Open Initiative at Fanshawe College

History of Open at Fanshawe 

Faculty and students at Fanshawe College have been utilizing, and realizing the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) for many years. However, most  open education efforts have largely been at the grass roots level. A more centralized, collaborative approach to open education initiatives at the college was born from exposure to other work happening across Ontario and British Columbia.  Please see the timeline below,  which highlights some of the key events that helped to shape open work at Fanshawe.

Open Education Day Events

As highlighted in the timeline above, Fanshawe College hosted three Open Education Day events from 2019-2021. During the event in 2019, a survey was administered to students asking them questions about educational resources and the factors that impact their decision to buy them. Over 120 students completed the survey. Overwhelmingly, students reported that they have made the decision to not purchase required textbooks due to cost. They also stated that they believed not having the resources affected their course grades. From these results, it became clear that more work was required to bring awareness to the college about open resources in order to better support our students.

At Open Education Day in 2020 faculty were surveyed to assess their OER awareness, and to determine whether or not they would be likely to adopt or use OER.  Faculty in attendance reported that they were familiar with OER and the majority responded they would be likely to use OER in their classes. However, the respondents commented that they would require training and support to help them find, and create OER for their teaching. This information provided the basis for future discussions at the college around how best to support faculty to encourage OER adoption.

The Fanshawe Library and Learning Commons set up a Textbook Broke campaign during Open Education Week 2020 in the library that asked students how much money they spent on textbooks. The whiteboard display seen in image below is the result of that engagement.

Fanshawe’s Open Learning Management System

As we were considering how to engage faculty in open resources, we were also facing challenges with how to provide resources to students studying online to help them be successful. We came across an excellent open resource from KPU called Learning to Learn Online which provided a source of materials and resources that we could adapt for our own online learners.

One of the challenges for students new to online learning is navigating the learning management system (LMS) and all of the tools that are integrated within it. We wanted to find a way for students to be able to gain access to the LMS before being registered as a student so that they could have the opportunity to try out online learning before committing.  We had the idea to create a separate version of our LMS from Desire to Learn (D2L) with the same overall look and feel.  We called this new system Fanshawe Open. Then we created the course Learning to Learn Online based on the resource from KPU. With very little marketing, except for links on our college’s website, the course been accessed by over 1300 registrants since its creation.

Fanshawe OER Promotion

YouTube Video

The OER Design Studio collaborated with Fanshawe’s Reputation and Brand Management (RBM) to produce  an informational video on OER.

Video: What are Open Educational Resources (OER)? by Fanshawe College

Description: Whether you’re a student or faculty member, OER can greatly benefit you during your time at Fanshawe College! In this video, we’ll walk you through what OER are, why they matter and how you can get involved in the process. Website: https://www.fanshawelibrary.com/OER Intake form (for faculty members): https://bit.ly/3zkiy3j Have questions or want to get involved? Email oer@fanshawec.ca

Transcript available on YouTube:

• Go to YouTube and open the video of your choice.
• Click on the “More actions” button (3 horizontal dots) located next to the Share button.
• Click “Open transcript”

The Fanshawe Annual 2022

This magazine contains innovative and inspiring stories about Fanshawe College students, alumni, faculty and staff.