Students Nova Scotia to Support Open Educational Resource (OER) Repository Pilot

Students Nova Scotia to Support Open Educational Resource (OER) Repository Pilot

July 15, 2020

For Immediate Release

Halifax, NS - Today, Students Nova Scotia is proud to support The Council of Atlantic University Libraries / Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Atlantique (CAUL-CBUA) in their announcement of a $35,000 investment into the creation of a free, online platform for regionally developed Open Educational Resources (OERs). OERs encompass open copyright or public domain teaching resources made available to users for free, and can include electronic textbooks; streaming videos and audio; digital images, and supplementary materials.

“The value of OERs is immense”, says CAUL-CBUA Executive Director, Cynthia Holt. “Foremost, we will be saving students thousands of dollars on textbooks each year through this innovative, low cost program. Additionally, we are promoting a sense of regional collaboration, where educators can freely and easily adapt materials for their course needs., They can also work collaboratively with colleagues anywhere in the world in developing these materials. It’s a win-win situation”.

With COVID-19 forcing many campuses into adopting online delivery models, educators are hard at work adapting their teaching to this environment. By investing in this pilot, CAUL-CBUA will support and enable this online learning experience, providing real value to both students and instructors while also saving students thousands of dollars per year. A similar initiative – BCcampus - has saved students close to $19 million dollars since its inception in 2012. The pilot program will focus on training educators to create or adapt OERs, like online textbooks, as well as providing financial support to individual educators, or groups of educators, in the form of grants to cover any costs involved in creating or adapting these OERs.

“Beyond tuition, one of the highest costs students face is the price of textbooks. Canadian students can be expected to pay between $800-$1,000 per year on textbooks, often resulting in students opting to not purchase materials,” says Samantha Graham, Chair of StudentsNS. “A shift to digital materials will increase both access and affordability. In a year where many students will be studying online, this is an opportune time for our region to help lead the way in innovative educational practices”.

The Council of Atlantic University Libraries - Conseil des bibliothèques universitaires de l’Atlantique is a collaborative partnership of 18 universities and colleges in Atlantic Canada. Students Nova Scotia is the largest post-secondary student advocacy organization in Nova Scotia, and is a proud supporter of CAUL-CBUA’s OER project.

For more information, contact:

Cynthia Holt Clancy McDaniel

CAUL-CBUA Executive Director StudentsNS Executive Director

execdir@caul-cbua.ca director@studentsns.ca   

(902)-830-6467 (902) 476-2367