondary institutions.

This spring BCcampus will release an adaptation of eCampusOntario’s Micro-Credential Toolkit for use in B.C.’s post-secondary sector.

As part of this project, BCcampus hosted an online event where Toronto Metropolitan University’s Dr. Lena Patterson discussed why competencies are at the core of micro-credentials and international competency expert Dennis Green examined competencies and competency frameworks.

Early Years Professional Development — Deaf and Hard of Hearing

The Canada-British Columbia Early Learning and Child Care Agreement is funding online professional learning opportunities for Deaf/hard of hearing persons in the field of early childhood development in B.C. The project aims to provide equitable and accessible learning opportunities.

The role of BCcampus in this Ministry of Education and Child Care–led initiative is to provide a call for proposals process, evaluate the proposals with the ministry, and disburse funds. We have awarded the calls for this work, and deliverables are in progress.

Early Years – Continuous Professional Learning

Led by the Ministry of Education and Child Care, BCcampus is supporting the development of professional learning opportunities through the management of a series of calls, including the evaluation of the proposals and dispersal of funds to the successful proponents.

These calls for proposals focus on the need for high-quality, accessible, in-person, and online offerings for early childhood professionals. There is also a need to continue improving the quality and accessibility of learning opportunities in the following areas:

Indigenous cultural competencies
Child care in B.C.
Early childhood educator practice in B.C.

Pulling Together

Pulling Together is a set of professional learning guides that came from a collaboration between BCcampus, the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, and a steering committee of Indigenous education leaders. These guides were written by Indigenous and ally writers from across B.C. Recently, members of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) leadership team Diane Purvey and Steve Cardwell, along with Indigenous facilitators and knowledge-keepers Dianne Biin and Dr. Dawn Smith, used the Pulling Together Leaders and Administrators learning guide to lead indigenization at KPU, with support from BCcampus staff members Michelle Glubke, Valerie Cross, Kelsey Kilbey, Paula Gaube, and Abigail Drews.

BCcampus provided training, convened facilitators and guest speakers, and engaged with participants. This work was especially powerful because the academic leaders modelled active reconciliation by developing relationships with the Kwantlen and Tsawwassen First Nations. When you take part in land-based learning on the traditional territories of Kwantlen and Tsawwassen, you can’t help but deepen those relationships and begin the reconciliation journey.

Peer-Support Training Resources

BCcampus launched two new resources this year to help build foundational skills in peer support for student mental health and wellness in B.C. The Post-Secondary Peer Support Training Curriculum and the Post-Secondary Peer Support Training Curriculum: Facilitator’s Guide for Use with Students make up the province’s first-ever peer-support training curriculum developed for and by the public post-secondary sector. Led by BCcampus, with funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, this project was completed with help from B.C. post-secondary students and staff.