12 Mar
2020
12 Mar
'20
8:03 a.m.
Congratulations to you both for leading this initiative and to the rest of the working
group! Alberta educators are lucky to have folks like you tackling this. The future is
bright for OER in Alberta!
// Lillian Hogendoorn
Digital Access and OER Lead
eCampusOntario
647-202-8553
[eCampusOntario]
372 Bay St. 14th Floor
Toronto, ON, M5H 2W9
ecampusontario.ca<http://ecampusontario.ca/>
From: Canadaoer <canadaoer-bounces(a)mail.bccampus.ca> on behalf of Carley McDougall
<McDougallC(a)CampusManitoba.CA>
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2020 at 11:00 AM
To: Michelle Brailey <brailey(a)ualberta.ca>, "canadaoer(a)mail.bccampus.ca"
<canadaoer(a)mail.bccampus.ca>
Subject: Re: [Canadaoer] Now Open: Alberta's Provincial OER Publishing Program!
This is wonderful. Congratulations to all involved.
Carley McDougall
Special Projects Coordinator
204.727.9668 ext 211 | Cell: 204.996.7636
mcdougallc@campusmanitoba.ca<mailto:mcdougallc@campusmanitoba.ca>
270 18th Street, Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
Campus Manitoba
www.campusmanitoba.ca<http://www.campusmanitoba.ca>
From: Canadaoer [mailto:canadaoer-bounces@mail.bccampus.ca] On Behalf Of Michelle
Brailey
Sent: March-11-20 3:49 PM
To: canadaoer(a)mail.bccampus.ca
Subject: [Canadaoer] Now Open: Alberta's Provincial OER Publishing Program!
Dear colleagues,
The University of Alberta Library and the Alberta OER Technology and Infrastructure
Working Group is pleased to announce the new Open Education
Alberta<https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca/> program.
This no-fee provincial program seeks to eliminate barriers to adopting, adapting and
creating open textbooks by providing Alberta post-secondary institutions with easy-to-use
online publishing software. The University of Alberta Library will host and maintain the
Pressbooks publishing software, and partner institutions will establish workflows and
service models that fit their unique community needs.
Thank you to Mount Royal University, MacEwan University, University of Calgary, University
of Lethbridge and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology for their contributions to
the development of this program.
Why do we need this program?
Many institutions are eager to pursue the development of Open Education initiatives on
their campuses, but do not have access to the technical infrastructure or staff to host
the tools and software required to adapt or create new content. The UofA, which already
manages a local OER publishing program, is well-positioned to expand its hosting to
support more content, while institutions with special expertise in content and course
creation, open pedagogy, scholarly communications, and project management, can contribute
to the program through the development of content and supporting materials. Because the
published textbooks will be openly available to anyone, the entire post-secondary
community in Alberta can benefit from this collaborative program.
What are OER?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that allow free use
and reuse, without charge. OERs often have a Creative Commons
license<https://creativecommons.org/> that states specifically how the material may
be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
What is Pressbooks?
Pressbooks<https://pressbooks.com/> is a simple publishing software for the
authoring and publication of multimedia-rich print books, ebooks, and webbooks. The
published books are shareable in multiple formats including pdf, epub, and mobi and can
easily be adapted and updated using the Pressbooks software.
For more information, see
https://pressbooks.library.ualberta.ca<https://pressbooks.library.ualber… or
contact library.publishing@ualberta.ca<mailto:library.publishing@ualberta.ca>
Working Group Members
Initiative Co-Leads (2019-present):
Michelle Brailey (University of Alberta) & Cari Merkley (Mount Royal University)
Institutional Representatives and Contributors:
Robyn Hall (MacEwan University), Christie Hurrell (University of Calgary), Jessica Norman
(Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Erika Smith (Mount Royal University), Joerdis
Weilandt (University of Lethbridge)
--
Michelle Brailey
Digital Initiatives Projects Librarian, University of Alberta
brailey@ualberta.ca<mailto:brailey@ualberta.ca>
The University of Alberta is situated on traditional Treaty 6 territory and homeland of
the Métis peoples.
Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᕀᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton
