Blogs and Opinion
1 Canada
Access codes/assessment platforms
Also see Homework systems on this page.
Access code costs continue to burden students – October 11, 2018 (BCcampus)
Accessibility
Accessibility in open educational resources is resilience – January 13, 2021 (Ksenia Cheinman, OER & Beyond)
Some things I’m learning about accessibility & open textbooks – January 11, 2020 (Christina Hendricks)
Trans-inclusive design – May 9, 2019 (Stephen Downes)
AI and OER
AI from an Open Perspective – August 10, 2023 (Paul Stacey)
Collaboration
Collaboration in hard times in higher education – December 9, 2019 (University Affairs)
Conferences
2019 Cascadia Open Education Summit Summary – May 10, 2019 (CCCOER, Dale Coleman)
Beyond Textbooks and OER: reflecting on #OpenEd15 – November 23, 2015 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Copyright
Our Response To Canada’s Copyright Term Extension Consultation – March 9, 2021 (Creative Commons blog)
Two histories – May 19, 2020 (Fair Duty)
Federal court of appeal deals Access Copyright huge blow as it overturns York University copyright decision – April 23, 2020 (Michael Geist)
The authoritative Canadian copyright review: Industry committee issues balanced, forward-looking report on the future of Canadian Copyright Law – June 3, 2019 (Michael Geist)
What do trade agreements have to do with copyright? The Canada-US-Mexico Agreement and fair dealing – February 25, 2019 (SFU Library, Jennifer Zerkee)
From copyright term to Super Bowl commercials: Breaking down the digital NAFTA deal – October 1, 2018 (Michael Geist)
Video: Michael Geist on the impact of copyright and fair use on innovation – April 11, 2017 (Centre for International Governance Innovation)
Richard C. Owens: Fix Canada’s copyright law before it puts publishers out of business – July 26, 2016 (Financial Post)
Canadian judge says asking for a copy of a legally-obtained but paywalled article is circumvention – October 29, 2015 (Tech Dirt)
Creative Commons
A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator – January 4, 2022
Debt
Opinion: We need to rethink student loans across this country – August 31, 2019 (National Post)
Equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI)
Why open must be feminist – July 11, 2019 (Rebus Blog)
‘Open’ and ‘Inclusive’: what the heck are they? – July 3, 2019 (Medium)
General
The Alberta government fires the ‘non-compliant’ members of Athabasca University’s Board – October 6, 2022 (Tony Bates)
Who’s Zoomin’ Who? – April 1, 2020 (Ed Tech Factotum)
Digital Detox #1: EdTech and equity issues – January 5, 2020 (Digital Detox 2020)
More needs to be done to support teaching online in Canada – November 22, 2019 (Ed Tech Factotum)
From Lost to Belonging by Amanda Coolidge: OpenEd 2019 Keynote (transcript) and video – October 28, 2019 (BCcampus)
Whence the virtue of open – June 19, 2019 (Stephen Downes)
2019 Cascadia Open Education Summit wrap-up: 5 questions with the team – June 5, 2019 (Campus Manitoba)
What can open learn from blended learning initiatives? – March 14, 2019 (homonym.ca)
Beyond textbooks and OER: Reflecting on #OpenEd15 – November 23, 2015 (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Homework systems
The UBC Engineering WebWorK Project – November 27, 2019 (BCcampus)
BCcampus homework system project (Clint Lalonde, EdTech Factotum):
- Early thoughts on my new homework systems project – July 17, 2019
- What is a homework system – July 18, 2019
- Spitballing a definition of open homework systems – July 19, 2019
- Some strategies for the open homework systems project – September 6, 2019
Journals
The realities of journal publishing: A view from Canada’s not-for-profits – May 28, 2019 (University Affairs)
Libraries/librarians
Voodoo categorisation and dynamic ontologies in the world of OER – April 29, 2019 (MoodleNet)
Licences and subscriptions
Why does it cost millions to access publicly funded research papers? Blame the paywall – March 9, 2019 (CBC, Second Opinion)
Not a free for all: Canadian university libraries spending hundreds of millions on licensing – Sept 8/16 (Michael Geist)
Open educational practices (OEP)/pedagogy
How are we creating a safe space for open pedagogy? – May 30, 2019 (McToonish)
5Rs for open pedagogy – April 11, 2019 (Rajiv Jhangiani)
5 Things Alan Davis Wants you to Know About Open Learning – Fall 2018 (eCampusOntario)
Does open pedagogy require OER? – February 4, 2017 (ClintLalonde.net)
Engaging students with OER – June 13, 2015 (Christina Hendricks)
Open educational resources (OER)
USask academics channel ‘content creators’ to enhance student learning – July 7, 2022
The pandemic spotlight on open educational resources and open access – May 2021 (cAUt)
Initiation – July 2019 (the Guild – Skilled Trades and Apprenticeship)
How open educational resources fit within the future of education – May 16, 2019 (Campus Manitoba)
From idea to book: A Q&A on Manitoba’s next OER – April 23, 2019 (Campus Manitoba)
10 things to know about open education in Manitoba – March 8, 2019 (Campus Manitoba)
Some myths about open educational resources – November 27, 2015 (Contact North)
Open textbooks
Opinion: Investing in textbook alternatives makes post-secondary education more affordable – March 18, 2021 (Edmonton Journal)
Textbooks could be free if universities rewarded professors for writing them – November 6, 2019 (Phys Org)
Opinion: Investing in open textbooks will ease burden on students – November 13, 2019 (Edmonton Journal)
Policy
Evaluation of CL/4291 “Draft text of the Recommendation concerning Open Educational Resources”, UNESCO – December 5, 2019 (Stephen Downes)
Publishers/publishing
For-profit, faux-pen, and critical conversations about the future of learning materials – October 15, 2019 (Rajiv Jhangiani)
Publishing as an act, not an industry – November 18, 2018 (Zoe Wake Hyde)
Quality
Freedom of access versus maintenance of quality – April 5, 2019 (The Manitoban)
What is academic quality? – March 28, 2017 (Harvey P. Weingarten)
Reading: paper vs. screens
The business of textbooks or why do students prefer print? – August 9, 2013 (ClintLalonde.net)
Student societies/activities
#TextbookBroke promotes open-access but ignores copyright issues – January 8, 2019 (Hamilton Spectator)
Letter to the Editor: Last week’s column on the high cost of textbooks – September 4, 2018 (The Crow’s Nest)
Tenure
The tenure review process must evolve – August 12, 2021 (Inside Higher Ed), by Andrew McKinney and Amanda Coolidge
Academic review promotion and tenure documents promote a view of open access that is at odds with the wider academic community – July 17, 2019 (LSE Impact Blog)
Textbook costs
In defence of the university textbook – September 23, 2020 (University Affairs)
The truth about textbooks – January 14, 2020 (The Brock Press)
SFU’s “Sharing of Textbook PDFs Fact Sheet” fails to consider students’ constraints – May 25, 2019 (The Peak)
Open textbooks vs. digital textbooks: How to make higher education more accessible in Manitoba – January 22, 2019 (Campus Manitoba)
Finance Committee recommends investment in open education resources to improve affordability of post-secondary – November 16, 2018 (BCFS)
To combat soaring textbook costs, look to an open-source approach – January 2, 2018 (Rajiv Jhangiani, The Globe and Mail/Opinion)
Tuition
OPINION: Let universities get back to academic work – September 9, 2019 (The Chronicle Herald)