Introduction

Welcome to Ontario Tech’s OER Incubator! This 7-week workshop series, originally developed by Centennial College, has been designed to support you as you create a vision and detailed plan for OER integration in your course. This journey will begin with the creation of a course-specific OER vision and will include an intensive environmental scan to find and evaluate existing high-quality OERs that you can adopt and/or adapt. You will also identify opportunities to create new content and to incorporate inclusive, accessible and interactive design strategies.

Important details

• The OER Incubator is a 7-week commitment. Be prepared to attend the entire series and to dedicate a minimum of 3 hours per week on this OER design experience.
• Each session builds on the previous week’s work, so it’s important to stay on top of the work.
• Our weekly Google Meet sessions are structured in true workshop style, so we will be actively working on each stage of your OER development during our time together.
• You will need to spend additional time each week to continue the work that we start during the session.
• If you are unable to attend a synchronous session, we will be providing asynchronous options within the Canvas course shell.

Who we are

Open is key; open allows not just access, but the freedom to modify and use materials, information and networks so education can be personalized to individual users or woven together in new ways for diverse audiences, large and small.

Ontario Tech is proud to host the Open Education (OE) Lab –  a student-run, staff-managed group that brings content and technological expertise to the timely creation of high quality OER that will be used directly in an Ontario Tech course by Ontario Tech students. Students working with us gain valuable project management, content development (e.g., writing, editing, media creation) and communication skills which can be implemented in their coursework and on the job. OE Lab jobs are paid positions generously supported through the Ontario University Works program.

We (Sarah, Pranjal, and Rebecca) are three of the staff members who help manage the day-to-day operations of the OE Lab. We are excited to be facilitating this pilot program this year.

Who you are

We’re all embarking on this OER Incubation journey together… so let’s start to get to know each other!