In the Spring of 2018, I (Kimberlee) attended a workshop on building OER (Open Educational Resources) for high impact in first year courses. I was moved by the student speaker’s plea over the rising costs of textbooks and motivated to learn more about the ability to customize OER. In health office administration programs, customization is important because we are combination of health and business. I attended a Pressbooks webinar, signed up for an account, and started plugging away. I will be honest the task was daunting to do alone.

Marie and I met in the Winter of 2019 as participants in the Ontario Extend eCampus Ontario mOOC and went on to become Empowered Educators. Through this program we learned about creative commons licensing and were inspired to create OER. In the fall of 2019, I shared what I had been working on with Marie and this led to a collaborative partnership that snowballed into this OER. We advocated for support, found collaborators, and ultimately crowd-sourced this OER. Please read below to learn about the amazing collaborative support we had for this OER, for which we are truly grateful.

Kimberlee Carter B.Ed., M.A., Conestoga College ITAL

Thank you Kimberlee for inviting me to partake and share this adventure with you. The opportunity to create a resource for learners in this OPEN format has been a wonderful and collaborative endeavour.

Marie Rutherford, Dip., Nursing, LD., BGS., Georgian College CAAT

Thanks and Gratitude

We wish to thank Gary Hallam, Vice President of Research & Executive Dean of the School of Business at Conestoga College ITAL, for sharing his dream for OER and championing our project to other business heads in the Ontario College System. His encouragement and resource support led to the expansive collaboration team that saw this project through to publishing.

We also extend our gratitude to Pavla Kazda, Associate Dean from Georgian College CAAT, for her support, encouragement and resource allocation.

We wish to recognize the work of our students whose dedication, creation of activities, and commitment to reviewing interactive activities throughout development of this resource was invaluable. Additional thanks for examining content and providing feedback from the student perspective. Thank you for paying it forward for future students.

• Tiffany Hunt BSc., Conestoga College ITAL
• Heather Scudder, Georgian College CAAT
• Gisele Tuzon, Georgian College CAAT
• Alyssa Arsenault, Conestoga College ITAL

To our amazing subject matter experts who continued to trek up the mountain carrying a backpack full of extra responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 to author and assist with crowd-sourcing this OER.

• Ellen Dilgert BSc, BEd, RTNM, RTMR, Conestoga College ITAL
• Sheila Bellefeuille, Conestoga College ITAL
• Connie Stevens RN, BScN, MA, PhD (c). Sheridan College ITAL
• Catherine Statton, R. Kin., CHE, BSc, MA, University of Guelph & Sheridan College ITAL
• Shanta Doobay MSc, OCT, Fanshawe College CAAT
• Kadeem Sampath, MD, Centennial College CAAT
• Saeedeh Akram, PhD, Conestoga College ITAL
• Jennifer Ethier, BScH, MSc candidate, Georgian College CAAT

A special thank you to Jesslyn Wilkinson (OCT. M.Ed candidate, BEd, Hons. BA) Educational Technology Officer – Teaching & Learning at Conestoga College ITAL for her infectious enthusiasm for OER, support for H5P technology, and asking the question, “Are you ready to Sprint?”.

A big shout out to Holly Ashbourne, our copy editor, and the Library team for their tireless work in copy editing, copyright proofing, accessibility compliance, and their continuous championing of OER. You are, truly, the quiet leaders that make students’ lives better.

• Holly Ashbourne, copy editor, Dipl. LIT, Hon. BA, MLIS, Conestoga College ITAL
• James Yochem, Hon. BA, MLIS, Conestoga College ITAL
• Michelle Doadt, MLIS, Conestoga College ITAL
• Antonina Gousseva, BA, Dipl. LIT, Conestoga College ITAL
• Chris Woodley, BESc, BEd, MLIS, Conestoga College ITAL
• Juliet Conlon, MLS, Conestoga College ITAL

This OER was greatly enhanced by the leadership, support and contributions of the following colleagues:

• Lisa Koster OCT, MBA, BMath, BEd, Conestoga College ITAL
• Peggy French BEd, MLIS, MET, Mohawk College CAAT
• Sandra Neubauer BA, MAdEd, Fanshawe College CAAT

Special thanks to eCampus Ontario for the work that they do putting collaborators together. Supporting OER through the Open library, Open Publishing Infrastructure, Ontario Extend Professional Learning for Educators, and answering countless Pressbooks questions. Thank you to:

• Lillian Hogendoorn, Hon. BA, MI
• Emily Carlisle-Johnston, MLIS
• Lena Patterson, BA, MA