At RRC Polytech, faculty and staff have begun using existing Open Educational Resources (OER’s) to support their work with students. This past year, Rebecca Hiebert and Emilie Jackson, while working in the Academic Success Centre in Library and Academic Services, adapted a compilation of OE resources to create College Success for Newcomers, an OER in the form of an e-book.
What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?
OERs can come in many different formats. In general, OERs are educational materials such as: textbooks, problem sets, assessments, slide decks, videos, lesson plans, study guides, handouts, info graphics, and other educational content that can be used for free and without permission.
OERs are resources published under an open license, such as Creative Commons allowing these resources to be freely adapted. Under an open license instructors and students can retain, revise, remix, reuse and redistribute these educational resources.
Want the full story on how to adapt an OER?
Be sure to join us at the RED Forum session Success for Newcomers: Building and Using Open Educational Resources, on Friday, June 2 from 1:15-2:15pm.
Rebecca Hiebert and Ebony Novakowski will present about the journey to adapting an OER as well as best practices for OER Licensing and information on accessing OERs.
How Rebecca and Emilie got started
At the start of the pandemic, Rebecca struck on a brilliant idea to help students learn how to write outlines when taking notes in class or brainstorming to write reports. Rebecca hoped to create a video of herself using PowerPoint slides with a TED Talk clips to inform a step-by-step guide that demonstrated how to listen to content in a video, analyze the main ideas, and capture these in an outline. Being proactive and respectful of copyright concerns, she reached out to the TED Talks people to request permission to use their video in this way. After a long month of waiting, she received an answer, but not the one she was hoping for.
This led to a conversation with RRC Polytech’s Copyright Officer, Ebony Novakowski, who introduced Rebecca to an online repository of open videos that she could use in the resource she wanted to create. With the new resource under her belt, Rebecca was intrigued by the possibility of creating additional OER. A few months later, with help from Emilie Jackson, and funding support for the Campus Manitoba PressbooksEDU Network grant they were on their way to creating a localized version of College Success for Newcomers: a guide to provide language and academic supports for new students in Manitoba.
Want to learn more about the OER College Success for Newcomers?
This OER resource supports newcomer students and can be used by anyone in North American (or anywhere really!) The goal is to reduce duplication where instructors and support staff are all trying to create and recreate similar resources to help international students adapt to the Canadian college setting. This resource is free to be used and adapted further by instructors and support staff worldwide. Additionally, the resource provides multiple perspectives so that international students can learn about Canadian culture and the diverse experiences of the people who live here.
Where is the College Success for Newcomers OER available?
The OER is available online (worldwide) through the platform Pressbooks. The OER can be downloaded into a variety of formats including PDF which could be printed out or viewed offline as well as Pressbooks XML which can be used to adapt the content into future OERs. The OER can be used by anyone, anywhere without permission. It is entirely open and free to access.
One perk of Open Educational Resources is that they benefit multiple departments, schools, and educators. and by creating resources under open licenses, they can be easily shared without preventative restrictions to instructors who want to use and modify the resource. They can also be shared without cost to students.
The Academic Success Centre will use College Success for Newcomers OER when working with international students both in 1:1 tutoring and when leading workshops.
The Social Innovation and Community Development department will use the OER in courses that are blended with international students, Canadian born students of diverse (European) ancestry, and Indigenous students.
Communications instructors will be implementing the OER into the fall version of COMM 1173, Communication Strategies, that will reach over 1,200 students at RRC Polytech.
Instructors will be using the OER in the Department of LINC English Language Learning and Newcomer Integration (previously the Language Training Centre) IRCC English Language Programming.
Looking for Personal or Departmental OER Support?
Open Educational Resources are accessible online and free to share and use in any educational setting. There are already many existing OERs available so if you are looking for a resource to support students, reach out to the library staff and they can help you search for an OER to meet your needs.
Many students begin college believing Google can provide all the answers. Concepts such as crafting effective searches and evaluating information may not be familiar to them. Library instruction provides the initial direction students need to navigate the world of information with skill and confidence. Library staff also offer further guidance through one-on-one research help.
How does it work?
Upon request, a Library staff member will work with your schedule to provide live instruction to your class (online or in-person). Topics frequently covered include (but are not limited to) effective searching, source evaluation, and citation techniques. Whether it be a general session such as an introduction to using the Library, or a more focused session on finding resources for a specific assignment, Library staff will tailor the session to your needs.
Click the button below to learn more and request a session. We are currently booking sessions for fall, so please contact us soon so we can accommodate your request.
Open Education Week (March 6-10, 2023) raises awareness and highlights innovative open education successes worldwide. OE Week provides practitioners, educators, and students with an opportunity to build a greater understanding of open educational practices and be inspired by the wonderful work being developed by the community around the world.
As costs continue to rise for students, educators are looking toward free open resources made by educators for educators to help ensure students have access to the course materials they need to succeed. These resources also ensure educators have permission to adapt lesson materials without seeking complicated copyright permissions or encountering restrictive digital access requirements. To date, the adoption of Open Textbooks by instructors at RRC Polytech has saved students $477, 500 in textbook costs. Thank you to all our instructors who participate in Open Education!
We can assist you with advanced searches in discipline specific and larger databases; developing search strategies; grey literature searches; and with knowledge synthesis projects (including systematic reviews in the Health Sciences).
We can help you navigate the steps between writing and having your work published by traditional and alternative publishers.
Research Data Management
Assistance with writing Data Management Plans (DMPs), data handling best practices, data description, storage, and preservation. Learn about what the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy applies to the research data you collect.
Research Impact
Support for understanding measurements of citation and bibliometrics.
Research Ethics
A librarian can help you with the steps towards receiving Research Ethics Board (REB) approval – necessary when conducting research involving human subjects.
Research Consultations Now Available
Research consultations with a research librarian are now available, in person or via Teams!
You can book a research consultation by filling out a Research Consultation Request Form. The form allows you to attach any protocols, initial searches, or documentation for the librarian to review beforehand to ensure a productive consultation.
Library and Academic Services is looking forward to supporting you in your research endeavours!
Written byChris Read, MLIS – Research Services Librarian
Since we had redesigned the Library and Academic Services website last summer, it was decided that user testing would tell us whether our new site design was effective.
In our site redesign we used principles of user centric design, attempting to create a site for our users, who were defined as two personas: “Average Student User” and “Average Instructor User.”
This particular test targeted instructors, and would evaluate our “Average Instructor User” persona.
Our Academic Support Coordinator, Melissa Coyle, asked for volunteers via Staff News. Not sure how much interest she would generate, she was pleasantly surprised to receive a number of volunteers, all Instructors and EAs, and from different programs and areas of the college. Choosing five candidates that represented an even cross-section of our college, Melissa went ahead and administered a test, one-on-one with each volunteer.
We would like to take a moment to thank the staff who volunteered to take our test. Without you, this entire process would not have been possible. Bravo!
Using a list of twenty-one tasks, consisting of scenarios and questions that could be discovered on the Library and Academic Services website, Melissa monitored the candidates progress in browsing the web pages, taking notes as to the success or failure of the candidate in resolving each task.
It is true that you do not know how easy or hard a designed task might be until you observe an average person attempt to complete it. Melissa did this through a WebEx session with each candidate. It is an ingenious way to conduct a usability test, and Melissa was able to adeptly conduct the testing, all the while taking note of the challenges met by the users.
In case you were not aware, the Library and Academic Services website is quite deep, and contains information on services offered by the Library, Academic Success Centre, and Assessment Services. Some of the tasks were easily resolved by the users, such as:
Where would you go to find the hours for NDC and EDC campus?
You are browsing the LAS website and want to ask a Library staff a question. How would you ask a question or request help?
You are an instructor who would like to schedule an in-class Academic Skills workshop for your students. Where would you go to request this workshop?
You have a student in your class who you would like to refer for tutoring. What instruction would you provide the student to request or connect with a tutor on their own?
You are looking for information about Copyright, where would you go to find this?
Other questions posed to be more difficult for the users, indicating adjustments may be necessary on the web site:
You are an instructor who has assigned a research paper to your students for a specific topic and would like to reserve a selection of books for your class at the Library – how would you do this?
You have a student who is unfamiliar with LEARN and struggling to access course materials, submit assignments, and participate in online discussions . You would like to connect them with a tutor for help – how would you do this?
You’d like to share some self-directed resources with your students with a focus on study skills. Where would you find these?
Clearly we have more work to do to improve the Library and Academic Services website. In fact, we recognize that a website must be continuously managed, meaning changes are always necessary, and future testing will always be a smart step.
In addition to areas of improvement, the testing has shown us that our process of user-centric design is working. For the most part, we discovered that our Instructor persona was able to use the website to complete the tasks built into the user-interface.
When we build a web site, we think we can do plenty by considering how users will interact with the site. However, until we have some real users try the site, and we watch how they do it, we cannot know the whole story.
So, take our advice. Arrange for a few users to test your web site!
Mark Nelson Library Systems Specialist Red River College Polytechnic
Pixabay License Free for commercial use, No attribution required
This week we are highlighting “The Teaching Professor” A weekly, online newsletter dedicated to helping college faculty improve students’ learning.
Library and Academic Services (LAS) offers many avenues of support to faculty at RRC Polytech. Among those is our subscription to The Teaching Professor; an online, weekly, newsletter aimed at those teaching in higher education.
The Teaching Professor has been lauded for its succinct articles that make the connection between theory and practice in the scholarship of teaching and learning. It covers a wide range of topics such as course development, student engagement, academic integrity, online and blended learning, and professional growth.
Here are some reasons to check it out
The Twenty Minute Mentor is a monthly feature of a 20-minute video program. Check in each month to see what the topic is!
For Those Who Teach is the long-running weekly column from Maryellen Weimer, the publication’s founding editor and its lead writer from 1987 to 2022.
Resources
The Library Team has taken the time to pull resources from “The Teaching Professor” in three potential areas of interest for faculty.
Please check them out and take time to get to know “The Teaching Professor”.
1. Preparing For Return to Class
At this time of year, everyone is looking forward to the slower pace of summer days! When the time comes for you to start preparing for your return to the classroom, The Teaching Professor can help with some icebreakers for the first week of classes and with setting the tone of your classroom:
Academic dishonesty in the 21st century is so different than the days of looking over a fellow student’s shoulder for the answer. The Teaching Professor has many articles addressing this, here are just a few:
For educators, lifelong learning is so important. Developing your skills and knowledge after your formal education ends keeps your teaching fresh, allows you to reflect on what you’re currently doing, and gives you new ideas to strengthen your classroom connections. Here are a few articles to get you started:
The above links are just a small sampling of what can be found in The Teaching Professor. To sign up for weekly article summaries please click here to sign up Teaching Professor Email Update Service.
Written by Erin Edwards, Resource Management Technician
RRC Polytech staff and students can now enjoy hassle-free scheduling with the library’s new online equipment booking system. Find out everything you need to know about the new booking system so you can plan ahead, and be front of the line for fall bookings!
What’s available?
There are many equipment categories to browse and book online:
You can navigate to the equipment booking system from the library homepage, either by selecting Book Equipment from the icon bar on the homepage, or find it under browse and borrow from on the homepage top menu.
OR
Where to pick up a booking?
The RRC Polytech Library has two locations, one at the Notre Dame Campus in CM18, and another at the Exchange District Campus in room P214. Our two libraries have different equipment collections, so make sure you select the location you’ll be picking up from, before browsing and setting up bookings.
Add upcoming bookings to your outlook calendar
When you create a booking, you will receive a “Your booking has been confirmed” email with an .ics calendar file. Open the attachment and add the booking to your calendar.
Created a booking you no longer need? Need that equipment for a different time? You can cancel an upcoming booking anytime through the link included in your booking confirmation and reminder emails.
To change a booking, simply reply to your booking confirmation or reminder email and let us know the change, you’ll get an automatic email notification confirming when the changes have been made.
Find out more!
Need some help figuring out how to book equipment? Find out everything you need to know on the book equipment help page.
More information about our services and supports is available on our website. You may also connect with us through Ask Us chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours.
Increase Adoption of OER and Electronic Resources: A Key Action for High-Quality Learning
As indicated as a key action of high-quality learning at Red Forum 2022, the Library Team is here to help support instructors in finding high-quality electronic educational resources. The pandemic has blurred the lines between” in-person” learning and “remote” digital classrooms. The RRC Polytech Library is here to support instructors in locating resources that can withstand the need to shift learning environments nimbly.
We invite instructors who may have struggled with format shifts using their current teaching materials, or those who are seeking alternatives to current textbooks, to consider the shift to Open Educational Resources (OER). These are educational materials such as textbooks, problem sets, slide decks, lesson plans, handouts, infographics, and other educational content that can be used for free and without permission.
Advantages of OER
OERs are published under an open license, such as Creative Commons. This allows several key advantages:
Instructors can switch the format of materials with ease and without concern for the violation of copyright, these resources can be printed or remain in digital versions for students.
Instructors can Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute the materials freely without violating copyright.
OER use allows for cost savings for students when suitable OER can be located to replace course materials students pay for out of pocket.
More Information
Learn more about OER as well as past faculty education sessions held over the past two years: visit the Faculty Support OER Page.
See the impact of our current OER use at RRC Polytech in this 2-minute video: OER Impact Video.
Find support at the RRC Polytech Library to get started with OER: contact the Copyright Officer.
Planning for Fall? It’s a Great Time to Incorporate Our Supports
Spring is often the time to update course content and plan for fall, and it’s also a great time to incorporate supports offered by Library and Academic Services. In this article, we highlight popular ways we can help you and your students succeed at RRC Polytech. For future reference, we encourage you to bookmark our Faculty Support page which contains links to the complete range of services and supports we offer.
In-Class Workshops
The Academic Success Centre and Library offer online in-class workshops for student cohorts at the request of faculty. Our suite of workshops includes Academic Skills, Writing Skills, Technology Literacy Skills, Library Instruction, and Copyright.
To request an in-class workshop, please click the links below:
The Academic Success Centre and Library have developed a suite of Hybrid LEARNing Modules. The purpose of these modules is to offer learning strategies and resources that faculty can share with their students to further develop foundational skills for success in their studies. The modules feature self-directed tutorials in LEARN and facilitated live sessions via Webex (or MS Teams).
While the ASC is primarily a student service unit, our staff have found that partnerships with faculty are the best way to support students. Partnerships can take many forms, including customized and embedded academic supports in programs, in-class workshops, diagnostic assessments, and the sharing of our learning resources.
The primary purpose of the Library’s collections is to support learning, instruction and research at RRC Polytech. If you have suggestions for a new title or resource to add to our collection, you may fill out the Suggest a Purchase form. Our subject specialists are available to discuss subject area gaps in the collection as well as Open Educational Resources (OER) options with you.
Guides
The Library’s Guides are curated lists of resources on specialized topics. We can help you find which guides are most relevant for your students or work with you to develop a new Guide to meet your needs. The benefits of Guides are far-reaching for both students and instructors. Below are a few success stories resulting from instructors utilizing Guides.
Also, you may be looking for information, either for your own research needs, course development, or course readings. Library staff are skilled at locating and referencing information, and it would be a pleasure to assist with that. To connect with a Library staff member, visit us in person or through our Ask Us chat during regular Library hours.
Copyright
Copyright plays an important role when instructors are building content and creating course materials. Our P7 Policy provides guidance around copying but there is also a suite of library-directed copyright services to support and assist faculty in navigating copyright.
The Library’s Copyright Officer supports faculty with the following services:
You can:
Check your copying decisions against our policy using our self-serve Fair Dealing Tool.
Contact the Copyright Officer with questions, or to request services and support.
Connect with Us!
More information about our services and supports is available on our website. You may also connect with us through Ask Us chat, our Ask a Question form, or visit one of our service desks during regular Library hours.
Written by Ebony Novakowski, Linda Fox, and Melissa Coyle – Library and Academic Services
A picture may be worth a thousand words but is it worth a copyright infringement?
While in some cases it may be fair for Research, Education and/or Private Study to copy images, it is important to remember that most images are protected by copyright.
Students and Instructors often use images as part of creating course content and completing assignments, in doing so they have a responsibility to act under copyright policy at RRC Polytech. In this day and age people are willing to legally debate who owns a money selfie. Check out the video for more details on how a monkey sparked debate in the copyright world.
The Good: There is a lot of content online intended to be reused.
The Bad: There is a lot of content that isn’t intended to be reused and legally requires permission, and/or payment if you want to use it.
The Ugly: It can be hard to tell what you can and can’t use and when you are getting yourself into copyright trouble.
How do we navigate copyright as students and educators when using images for education?
The library is here to help. Check out the Open Image Collections & Image Use Guide that can point you in the direction of images that are free to use, or have creative commons licenses, or general terms of use that allow reuse. This guide will also help you understand how to attribute images and connect you to resources about image citation in various styles.
How do we know if we can use an image?
Open Images are images that have an open license such as Creative Commons or that have fallen into the Public Domain that others can use in their creative works and/or in support of education.
When an image is created it is automatically protected by copyright, the creator of the image is automatically the copyright holder of that work. Unless the copyright is transferred under an employment agreement or the image rights are sold. This means that unless image creators or rights holders specifically indicate that individuals are able to use their content only the image creator or rights holder themselves has the exclusive rights to distribute, reproduce, create a derivative work (creating a ppt presentation or digitally editing the image), telecommunicate, or publish the image.
Why do we need to know about Copyright when using images?
The current way copyright works images, inclusive of images on the internet, and google images, is that images (or any copyright materials) “belong” to the individuals, organizations, and companies that create or own them. In most cases legally you need to ask permission when you use them, OR use them by the terms and conditions, or licenses that the creator, company, or organization has expressed for use for the image.
Creative commons licenses are one way creators can offset the automatic “all rights reserved.” approach of copyright and give you a clear indication of permissible ways you can use the work, and that is why we encourage the use of Creative Commons materials in education.
Want more information on how Creative Commons works? Check out this video and Copy responsibly.
