Open Education 2017

In 2015 the Alberta Government provided funding for Open Educational Resource projects within the province in reaction to a growing global movement towards open and free educational materials to displace the publishing industry stranglehold on education. Our proposal was awarded funds in large part due to the fundamental collaborative component of the project which reached well beyond the borders of the University. In the world that is heading to more borders, more segregation, and more siloing, our project undertook to build relationships and break down the barriers that prevent large scale collaborative activities in the humanities.

During 18 months, our Spanish OER project engaged six universities, over 100 professors, graduate students, undergraduates, and members of the community to create, edit, and digitize a textbook for the 1st semester of Spanish at the post-secondary level.

The presentation will describe the logic behind the project, the scope of collaboration, and how it opened up the role of content expert, editor, professor, tutor, and student. We will discuss the rationale and successes of technological innovation and integration in the textbook and during the joint effort of creating resources. We examine these processes through the lens of collaborative creation, collaborative teaching, and collaborative learning, which are the essential elements of this project.